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Brook Arts Center
3/11 Wurlitzer Theatre Organ
Bound Brook, NJ Brook
Arts Center
10 Hamilton St.
Bound Brook, NJ
Directions to the Brook
Theatre This organ is currently being
installed, check the GSTOS organ crew
schedule for more details.
For more information
about the Brook Wurlitzer please contact George Andersen - Organ Crew
Chief brook@theatreorgan.com
Original
Organ Specifications History
of the Organ First Home 1928 - Pascack
Theatre, Westwood, NJ The Pascack 2/8
Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ, Opus # 1914 was installed in the newly
built Pascack Theatre Westwood, NJ in 1928. The gala program on opening
night August 19, 1928 featured William Boyd, Sue Carol and
Alan Hale starring in "Skyscraper". A pipe organ concert was performed
by Jessie Piercy, a well known organist in the area. Following
this was a short period of time when vaudeville and movies so currently
popular at that time, were offered to the public. Unfortunately, as
time passed the organ music was discontinued. The organ fell into
disrepair. Ranks of pipes were removed or destroyed. In 1973 a group of
GSTOS members began restoring the organ, Crew members were Warren
Brown, Russ Fewell, Roy Frenzke, Richard Seigle, Dick Orr, Bob Quinn,
Ed Unis, and Joe Vanore. It took 2 years before the organ was playable
and to be able to be featured. The first intermission was celebrated
July 4th 1976. The organist was Jinny Vanore. Since
that time, the Wurlitzer was played for Saturday
night intermissions with many organists volunteering their
talents. In 1980 the theatre was multiplexed. The solo chamber was
moved and placed in a new pipe chamber on the stage. The organ music
played into Theatre #1 and was simultaneously piped into the other
three theatre. Through the years, United Artists Inc., the owner of the
theatre and organ were very cooperative and we were most fortunate to
have Austin Gordon, who loved organ music, manage the theatre. A change
in United Artists' policy was to only maintain large multi-screened
theatres and they were selling their smaller ones. Pascack Theatre fell
into the small category and was sold. The new owner in December 1996
asked Garden State Theatre Organ Society to remove the organ.
New Home 1997 - Brook Arts Center, Bound Brook, NJ
At the time of moving the organ had little of the original
Wurlitzer pipework remaining, being refitted with mostly non-Wurlitzer
pipes from various sources. In 1997 the Pascack theatre was sold. The
new owners wanted the organ removed, and donated it to GSTOS. We found
a new home for it in the Brook Theatre, Bound Brook, N.J, a theatre of
similar size and shape. The Brook is a 1000 seat 1927 vaudeville house
that originally housed a Wurlitzer Style "B", Opus # 1519. It was a 2/4
instrument in a single (house right) chamber installation. This
original organ was removed around 1985. GSTOS was
asked to have the Pascack organ removed from the Pascack Theatre by
June 30, 1997. This left little time to plan and arrange not only the
dismantling and removal from the chambers but also the transportation
to and preparation of the new home in the Brook Theatre in Bound Brook
NJ. A dedicated group of members worked for two
weeks, often well into the night removing all the tremendous number of
parts and placing them on the stage and packaging them. This as times
required great physical strength acrobatic balancing on ladders and
surviving in 90 degree temperatures. On moving
day, Saturday June 28, 1997, 15 members and helpers arrived and waited
for the truck. While waiting for the truck, everyone lined all the
parts, console and relay on the sidewalk. It was quite a sight ! The
loading of the truck took over three hours. A caravan of the truck,
followed by a packed van and cars with trailers or filled car racks
drove (number of miles) to Bound Brook. The unloading was quicker and
made easier with the help of four more members who waited at the Brook
Theatre. The crew rebuilt the entire Pascack
organ and had started installing the solo chamber, when in September of
1999, with most of the organ stored onstage, Hurricane Floyd caused
severe flooding in Bound Brook. The floodwaters filled the theatre to
the depth of 13 feet, severely damaging most of the Wurlitzer, but
leaving the chests and percussions already installed in the solo
chamber intact. Two organs were donated to help
restart the project. Jim Breslin donated a 2/8 Moller, and Joe and
Ginny Martin donated a 2/7 single chamber Wurlitzer, style 175. The
pipe work from the Martin instrument is almost identical to that of the
original Pascack Wurlitzer specification except for the lack of a
clarinet. Since little remained of the original instrument, the crew
decided to re-specify the organ and enlarge it. A three-manual console
was purchased along with additional ranks. The current plan calls for a
3/11 instrument with room for expansion to 15 or more ranks.
The main chamber will house five original Wurlitzer ranks:
Concert Flute, Open Diapason, Viole, Viole Celeste, and Clarinet. A
Tuba horn and an additional string will bring the chamber to seven
ranks. The solo chamber will house a Wurlitzer Tibia, Style D Trumpet,
and Vox. A five-horsepower Spencer blower powers the main chamber and a
three-horsepower Spencer powers the solo chamber. The organ will be
controlled by an Artisan electronic relay to provide flexibility and
reliability in operation. Since GSTOS started
this project, the Brook was purchased by a non-profit organization and
turned into the Brook Arts Center. Over three million dollars of
federal, state and county funding has been provided to purchase and
rehabilitate the theatre with new electric service, plumbing, heating
and air conditioning. New comfortable seating has been installed and
the theatre reopened in the fall of 2006.
Sources: - Crew Chief -George
Andersen
- GSTOS newsletter article - "Pascack
Moving Day" by Jinny Vanore
- GSTOS newsletters
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