Nevada City Wurlitzer 180 Band Organ

"Remember Pearl Harbor" (Reid & Kaye) played by the Wurlitzer 180 band organ in the Bovey collection at the Nevada City Music Hall in Montana. This organ (#4182) came equipped with a keyboard (!) and swell shutters, and may never have had a proper façade. It was shipped in June, 1929, to St. Mary's Church in Amsterdam, New York. In November of that same year, according to Wurlitzer's records, it went to Bell's Rink, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. By 1936 it had been converted to Caliola rolls.
This tune is from the circa 1964 LP record "Sounds of Music: Organs and Orchestrions from Historic Virginia City and Nevada City, Montana." (On the record the tune is mis-labeled as "For The Flag, For The Home.") The liner notes state that the organ came from Rockaway Beach, New York. I uploaded this tune because I think it's a somewhat better representation of the organ than the "Loudest in Montana" video.

[@KawhackitaRag]

By the way, according to Art Reblitz's text for the above photo on the AMICA "Adopt-A-Piano" website, the tall metal clarinet pipes actually came from a Wurlitzer theatre organ, and were added later (they are not original to this organ). The large bass and accompaniment pipes behind them are apparently original, but were un-mitered and painted in a four-color scheme to achieve the look you see here!

[@Wurlitzer157]

Thanks for posting. Sounds better than it does now... that's certain.

[@oldbear52]

Thanks for sharing!!!

[@sammorex2543]

This organ apparently was converted into a church organ for St. Mary's Catholic Church, Amsterdam, NY during the depression (however nobody at the church could confirm this) and was after that converted back to the fairground organ by the factory. Today the church has a regular pipe organ. My guess is they set it up the fairground organ in 1929 and found it was too loud for the church procession because this is meant for a large fairground where music has to be heard over crowds and not a place of worship like the Catholic Church. This is by far one of the weirdest things anyone has done with a fairground organ.

[@darvozz]

The 180 in Texas is in a private collection.

[@amberlynn6914]

oh,darn.

[@darvozz]

@KawhackitaRag I'm not aware of any recording of the 180 in Texas.

[@KawhackitaRag]

Thanks for posting this! I think I love the sound of the big Wurlitzer Caliola-playing organs, because they are fully chromatic. The only downside is that there is little or no registration (despite a couple of possible register controls available on the Wurlitzer APP roll) which would add more dynamics and more interest to the music. I'd love to hear the big 180 in Texas that plays Caliola rolls. Are there any recordings of it available?

[@amberlynn6914]

wait......there's a 180 here in texas?!? WHERE?!

[@andrewjf82]

Thank you! The other video IS pretty awful and certainly doesn't do this rare machine justice.