Man Wants Biggest Organ for His Living Room

newsmax.com ^ | 9-20-03 | With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[ovrtaxt]

Posted Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003 5:56 PM EDT

Man Wants Biggest Organ for His Living Room

Jasper Sanfilippo, a collector of musical devices, doesn’t play the organ and neither does his wife, but he does have the distinction of owning the biggest organ in the world, which is on proud display in an oversized living room of his estate in Barrington Hills, Ill., according to a feature in Forbe’s magazine.

While Radio City's Wurlitzer, the world's second largest, has 4,500 pipes, Jasper's has 8,000, says Tom Hazleton, an acclaimed theater organist. "If this doesn't blow your socks off, nothing will," Hazleton says.

Sanfilippo built a 27,000-square-foot living room in which to house the biggest Wurlitzer pipe organ in captivity. The immense instrument is feed air (10,000 cubic feet per minute) via a 50hp, 440-volt blower and can play "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" with the same ease as a Debussy delicacy.

Fortunately for the non-player owner, the organ has a feature permitting the capture of keystrokes, recalling every note of every artist who's played at the Sanfilippos' home, as well as the tonal settings he chose -- and even the lighting in the room.

Included are buttons that summon thunder, surf, tom-toms and a glockenspiel, and a 32-note set of bells (the largest weighing 426 pounds).

Scoff if you like, but experts agree that Sanfilippo has created something extraordinary, says organist John Giacchi.

Victory at Sea, a favored selection, has palpable 25-foot swells.

[sinkspur]

Thanks for the pic, BTW, of the Atlantic City behemoth.

I had some recordings of a six-manual theatre Wurlitzer organ in Salt Lake City from the 60s, played by a Gus.....something or other. They were magnificent, and I let them get away from me by my mother selling stuff in a garage sale.

There's nothing like the King of Instruments!

[sinkspur]

If all 450 ranks could be cranked on that Atlantic City beast, lights in adjacent neighborhoods would dim, and metal would bend in nearby manufactured housing.

Learning the stop configuration would take a master AGO organist weeks to learn.

[Nan48]

Hope the person who bought your recordings in the garage sale is an organ lover--er, pipist.

[Nan48]

I wonder if it could repel hurricanes?

[B-Chan]

“Gee, Dad, It’s a Wurlitzer!”

x

[weegee]

while people are talking about the organ, I'll offer up this annecdote that comes to mind (I heard the recording on a Warner Brothers sampler record from the late 1960s):

Louie Louie (At the Royal Albert Hall In London)

And now goes really professional:-))) report about event as cited by Michael Gray (Mother! 1994 edition p.98)

It was written up graphically in both music press and the 'straight' press. Melody Maker reported:

"There is the mighty and majestic Royal Albert Hall Pipe Organ", said Zappa cooly as audience fell about. Mother Don leapt from the stage and like a mischevous ape clambered up the balconies high above and settled into the organ nook. He fumbled about in the darkness - got a rousing ovation when he found the light switch and settled in. Zappa hitched his breeches and drawled into the mike: "Play something for the kids, Don, play something that'll really sock it to 'em - like 'Louie Louie'!" And lo - true to his word - the giant Royal Hall pipe organ burst forth with life and 'Louie Louie'. Ad lib laughter for the rest of the concert".

For those who are more interested in Louie Louie than giant organs, here is a link on Frank Zappa (and others) recordings of Louie Louie

[Princeliberty]

Satan is a Hegelian.

[Desdemona]

Ah yes, the one in Atlantic City. Now, THAT's an organ.

I wonder what sort of air pressure it takes. How big the digital system is, the electric bills...

[MineralMan]

"I have seen pictures of these magnificent instruments, and heard them. They are amazing.
"

Me, too. There is nothing like a 64' pipe to shake your innards. It's actually below most people's range of hearing, but you can just simply feel it in your belly. Amazing stuff.

[MineralMan]

"Life just ain't fair. Here's a guy who isn't an organist, but has this huge organ in his home. I AM an organist and would love to have my own pipe organ in my home to play. Isn't that the way it goes?"

Nan,

You can have an organ in your home. It's absolutely an achievable goal. Keep an eye on eBay, using the search "pipe organ." There are always pipe organs up for bid, and some of the smaller ones go for suprisingly low bids. There is the problem of retrieving and installing such an organ, but....if you can afford it, it's a wonderful addition to a large home.

I'm working on building a small 4-rank organ for myself, a positif, that will be transportable. It won't be huge or amazing in sound, but it will be. It's common on eBay to see ranks of pipes for sale, along with windchests and just about everything you need to build your own organ, if you're so inclined.

[Publius]

John Wanamaker is no more. The store is now the downtown Philadelphia branch of Lord & Taylor.

[MineralMan]

Here's an owner-built organ for sale, cheap, on eBay. A few years ago, I visited this organ and played it. The builder/owner has died and someone bought it sometime ago, and is now selling it on eBay. It's going to need some repair, but it was a sweet-sounding home organ.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2559002092&category=16219

[logician2u]

Y'know, sink, I've misunderestimated you all these years.

A Republican who appreciates the glorious sounds that only a pipe organ can produce can't be all bad. I take back everything I said about you behind your back.

Unfortunately, your AADD seems to be as much a hindrance to your enjoyment of music as it has proven too often to be when discussing various politicians -- especially people you don't agree with.

