Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2022-03-15 - Many people remember the famous Lansdowne Theater organ which originally accompanied silent movies and then was played nightly before shows and during special events. The organ was manufactured by the W.W. Kimball Co. of Chicago at a cost of $20,000 and was the last to be installed in a theater in the Philadelphia region. According to a number of newspaper accounts, the organ was silenced in 1937 and sat under a tarpaulin in front of the theater’s orchestra pit until the early 1960s when area residents Bill Greenwood, W.E. Stinger, Jr., and W. Crawford undertook a restoration of the instrument. After sitting idle for 25 years the organ returned to service on February 24, 1963. Volunteer theater organists from throughout the Philadelphia area played a 15 minute concert the organ nightly before every show. The organ, known as a “band’ organ operated a host of additional musical instruments kept in the small balconies on either side of the stage: two xylophones, a marimba, a metal harp, a glockenspiel, chimes, drums, cymbals, tambourines, castanets and triangles among others. The organ could also could produce silent movie effects including birds, a fire gong, car horns, sirens, sleigh bells, police whistle, and wood blocks that simulated the sound of galloping horses. The last major concert featuring the organ was held on November 18, 1975, with Radio City organist James Paulin at the keyboard. The organ was sold to Bill Greenwood and removed from the theater in the late 1970s. The organ changed ownership several times and is now in storage in the Southwest. -- from "History of the Lansdowne Theater", Historic Lansdowne Theater Corporation web page -Paul R. Marchesano
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