The final show at the Hollywood Cinema is on August 30, where an organist will perform a special Farewell show. That's why I stress it's a package, the organ doesn't mean much without a cinema to go with it."Īn account has been set up for donations towards the removal and safe storage of the Wurlitzer. "The Wurlitzer organ itself doesn't need saving and it doesn't need restoring, it's a fine instrument. From its opening however, one of its main functions. Apart from housing Town Board Offices, the building was also used as a library, dance venue, for school and community events as well as Indoor Bowling tournaments. "And then you can only reassemble it if you have a place that's comparable to the space the organ came out of and that's a big if."ĭr Wells said the cinema and the organ needed to stay together as a package. The new Glen Eden Town Hall was officially opened on Coronation Day, 12th May, 1937, a celebratory ball being held in the evening. Please put the word Donation into the reference fields. There will be collection buckets as you exit the Great Hall for notes and coins, or you can deposit a donation into the Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust account: 02 0256 0071785 00.
Wurlitzer organ trust of auckland free#
"Putting it into storage is hard enough, you have to find quite a large volume, it has to be warm and dry and that's going to cost money. You can support the Town Hall Organ Trust in bringing you free concerts with a donation. "Organs that are dismantled and put into storage have a very checkered future. He said packing away the organ would put its future in doubt. It's going to be a huge job - you don't think about having to take one of these out when you put one in."ĭr John Wells was the Auckland City organist for 14 years and once spent 10 years rebuilding the organ in the town hall.
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"The big 16-foot pipes are all right but they will take about three of them to carry us out. "Every individual little piece has to be manhandled,: all the tiny little pipes at the top end of all the scale, their tiny pipes about the size of a pencil, they have to be bubble-wrapped and put in newspaper. However he said he was preparing for the worst, which would be disassembling the instrument and putting into storage until a new home could be found. Mr Duncan hoped the new buyer would keep the building as a theatre and the organ would be able to stay. The trust organises seven shows a year, to crowds of up to 300 people, which showcase the organ's main function of playing music during silent films. This is their little treat once a month." "People were saying, 'this has brought us so much pleasure,' and we do bring a lot of pleasure to a lot of people.
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"They were really upset, we had tears outside at the front there.
![wurlitzer organ trust of auckland wurlitzer organ trust of auckland](http://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/34709/1327881295/large.jpg)
Chairperson James Duncan said they were 'gutted' when they were told it would need to be removed by the end of September.