Free concert at HCC featuring historic theater pipe organ
May 13, 2016
Fans of music from silent movies, the Jazz Age, vintage baseball games, and Broadway show tunes are invited to a free concert featuring the rare and newly restored 90-year-old theatre pipe organ at Houston Community College, 1 p.m., May 21, in the auditorium of the San Jacinto Memorial Building at Central Campus, 1300 Holman Street in Houston’s Midtown.
Sponsored by the Houston Theatre Organ Society and HCC, the 90-minute performance will focus on big band, Gershwin-style tunes, and fun, popular songs from classic American eras. Ken Double, president and chief executive officer of the American Theatre Organ Society, and a world-renowned organist and award-winning sports broadcaster, will be the featured performer.
“This organ is such a treasure for Houston,” said Jon Steen, president of the Houston Theater Organ Society. “It is a musical marvel and a sight to behold. We invite Houston music fans to hear it for themselves.”
Theater pipe organs were once all the rage in American cinema. From 1914 to the 1940s, they were used to provide music and sound effects for silent movies. Its horseshoe-shaped, multi-layered keyboard design and near-endless variety of sound effects distinguish it from classical or liturgical organs heard in churches and cathedrals. Theater pipe organs were designed for pure entertainment and storytelling value.
Known as the “Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, Opus 1501,” the organ at HCC is indeed rare. It is the only operational theater pipe organ in Houston and one of only three in Texas. Its long, circuitous history represents a remarkable collaboration between Houston Community College, the Houston Theatre Organ Society, and fans of theater pipe organs.
The organ debuted on Christmas Day 1926 at the Metropolitan Theater in Downtown Houston. It was a major attraction for theatergoers, and provided the musical score to hundreds of movies for nearly 15 years. In 1972, the organ was rescued from now-demolished theater, and restored and installed in a Memorial-area residence.
In 1985, the organ was placed in storage in Rochester, NY, where it remained for 10 years. In the mid 1990s, it was put up for sale and purchased by the late Dr. Tim Hastings, a Houston dentist, who donated it to the Houston Theatre Organ Society.
With the help of organ society volunteers and members of the San Jacinto High School Alumni Association, (who continue to meet at HCC Central), the organ and its elaborate pipe system were relocated to the auditorium of the college’s San Jacinto Memorial Building. In 1994, then-HCC Central President Dr. James P. Engle agreed to provide a free home for the rare instrument, which was played only sparingly for the next 15 years.
After the San Jacinto Memorial Building was renovated and reopened in 2013, HTOS volunteers spent thousands of hours restoring and modernizing the organ’s control and piping systems. The organ’s musical range was expanded to offer 17 instruments (flutes, reeds and strings), as well as numerous percussion instruments (xylophone, marimba, chimes, bells, drums and cymbals).
More than 1,100 individual pipes produce sound for the organ, which is created by sending wind through the pipes, or using pneumatically operated strikers on percussion instruments.
The audience hears the organ’s bold, orchestral sounds through large, cloth panels on both sides of the auditorium stage.
Seating to the free concert is on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking is available at no charge on a space-available basis at HCC parking lots. Concertgoers and those who requiring wheelchair assistance may be dropped off by car adjacent to the auditorium by entering Parking Lot 13 at the corner of Alabama and San Jacinto Streets.
More information is available at hccs.edu.