Blackpool Tower Ballroom (and some on the Empress Ballroom and Palace Ballroom)

[barniclecompton]

N/A

[David Pinnegar]

Dixon was auditioned, and got the job, being told, if that he didnt make a success of dancing, he, and the Wurlitzer would go!
To be continued......

Hi!

Looking forward to continuation of this thread . . . but thought it worth mentioning that Forum Admin was quizzically questioned in putting Cinema organs into the same category as Fair Organs.

To be perfectly fair, part of my teenage admiration for the organ was the mechanical wizardry of the Gavioli, as a Unit Dance Band, just as Hope Jones envisaged the branch of organ building which led to Theatre Organs as Unit Orchestras.

It would be great if anyone knows any Dutch Unit Dance Band enthusiasts to join this forum with input on some of the very great cafe organs that they have across the North Sea. . .

Certainly Blackpool is proving that the two genres, as dance organs, have much to share, even if not in players!

Indeed automatically playing organs have a fascination, which is why I understand numbers of Hauptwerk users enjoy other performer's expertise by way of sharing midi files. . .

Best wishes

David P

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

For those interested in either (or both) forms of the organ, a visit to the Scarborough Fair Collection is a must.  The collection consists of a number of fairground and dance organs, plus 2 8 rank Wurlitzers (with another larger one under construction), plus a number of interesting exhibits.  Take a look at http://www.scarboroughfaircollection.com/

Stop lists for the Wurlitzers, and brief details of some of the mechanical organs are on NPOR.

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

It was a great pleasure to find a photo of one of our forum members playing at Blackpool:
http://www.marcbnaylorwurlitzer.com/Slide-Show.html

Clearly a very versatile musician as his recordings feature more in the classical realm:
http://www.marcbnaylorwurlitzer.com/Recordings.html

. . . so if anyone is inaugurating an instrument anywhere, Marc might be the musician of great versatility to do it . . . ?

Best wishes

David P

[pcnd5584]

i can think of is the Wurlitzer Organ at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. Its been having people in large numbers hooked on organ music for over 70 years. The amount of organists who have started off learning after hearing the Wurlitzer at the Tower is countless! For the millions of people who have heard and it and danced to it over the years, it has gained a massive amount of fans for the organ, world wide. It has to be, to this day, the most recorded single instrument in the world.

Again, there are a number of generalisations and assumptions in this post. Please back up your statements by giving, as it were, chapter and verse. For example, how do you know that the number of organists who have been inspired to play the organ after hearing this instrument is 'countless'? Secondly, can you provide reliable statistics to show  that both 'millions have heard it' and that it is (or has to be) 'the most recorded single instrument in the world'?

There appears to be a note of desperation creeping into your posts - which manifests itself in some rather unwarranted statements. It would be helpful if you could provide some tangible evidence to support them.

[Jonathan Lane]

While the Tower Ballroom may have been recorded many times, Dixon only produced several hundred 78's, during a period when the Blackpool organ was popular because of austerity and the war years, and as an entertainment media accessible to many.  He also did some 2000 broadcasts from the Tower Ballroom. 

Another organist who had a broadly similar lifespan and was alive over pretty much the same years was George Thalban-Ball, who was organist at the Temple Church for some 60 odd years and produced recordings such as Ernest Lough's famous 'O for the wings of a dove' 78 which was HMV's best selling record for 1927, the year it was released, had to be re-recorded in 1928 because the master wore out, and became EMI' first million selling record in 1962.  Thalban-Ball was also Birmingham City organist and gave over 1000 lunchtime recitals at Birmingham Town Hall, a tradition continued today by Thomas Trotter in his weekly recital programme. 

The BBC concert organ has been heard by millions worldwide, through broadcasts (and recordings).  Many of the programmes while light, were classical.

The BBC Proms are broadcast worldwide, with some 313,000 actual attendees in the 2010 season of 89 concerts.  And this is serious 'classical' music. 

Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings' College Cambridge is broadcast worldwide and has been on the radio since 1928 broadcast to a worldwide audience of millions.

BBC Choral Evensong is broadcast live every week to a wide audience on Radio 3.  When it was axed a few years ago, there was such an uproar that it was reprieved, and when it was moved to Sunday afternoon, and audience figures dropped, it was returned to its usual midweek slot.

I have to ask barniclecompton a question, have you been to any classical organ concerts?  I mean this not to be critical, but to try to show you there is a lot more fantastic music out there than that used in theatre organ circles.  Unfortunately, you come across as narrow minded as many classical organ buffs do about their music.  I'm sure there is a place for all of this, but my experience is, that many, many people have a great experience with classical music on the organ and in other forms.

Jonathan

[pcnd5584]

Take into consideration the THOUSANDS of recordings Dixon made and released. Take into consideration the sheer number of people who went into that ballroom. From 1929- early 1980s it was packed every night with people in there thousands. Add onto that the thousands of world wide broadcasts Dixon made.
Anyone with a brain can work out that millions have heard that organ.

'Thousands' - that is a lot of recordings. Do you have a discography which you could either post, or link to here, please?

Again, do you know that it was packed every night from 1929 to the early 1980s? (Incidentally, Dixon retired from the Tower in 1970, when he was succeeded by Ernest Broadbent.)

I note that the legal capacity of the Tower Ballroom is a maximum of 3,000 persons. One should also factor into the calculations the point that Dixon did not play during his war service. (When Reginald Dixon joined up he was replaced by a female organist, Ena Baga, sister of Florence De Jong.) In addition, following a fire in December 1956, the Tower Ballroom was closed for rebuilding and restoration. Now, during this time, did Dixon simply transfer to the smaller Wurlitzer (which had originally stood in the Tower Ballroom, until 1935), or was there another gap in his service?

You also make the assumption that the audience consisted of entirely different people every night. Do you know that this was the case? If not, it is yet another aspect which will affect the overall figures.

Incidentally, 'thousands of world wide broadcasts' is a huge number of broadcasts. Far in excess of those made by organists such as George Thalben-Ball, for example. Again, please provide evidence to back up your claims - as opposed to simply making further unsubstantiated assertions.

[comptonplus]

The Tower Wurlitzer has been played to MILLIONS of people accross the globe. Dixon was even getting requests from India! For years the ballroom was packed nightly for dancing and Dixon gave concerts on Sunday afternoons, often THREE different concerts when wet, not to mention Watson Holmes, Horace Finch etc that were drafted in to play on other wet afternoons to give Dixon a break. Over 3000 a time would hear the organ live.

We then move on to well over 1000 broadcasts, (only??!!!! PAH!!!!) several hundred 78's (I have yet to check how many) LP's, EP's etc, most of which were on the Tower Organ(s) which sold in their hundreds of thousands accross the globe!

It is still heard almost daily to this day, not to the crowds it once was, but it is still notching up first time visitors. Many of todays theatre organists are interested in the organ through hearing the Tower Wurlitzer in the hand of whoever it may have been at the Time. I Know I am one of these.

I do, however, agree there are other organs (and the thread is technically about the instrument, not the organist) which have been heard by countless Millions, but I don't think quite on the scale of the Tower Organ. Are all the classical and church organs heard DAILY for 13 hours (as the Tower organ was from April to September 1977 - 2009) and then a considerable amount of daytime and evening sessions from 1935 - 1977 including concerts (potentially 16 or more concerts) and dance sessions (potentially 14+ a week) then the broadcasts weekly for say20 odd weeks of the year?? Since 2009, it is still heard for some 30 hours weekly by anyone dancing or even just going to get to the top of the Tower!

