Theatre Organ Goes to a New Home

Published on May 13, 2007 by Susy Flory

The Theatre Pipe Organ, an important and beloved part of Neighborhood Church history, is moving to a new home.

The instrument, a Robert Morton Theatre Organ, was built in 1928 by the Robert Morton company in Van Nuys, California. The original owner, the California Theatre in Pittsburgh, sold it to Neighborhood Church in 1949 when the church was located at 84th and MacArthur in Oakland. In 1968, the organ was moved into the current church building on John Drive in Castro Valley.

The organ was usually played by Pastor David Von Rotz for Sunday services, as well as for special events such as afternoon Hymn Sings. Playing the organ took considerable expertise, requiring both hands and both feet to operate properly. Below are some recordings of Pastor Van Rotz playing the organ:

• Oh What It Seemed To Be (Mp3)
• Softly As A Summer Sunrise (Mp3)
• Some Enchanted Evening (Mp3)
• Someday (Mp3)

What most people don't know is that the organ console, the visible U-shaped wooden part of the organ that was located in the left alcove above the auditorium platform, included the organ controls only. The actual organ itself is made up of the thousands of pipes, some no bigger than a pencil and some larger than 16 feet, and other instruments which were mounted and hidden away in the rooms behind the alcove. The organ parts were connected to the wooden console with a complicated system of wires and switches, considered by many to be the "computer" of its time.

The Robert-Morton Theatre organs were well suited both sonically and visually for the spacious movie palaces, and were designed to take the place of the orchestra when installed in a movie theatre during the heyday of silent films. Many of these organs were built to provide the greatest possible variety of timbres with the fewest possible pipes, and often had pianos and other percussion instruments built in, as well as a variety of sound effects such as sirens, whistles, and bells.

Our Theatre Organ has been purchased by a world-renowned collector, who plans to rebuild and restore it to its original condition. This process will take about two years. Eventually, he plans to move it into a historical recreation of a silent movie theatre, where many others will enjoy its majestic sound. We'll keep you updated as plans develop.

Note: If you have a personal story about the theatre organ that you'd like to share, please contact susyflory@3crosses.org , or call the church office at 510-537-4690. If you'd like to read more about theatre organs, a good source is Wikipedia.org.