Theatre organ

In the first three decades of the twentieth century, a theatre organ (also known as a theatre organ, or [particularly in the United Kingdom] a cinema organ) was an unique kind of pipe organ that was initially created to provide music and sound effects to accompany silent films in theatres.

A theatre organ's console is often distinguished by a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of stop tabs (tongue-shaped switches) located above and around the instrument's keys, which are generally arranged in a circle. Theatre organ console were usually adorned in extravagant ways, with brilliantly coloured stop tabs and painted bright red and black, or full gold, or ivory with gold trim, and with built-in console lighting, in recognition of its prominent location in houses of popular entertainment. A typical characteristic of organs installed in the United Kingdom was the use of wide transparent surrounds that extended from both sides of the console and included internal colourful lights. One such specimen is the so-called Rhinestone Barton, which was built in 1928 and placed at the old RKO Iowa Theatre in Des Moines. Black felt fabric studded with glass glitter in swirling patterns covers the whole console of this three-manual, fourteen-rank Wangerin Barton. Rhinestone trim trims the borders of all three manuals and the entire console of this Wangerin Barton. Another example is the 3/13 Barton, which can be seen at Ann Arbor's old Michigan Theatre. The organ, which was installed in 1927 and is now performed five evenings a week before the majority of cinema screenings, was built in 1927. The idea of the theatre organ gained popularity, and as a result, theatre organs started to be placed in a variety of different kinds of venues, including municipal auditoriums, sports stadiums, private homes, and even churches, as the concept spread. The six-manual, 52-rank Barton theatre organ, which was placed in the enormous Chicago Stadium, was one of the biggest theatre organs ever constructed (and definitely had the largest console ever designed specifically for a theatre organ).