Milwaukee Film‘s $10 million campaign to restore the Oriental Theatre is reaching a key point.I wonder whether that Wurlitzer was built in DeKalb, and whether Safety Last was ever a nickel feature at the Oriental back in the day. So it goes, artistic preservation doesn't come cheap, and at least you get to contribute to the restoration of the theater, rather than buying rubber chicken and hoping the political candidate will respect you after the election.
On Nov. 8, the organization will unveil a new Wurlitzer organ. Although “new” isn’t quite accurate. The organ was actually constructed in 1925.
A red carpet fundraiser, “Coming Home Again: A 1925 Wurlitzer Pipe Organ’s Grand Debut”, will mark the occasion. Silent comedy Safety Last, a 1923 film starring Harold Lloyd, will be accompanied by a live score played by acclaimed organist Ron Rhode. Tickets to the event start at $200.
“When considering how best to celebrate and unveil the newly installed Wurlitzer at the Oriental Theatre we wanted to honor the overlapping histories of cinema and the theatre organ,” said organization artistic director Cara Ogburn in a statement. “So Lloyd’s classic, always a crowd-pleaser and celebrating a major anniversary this year, was an easy, natural and perhaps obvious choice. We are thrilled to be working with the Harold Lloyd Estate to present this film in such a reverent way with Ron Rhode’s masterful performance of the Wurlitzer as exactly the right coda to conclude this phase of our historic restoration work at the Oriental Theatre!”
The evolution of the movie business from mass entertainment (and a contribution to public health, the first air conditioned spaces were theaters) to whatever a multiplicity of cable channels and online streaming services have done to it today might have contributed to the Oriental's original theater organ, and its later replacement, being sold off.
The theater, 2230 N. Farwell Ave., lost its previous organ, a 1931 Kimball, because the nonprofit group that owned it had it removed and transferred to a new owner prior to Milwaukee Film acquiring the lease for the theater in 2018. It was originally from the Warner Grand Theatre was since redeveloped by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra into the Bradley Symphony Center. The Kimball organ was installed in the Oriental in 1991 and for years organists delighted Milwaukee Film members in advance of special screenings. The theater’s original organ was removed in 1959.The story also notes that somewhere in its history, the Oriental was divided into a large auditorium and two smaller theaters, the better, I suppose, to draw a wider range of spectators and by staggering the start times, keep the popcorn poppers busy. That's how the malls did things, for that one shining moment when "going to the movies" meant "hang out at the mall first." I wonder if the Milwaukee Symphony have located a theater organ for their new concert hall.
The latest organ is being provided by pipe organ restoration specialist Jeff Weiler, president of JL Weiler, Inc. From the thousands that were produced, it is believed to be one of approximately a dozen Wurlitzer organs that remain in an unaltered state. It was originally installed at the Paramount Theater in Atlanta, where it remained until the 1950s. It was originally expected to be available at the Oriental by the end of 2020.
There's another theater organ in the Milwaukee area, and this one hasn't gone anywhere for years.
Zach Frame has an affection for the classics. His 1952 Shepherd Runabout wood boat. His 1978 Buick Regal. And his full-time job, playing a 100-plus-year-old theatre pipe organ at Organ Piper Pizza in Greenfield.Organ Piper get commended for their pizza qua pizza, but if you're Mr Frame, there are things more interesting than the pizza.
"I get to be a musician," said Frame, being interviewed at a marina in Elkhorn where he keeps his boat. "I play a theater pipe organ for five days a week. My full-time job, which is pretty unique."
Organ Piper Pizza in Greenfield is a Milwaukee-area institution. They opened in 1976. There are only three like it in the whole country.
"The thing about the Organ Piper," Frame said, "Is there's a lot of places where you can go to get pizza, and we have great pizza, but where else can you go anywhere around here that has a show with it."
Frame first went when he was a kid, and a star was born.You get to be good at it the same way you get to Carnegie Hall.
"When all of the other kids were running around up in the game room and causing havoc," said Frame, "The gentleman who was the organist at the time, who's still a great friend, says he got up to play and there was a piece of pizza on my plate. He played a 45-minute set, got down, and that same piece of pizza was still on my plate. I was just glued to it all night."
Now he's the 2022 'Theatre Organist of the Year.'
It's a complicated instrument to play. The theatre pipe organ is way more than a keyboard or grand piano. Frame says it's tougher than your typical church pipe organ, too.
"The organ piper instrument has three 61-note keyboards," he explained. "You can play usually on two of those, sometimes all three at once. There is a 32-note pedal board that you play your base notes with your feet. At the same time, there are 234-ish stop tabs around the console that control all the various sounds, whether it be strings or a clarinet or a flute or whatever. You have to be planning ahead to get that all right.
And there's more.
"There's shutters in front that let you put dynamics and accents and the music in it. Plus, I get to do lightning effects and all sorts of other things too. So, a lot."
How could anyone learn to play the millions of possible combinations? Frame is only 36 years old.All of a sudden I miss "Hey! Hey! Goodbye!" at the ball park or "Three Blind Mice" when the referee and linesmen skate out.
"Lots of practice," Frame said when asked how it was possible to learn so many possible combinations. "You know, I learned from people that learned from other people. The lineage goes all the way back to the 1920s."
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