That is, you tend to make things up when your memory fails you. A little attention to facts will help, even though your general impressions are often 75-80% correct. That's often good enough in the world of ideas, but won't suffice in the real world we live in, where a foot is not "about" 12 inches and the precision craftsmanship employed in building pipe organs requires somewhat more attention to detail than some folks on this forum are capable of.

When dealing with the King of Instruments, you can at least get the name of the builder right, right?

Take note, or take notes if you please:

• The Grand Court organ in Wanamaker's (now Lord and Taylor's) was indeed the world's largest at one time, but you should know that Wicks was hardly big enough to produce such an instrument in 1904. Your second guess of Aeolian-Skinner won't do, either, as the combined company only came into being during the Depression.

  The Los Angeles Art Organ Company (long since defunct) built that six-manual monster organ for the St. Louis World's Fair. John Wanamaker later expanded and enlarged it with numerous ranks including some of the most beautiful strings I've ever heard for his Philadelphia store, as you will no doubt agree if you have the Virgil Fox recording of "Come, Sweet Death" played on this intrument.

• "Pneumatic" organs are air-powered, i.e., pipe organs. "Electronic" organs play through loudspeakers. Could you be confused by the "tubular pneumatic" term? The old tracker-type organs did require some athletic ability if too many stops were drawn, as the whole thing was connected mechanically to the console with an elaborate system of levers and rods to push and pull valves to let air into chests and pipes. The tubular-pheumatic system came into use a hundred years ago to make the organist's job easier, but it lacked the touch-response of the tracker types and the speed of newer electrically-powered action, and was a maintenance nightmare so nobody uses it any more, although trackers continue to be built, for what reason I can't figure. (The most recent is what some would call a Mickey Mouse organ. Aaaaarghhhh!) Money, maybe. They're about twice as costly as equivalent organs with electro-pneumatic action.
• Those long-ago Gus Farney albums your mother sold at a garage sale still show up from time to time on eBay, or at your local Goodwill store if you're lucky. Warner Brothers isn't likely to reissue them on CD, but it would be nice if they'd let someone else do it so a new generation could hear Farney's playing.

  The console of the organ he played, controlling the pipes at the Organ Loft in Salt Lake City, has "just" five manuals, not six.

• To my knowledge, the former Chicago Stadium organ -- a Barton, not a Wurlitzer as you proclaimed in your post #55 -- is the only "theater" style console with six. (On unified instruments such as this, more manuals don't necessarily mean more ranks of pipes, since most every voice is available on any manual for versatility. Adding more manuals makes it a little difficult to arrange the stop keys for the organist's convenience. We don't all have long arms, and you can't play standing up.)
• It's doubtful that light bulbs will pop if the Atlantic City Convention Hall organ ever gets cranked up to full sonic strength, although it would be a thrilling experience to hear it. Like you, I'd pay top dollar for the experience.

  If high-volume rock concerts can't blow out light bulbs and shatter windows, why should a pipe organ which produces, for the most part, music and not noise?

OK, I've been pretty severe with you, sinkspur, but you left yourself open.

If you ever want to expand your collection of organ music, BTW, let me recommend the Organ Historical Society's catalogue as the most complete on-line source of both classical and theatre organ recordings, plus some books you won't find at Amazon. If you join, you get a discount on some products. I've ordered from them for years and am very satisfied with their prompt service.

You being a Texan, sink, you probably know of Fulton Lewis, Jr. He was a red-baiting radio commentator, in the employ of H. L. Hunt. His program ran all over the place, several times a day where I lived. H. L. paid for it all. That was before talk radio, and equal time rules applied.

He was also an organist. Had a Wurlitzer (I think) in his home. So did Herb Shriner, the Hoosier humorist. Small world, huh?

[sinkspur]

Thanks for the info.

Still arrogant as hell, I see.

[Petronski]

I have worked on realtively small organs that are truly fine, and on large organs that I consider mediocre.

An astonishing admission!

</SophomoricHumor>

[Nan48]

Thanks for your suggestion. However, I actually do have an organ in my home--an old beat up practice organ that someone gave me. My son got it to work, but isn't a beautiful pipe organ. I'd have to build a whole new house in order to get the one I want. *sigh* I'll just have to stick with what I've got right now.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

The immense instrument is feed air (10,000 cubic feet per minute) via a 50hp, 440-volt blower...

You'd have to figure that it would take a very special blower to handle an organ that size.

[Calvin Locke]

The "Great Organ" was originally built during the years 1857 through 1863 in Ludwigsburg, Germany by the firm of E. F.
Walcker and Company for the Boston Music Hall. The instrument was the first concert organ in the United States
and it exerted considerable influence on American organ design and construction during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Edward F. Searles of Methuen, Massachusetts purchased the instrument in 1897, rebuilt it and erected it in a
specially-built concert hall designed by the English architect Henry Vaughan. In 1947, G. Donald Harrison of the
Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston completed an extensive tonal reconstruction. Today, the organ's resources
include five divisions, 84 stops, 115 ranks and 6,027 pipes.

Okay, not 5 figures, pipe-wise.
(Maybe Tommy Chong can help out next summer...)

[ovrtaxt]

There's definitely a culture war on this thread. The culture of the humanities vs. the culture of cheap shot weenie jokes. The weenie jokers like us are just snorting up our sleeves at the comments posted by the highbrow latent homosexuals here. (That should get someones' attention...)

Your contribution to the cause is much appreciated.

FIGHT THE POWER!

[ItsOurTimeNow]

A man steps onto a crowded elevator at a posh NYC Hotel. He says, "Ballroom please!".

The woman in front of him steps aside and replies, "Oh...I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was crowding you!"