The Renaissance Thursday Organ Concert and Classic Movie Series is in full swing with the next concert starting at 1p.m. on Thursday, July 11th in the Renaissance Theatre with organist Jay Spencer at the console.
On Thursday, July 25, at 1 p.m., an organ prelude by organist Wayne Fisher will be followed by the movie His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
Betty Keppler will play the Mighty Wurlitzer for the concert on Thursday, August 8 at 1 p.m.
The last event in the series features organ music by Bob White and the classic movie Second Chorus with Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard on Thursday, August 22 at 1 p.m. Admission is free to these concerts and movies.
The Renaissance Theatre’s Wurlitzer Theatre Organ was originally built for Warner Brothers Vitaphone Company and installed in its Sunset Boulevard Studio in 1929. From there it was moved to Radio Station KMX, a CBS unit, where it was used daily to play the “Amos ‘n’ Andy Show” theme song. In 1955, the late Hollywood actor Joseph Kearns (best known as Mr. Wilson on TV’s Dennis the Menace) bought it and actually built his entire home around it. An avid organist and enthusiast, Kearns upgraded the original three manual, 18-rank configurations to include 26 ranks (since reduced to 20). After Kearns’s death, his house was leased by Robert Carson, who founded a recording firm and produced a number of record albums featuring the instrument. When he died, the residence changed hands and the instrument was offered for sale.
Several legal tangles ensued and finally, Russ Nelson, a wealthy Santa Anna contractor, bought it. He in turn sold it to Ron Walls, a well-known organ enthusiast and pizza parlor owner. Following business reversals, Walls lost ownership and the organ was purchased by the Renaissance Theatre. The Mighty Wurlitzer was installed in early 1985 with the help of Ken Crome, one of America’s foremost theatre organ authorities. Restoration work on the instrument took him a full year. It cost $9,000 just to ship it to Ohio from California and three weeks to install it and is valued at nearly $250,000. The first “official” concert on the instrument was performed by Lyn Larsen on May 17, 1985.
