[sinkspur]

To be accurate, this is the world's largest theatre organ.

The John Wanamaker store in Philadelphia, with its 10,000 pipe Wicks, and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, with its 11,000 pipe Aeolian-Skinner, have larger concert organs.

[Elliott Jackalope]

I'm actually impressed that you knew that. Good job!

[sinkspur]

Correction to my #18 above.

The Wanamaker organ is not a Wicks; it is also an Aeolian-Skinner.

[fqued]

And, indeed, those are small pipe organs compared to the one in Atlantic city, and the Sydney Auditorium which has an open 64-foot rank.

a normal rank (without extensions) has 61 pipes, so 8000 pipes would only be about 130 ranks. Denver, where I work on pipe organs, has two organs with about a hundred ranks, and there are plenty of organs with over 130 ranks.

This article was written by someone who knows little or nothing about pipe organs.

Second point: SIZE DOES NOT MATTER, whether the organ is human or mechanical. the best pipe organs are not the largest, but the best voiced and built. I have worked on realtively small organs that are truly fine, and on large organs that I consider mediocre.

[Ichneumon]

I don't know if it's still there or not, but 20+ years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana, there was a family restaurant named "Pipe Organ Pizza" which had an ENORMOUS, um, wind instrument built into one wall. They always had an organist playing various tunes, and he gladly took requests. It was quite an experience.

[nicollo]

In the early 1900s, organs were the must-see/ must-have rage amongst the moneyed set, especially for their summer homes in Massachusett's North Shore. The Kennedy Center organ is one example, having come from the Filene home. You might have seen Henry Clay Frick's magnificent, albeit much smaller, organ at his home on 5th Ave. in NYC.

In those days, having the biggest organ was like having the biggest screen TV on the block. Just good old American one-upmanship.

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Btw, I'm much amused and most proud of FR that this thread has turned into a serious discussion. Freepers aren't always so obvious as a big organ joke...

[Swordmaker]

Sink, check out this page...

World's Largest Pipe Organs

Almost every organ listed on this page has many more pipes than this guy. The largest listed claims 33,114

[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...)