It is inspirational to me as it is the first pipe organ I heard live. It's the one that made me want to play the organ for a job, which I now do full time playing for dancing most days and nights of the week. The history of the organ, the people that have heard it, danced to it and enjoyed it since 1935 (and the 2/10 before it from 1929-34), the organists that have appeared there, it all makes it inspirational to me. The sound of the organ as you hear it or dance to it and yes, I have been fortunate to play it LIVE for dancing on several occasions, and to me there is NOTHING on earth that compares to it. People will disagree, of course, it's down to opinion!

Ok, off the soapbox!!

Cameron Lloyd.

[comptonplus]

If needbe, it may be possible to delve into the company archives (YES I DO have access) to see what the numbers were!

If the assumption that different people did not go into the Ballroom each night, then that also has to be taken into consideration for ALL organ concerts, broadcasts and LP's or whatever as the same people may be attending, listening and buying, eg Thalben Ball at Birmingham. I'm pretty sure more people will have heard the Tower organ Live than Birmingham Town Hall!

[comptonplus]

After the Fire, Dixon transferred to the Empress Ballroom on the IDENTICAL 3/13 Wurlitzer (10 ranks of which came from the Tower 2/10). During the War, Dixon also made many appearances back at the Tower, he didn't leave the UK!

The Tower Ballroom's original capacity was around 7000, according to a broadcast by Nigel Ogden some time ago. Again, I can check with the company archivist.

[pcnd5584]

After the Fire, Dixon transferred to the Empress Ballroom on the IDENTICAL 3/13 Wurlitzer (10 ranks of which came from the Tower 2/10). During the War, Dixon also made many appearances back at the Tower, he didn't leave the UK!

The Tower Ballroom's original capacity was around 7000, according to a broadcast by Nigel Ogden some time ago. Again, I can check with the company archivist.

The available information to hand indicates that the original Wurlitzer was not identical. Apparently, Dixon (after receiving complaints from dancers that they were unable to hear the organ) re-designed the instrument, which was subsequently rebuilt. It appears that there were some additions made at this time.

In any case, if the organs were identical, why bother to transfer the original instrument six years after it was first built?

[comptonplus]

[/quote]

The available information to hand indicates that the original Wurlitzer was not identical. Apparently, Dixon (after receiving complaints from dancers that they were unable to hear the organ) re-designed the instrument, which was subsequently rebuilt. It appears that there were some additions made at this time.

In any case, if the organs were identical, why bother to transfer it six years after it was first built?
[/quote]

Dixon transferred to the Empress Ballroom after the Fire, THIS organ contained 10 ranks from the ORIGINAL Tower organ which was enlarged and re-built with a new console to 13 ranks and installed in the Empress Ballroom in 1935 as the new TOWER organ went in. The two organs were IDENTICAL from 1935, even having the couplers changed at the same time. The Tower Organ later had the Vox removed and a Solo String (Gamba from the Opera House Wurlitzer) and Tuba Mrabalis (also fromt he Opera House) added.

[organforumadmin]

No point in trying to say this instruments popular on a classical forum, they obviously cant accept fact. Again, how typical.

Please Ross, there is no need for cynicism in this. The organ is popular as is demonstrated well by your posts and of ComptonPlus' contributions above and your numerous posts in the Documentary Researcher thread and to all who listen to The Organist Entertains. Percy Vickery would have preferred the Odeon Leicester Square instrument, however, as he did not like the Quint couplers.


As we understand that you trained at Harrison and Harrisons it would be great to hear from you on other topics in relation to your experience of making and restoring organs from the experience that you had within the craft.


Your nomination for the instrument within the Inspirational Instrument threads heads a discussion which we hope might encompass a wide diversity and the post has been edited to link into this thread.


Are the Blackpool buildings which house these instruments included within an ICOMOS nominated World Heritage Site? If so what other organs form part of World Heritage?


Best wishes


Forum Admin

[organforumadmin]

Hi!


http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba90/feat1.shtml outlines the case for Blackpool as a World Heritage Site, which would include the contributions of organs to the unrivalled pleasure facilities: however I have not seen the follow-up on the outcome of considerations.


Best wishes


Forum Admin