The Schuyler Performing Arts Council (Schuy-PAC) is ready to unveil a restored theater organ that dates back around a century.
“It’s very unique. Something you won’t find at too many performing arts centers, especially at the high school level,” said Schuy-PAC board member Jim Devitt.
A debut concert for the restored Wurlitzer Opus 910 Theater Organ will be held Thursday, May 30, 7 p.m., at the Rushville-Industry High School Auditorium.
Tickets are $25 and are available through The Hub Arts and Cultural Center.
A brief history of the instrument
The organ was originally installed in Quincy’s Orpheum Theater in 1925.
The theater eventually went out of business. After the organ sat dormant for years, Bill Bartlow of Rushville bought it for his house in the late 1950s.
However, there is more to the instrument than just the keyboard and pedals you see someone playing. At the performing arts center, there is a separate room for the blower and the electrical relays that trigger the instruments and various sounds.
“And then there are two more rooms in the second level that actually have the real bass drum and the xylophone and all the bells and whistles,” Devitt said.
“And then of course it’s a theater organ so it can also do sound effects like train sounds and things like that as it used to do for silent movies.”
The dozens of pipes are twice the height of a person.
“And they had stored pipes all over in barns throughout the county while it was getting ready to be put into his house,” Devitt said.
He said the Bartlows had to build an addition to their house, and it took two years to complete the project.
Bill Bartlow was a meat packer with his brother, Ted. They ran Bartlow Brothers Inc, maker of Korn Top Meats. Devitt said that was an important business at the time in Rushville.
The organ’s new home
Bill Bartlow passed away in 2017.
“The family was left with the task of what to do with the organ in the house, because the family had moved on to other places,” Devitt said.
In the meantime, an anonymous donor paid millions of dollars to build the performing arts center at Rushville-Industry High School. The Bartlow family decided that would be a great home for the organ and donated it to the school district.
An anonymous donor also paid $600,000 to have the organ shipped to JL Weiler, Inc. in Chicago to be repaired. The company bills themselves as pipe organ curators, conservators, and consultants.
It was quite a project.
“He spent over 8,500 man hours from the time it went up to Chicago to the rehab place and was brought down here, and over 35 miles of electrical wire,” Devitt said.
Chris Trone, who is also on the Schuy-PAC board, said the performing arts center was built with the idea that the organ would be included.
“The real estate that’s used for this is a big number on top of everything else. It’s quite a commitment, but it’s such a gift from the donor, you can hardly imagine it,” Trone said.
He said now that the organ is refurbished, it should require only minimal maintenance for the next 70 years.
Devitt credited Trone with being “instrumental in coordinating and facilitating the whole process from start to finish.”
The organ is kept under the auditorium’s stage. A lift will be used to bring it onto the stage.
An anonymous donor also gave the performing arts center a 1915 Steinway Grand Piano, and paid to have it refurbished.
The May 30 concert and beyond
Richard Hills is widely acknowledged as one of the very few musicians to have bridged and mastered the divide between the classical and theatre organ worlds.
Hills is the organist for St. Mary’s Bourne Street, a central London church. He is also Director of Music and Organist for the West London Synagogue. He’s just the fifth person to hold that position since 1859.
“We want the best in the world to debut because you’ve only got one shot at it to do a debut,” Trone said.
“This (the Wurlitzer) will be run through its paces and we’ll hear every conceivable scale and sound with Richard.”
The concert is being presented by Schuy-PAC with sponsorship from Nancy Jorgeson and the Bartlow family, Moreland and Devitt Pharmacy, and Rushville State Bank.
In addition, Schuy-PAC and a group in Milwaukee are splitting the cost of bringing Hills to the Midwest. Hills will perform in Milwaukee before coming to Rushville.
However, Schuy-PAC won’t be flying in someone from London every time they want to hold a show with the organ.
Devitt said they’re already thinking about who else to bring in.
“We have some people that we have discussed that would be interested in coming. There’s an organist out of the Springfield area that does a lot of this kind of work with this kind of instrument. We hope to get him up over here,” he said.
“We have a local man who is a trained organist with a Master’s in organ performance from Western, and he’s interested in learning some of the – literally – bells and whistles of this instrument.”
The organ might also get used during school plays.
The performing arts center is not just for the school district. Devitt and Trone said it’s for the entire community, so there will be plenty of chances to hold more events and show off the restored Wurlitzer Theater Organ.
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