Note: Not playable. (in this location)
2022-08-24 - From Garden State Theatre Organ Society website: Asbury Park Convention Hall was originally designed with the intention of installing a large Wurlitzer for public performance. Architects Warren and Wetmore strategically placed massive grille work into the walls on either side of the hall’s main stage as a façade for the organ chambers. The Great Depression forced the city to abandon the original idea of buying a large Wurlitzer, but according to opus lists, a 2/4 Style C3 Wurlitzer, Opus 2126, was shipped to the hall from the factory on 8/16/30. It did not remain there for long, and may not have been installed. Seven months later on 3/28/31 it moved to the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Orange, N.J. After the closing of the Earl Carroll Theatre on Broadway in New York City in 1931, Asbury Park was able to purchase that theatre’s 3/7[sic, it was actually 6 ranks] Kilgen Theatre Pipe Organ for the hall. It had been built in 1929 by George Kilgen & Sons of St. Louis. Though considerably smaller than the Wurlitzer for which Convention Hall had been built, the Kilgen managed to sound much larger with the help of the hall’s acoustics. In the 1930s, Asbury Park created the position of municipal organist. The first, G. Howard Scott, would play free concerts to entertain visitors to the resort’s boardwalk. WCAP would broadcast some of these concerts to its listeners from its studio at the hall. Jim Ryan took over in 1958, performing until the mid-1970s. The final municipal organist was Al Devivo, who performed from then until 1984, when the municipal concerts ceased. Then Garden State Theatre Organ Society volunteers began refurbishing the instrument and added ten more ranks and a chrysoglott, resulting in an even fuller sound. The console – traditionally in a stationary position underneath the southernmost grille – was made mobile so as to allow performers to play the instrument closer to the audience. GSTOS Crew Chief Russ Sattur dedicated his life to the project, spending practically all his spare time weekends and weekdays, working on the organ. Crew member Jean Scibetta was there with him most of the time. She was responsible for making the umbilical cable that enabled the console to be relocated to the center of the hall for concerts. Since the organ was on a mechanical relay, there were hundreds of wires in that cable. Another person who spent quite a bit of time working on the crew was Bruce Conway. At the beginning of one of the Summer Concert seasons there was a horrific storm on the Thursday before the first concert. It blew a hole in the back of the roof of the building and the water found its way down two floors and into the main chamber. While the hall was closed for renovations, miscreants broke in and tried to steal the huge speakers that were installed on either side of the proscenium arch. The console of the organ had a light plywood cover that protected when not in use. The thieves tried to stand on the cover to reach the speakers, and the cover collapsed doing considerable damage to the left side of the console making it unusable. After Russ Sattur’s death, GSTOS was last involved with the organ in 2001 with new crew members working on refurbishing and refinishing the badly damaged console (not completed). The numerous management changes at Convention Hall and in the town of Asbury Park, combined with limited GSTOS crew members available, and a key member of the new organ crew being incapacitated for months, resulted in GSTOS losing touch. With the water damage in the main chamber, and the console dismantled, the Kilgen is currently unplayable. -Paul R. Marchesano
Source: GTOS website
Unknown Builder (1931) Asbury Park Convention Hall Asbury Park, NJ Chamber Layout Left Vox Humana I (8′) Salicional (4′) Viol Celeste II (4′) Open Diapason/Diaphone (16′) Tibia Clausa I (16′) Kinura (8′) Flugel Horn (8′) Trumpet (8′) English Post Horn (8′) – TrivoChimes Glockenspiel/Orchestra Bells Xylophone Marimba Salicional/VC II are off same magnets Right Vox Humana II (8′) Viol D’ Orchestre (8′) Viol Celeste I (4′) Flute/Bourdon (16′) Diapason (8′) Tibia Clausa II (4′) Tuba I (16′) Tuba II (8′) Voicer David Arthur 10″ Crysoglott Traps In storage: 16′ wooden string (CCC – CC) The Diaphone is from a 1921 3/15 Kimball in the Arcadia Theatre (510 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE) which seated 1305. [Ed.: The Arcadia opened in 1921 and was demolished in 1965.] From a chamber survey 7/14/00 performed by Paul Jacyk (The original Kilgen Ranks from the Earl Carroll Theatre had the opus number stamped on the chests.)
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