One-of-a-kind sound': Restoration of Shea's Mighty Wurlitzer organ ... - Buffalo News
It's not known if the Supremes had the Mighty Wurlitzer in mind when the '60s pop group sang "I Hear a Symphony," but they wouldn't have been far off if they had.
At Shea's Buffalo Theatre, the Wurlitzer theater organ is capable of filling the cavernous auditorium with virtually every sound produced by a symphony orchestra, ranging from flutes, oboes and tubas to glockenspiels, xylophones and castanets. The sound comes from the pipe chambers located behind decorative screens on both sides of the stage, which contain 27 ranks of pipes, ranging in size from the length of a pencil to 32 feet long.
A large capacity air blower provides the high pressure and air volume needed to push wind through all the pipes and fill the theater with sound. The music is inputted through the console's four keyboards, the part of the theater organ visible to the public.
"The sound can be thunderous and floor-shaking and thump you in the chest when it needs to, but also go down to whisper quiet," said Jason Klinger, a theater organ enthusiast and Middleport resident who has repaired and tuned the Wurlitzer since 2009.
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"It's also a one-of-a-kind sound in terms of Wurlitzer designs, since the organ at Shea's was specifically requested to have more string ranks than the typical Wurlitzer of that size," Klinger said. "It also has tuned timpani drums, of which there may be only three that still exist and is a rare addition to an organ of any kind, especially for a Wurlitzer."
Thanks to an extensive, $386,550 restoration, now in the third of seven phases, the Wurlitzer is expected to be concert-ready for the start of the theater's 100th anniversary celebration in January 2026.
"We are so excited to allow folks to see this gem that is part of the theater that they come to, but may not see regularly," said Robert Brunschmid, Shea's Performing Arts Center's vice president of operations. "You don't just hear the music, you feel the music, and that is something so special and unique to Shea's Buffalo Theatre."
The mammoth pipe organ was installed by factory workers from the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. in North Tonawanda one month before the Rapp & Rapp-designed movie palace opened in January 1926. It was used to accompany silent films.
Some of the pipes of the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at Shea's Buffalo Theatre.
Shea's and the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda both have what were considered Wurlitzer "show organs," and are among only a dozen theaters in the United States to retain their original Wurlitzers. Unlike most Wurlitzer pipe organs modified or altered from their original design, the Shea's model is among the most intact.
"As a complete instrument, it is very much as you would have heard it when Shea's opened," Klinger said.
The Wurlitzer was restored once before, between 1977 and 1984, thanks to the efforts of the Friends of the Buffalo Theater, which formed in the mid-1970s to save Shea's from the threat of demolition.
The impetus for this second restoration came after a 2019 visit from the American Theatre Organ Society, which brought Wurlitzer enthusiasts from around the world to experience the instrument firsthand.
"I cannot emphasize to you in any stronger terms the 'gold standard' of theater pipe organs that sits in those chambers at Shea's Buffalo," Ken Double, the society's immediate past president, said at the time. "If one were ranking or awarding top honors for the finest-sounding theater organ in the world, Shea's Buffalo would be arguably No. 1, and most certainly top three."
Double, who is the organist at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, said Shea's deserves a lot of credit for investing in the Wurlitzer.
"The pipe organ, while an integral part of its history, isn't necessarily the most important item on their agenda," Double said. "That the board of directors and management at Shea's determined it was in the theater's overall best interest to restore the organ is fantastic news."
The Mighty Wurlitzer organ at Shea's Buffalo Theatre. The theater organ is undergoing a $386,550 restoration to be completed in time for the theater's 100th anniversary.
The restoration is being done by David Peckham of L.A. Peckham & Son Pipe Organ Service, based in Horseheads, a village in the Southern Tier. He has been dismantling sections of the chamber one at a time to work on at home and then reassemble.
Brunschmid said Shea's plans to provide opportunities for young pianists to learn to play the Wurlitzer and eventually perform for Shea's audiences. It's a way, he said, of keeping the theater's cultural heritage alive.
Klinger said the Wurlitzer has been finding contemporary uses in recent years.
"There are a few organists out there, especially younger artists, who are bringing more contemporary music to the theater organ," he said.
Shea's has received financial help for the restoration from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Legacy Funds in raising slightly more than half the funds. The theater still needs to raise another $170,000.
Shea's also has a new state-of-the-art digital cinematic projector, located near its no-longer used classic carbon arc projectors, to honor the theater's legacy as a movie theater. "The Wizard of Oz" will be on the big screen in January 2023.
Expect to see the Wurlitzer once again accompanying silent films at Shea's after the restoration is complete, Brunschmid said.
Mark Sommer covers preservation, development, the waterfront, culture and more. He's also a former arts editor at The News.
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