The Alabama Theatre's Mighty Wurlitzer-"Big Bertha"

[@Pianoguy1987]

I have not had the privilege of hearing Big Bertha being played, but I have been in the theater and seen her. The entire building is just magnificent! So glad it was saved!

[@biglakepress5788]

I'm here only because I grew up less than a quarter mile from the North Tonawanda plant. It was the 70's and it was in rough shape. Rode my bike all over that place. Knew every inch of it. I knew what they did back in the day but couldn't appreciate it as a 12 year old. Now thanks to you tube I hear the glorious sounds of the things they were making... I'm in awe. So glad that plant is not going to waste. They're reinventing it into profitable store fronts for small business. Love that ! Preserve the Wurlitzer at all costs! It's a national treasure!

[@skipstewart9376]

Thank you to you and your very ambitious little group for saving that organ and the theater. I wish the world had a lot more people like you and your group.

[@Gor800]

So, so glad this mighty organ (Big Bertha) is still working well and sharing “her” wonderful sounds for generations to come. Thank you Gary for sharing this wonderful information and for giving your musical talents so that Big Bertha can still “speak”.

[@Rokinray]

Thanks for sharing the history of this wonderful organ. You have the right appreciation for its history and uniqueness.

[@aaronleadley8245]

Go go Gary, i'm an humble English parish organist from the line of Francis Jackson and I had the privilege of hearing you play last year during the halloween showing of Hocus Pocus last year. it was phenomenal, both the playing and Bertha herself!

[@csmatthew]

thank you so much for demonstrating this wonderful machine. My great grandfather was a theatre organist and gained some fame through the profession. Truly wonderful machines!

[@hchickpea]

Fun. I worked for Cobb for a while in B'ham, saw a couple of movies at the Alabama during that time, moved to south Florida and had a magnificent old gentleman working for me at Wometco, by the name of Cecil McGlohen. I found out that he had been the district manager over the Birmingham AL theatres back in the golden years, had "retired" to Florida and was managing the Bay Harbor theatre. His presence was one that moviegoers immediately recognized as class and from the old school. I was a DM, but Cecil was one who got to run his theatre as he saw fit, and it never had a problem. I was proud to know him. I only wish I has more time back then to pick his brain and learn more of is experience.

[@richardvoran5514]

Excellent video Gary. Love the theater, and love Bertha!

[@BradCarpo]

What an amazing opportunity, you are so fortunate.

[@SevenPlus65]

This is fascinating! Love this ❤. I was fortunate enough to obtain a handful of player piano rolls from the 1920s that were actually played in a movie theater back then. Saved them from being thrown away. One such song is Deep Night by Rudy Valee. I treasure them and recognize them for the piece of history I hold in my hand whenever I play or post them.

[@That_One_Player_Piano]

Played on a foto player? If they were I would expect them to be well used.

[@ScottHBrown]

What an incredible piece of history!

[@JohnnyTidmore]

Very thoughtful words, Gary. Thanks a million for taking care of her and sharing her story.

[@lindamannix1247]

I'm loving this . Thankyou .

[@Tmanaz480]

Thanks for contributing to keeping this artform alive! It really is a quintessentially American instrument.

[@garygreen7552]

Thank you for the story. Maybe another video with more of you playing this instrument? I would love to hear it more.

[@pixie99]

Thank you xx

[@danielmkubacki]

What a great story organ and Theater.

[@BarryLumpkin]

Well done, Gary!

[@doctorpaul34]

Need to have silent movie night!

[@ronaldl9085]

Stunning instrument!

[@barton1931]

Has the spec on this organ been modified, or did it have all those pistons, and were the stop rails originally maxed out? Wish there would have been more playing in the video, but what I did hear sounded FAN-DAMN-TASTIC!

[@BrutishYetDelightful]

When I was a kid in the 70s we lived in Michigan and there was this place in East Lansing called the Roaring 20s. It was a pizza place laid out like a big German beer hall, with oaken timbers aplenty. One end of the place was dominated by one of these orchestral units. The instruments were high on the wall all down the sides of the place. IIRC, it was within sight of Michigan State University, so it was just busy as hell all the time. The organ show was fantastic and the pizza was too. Old-school MAD salty black olives. Beer crust. Rosa Grande pepperoni. College kids would write all kinds of obscure classical pieces or foreign anthems on the little request slips to put in the glass request bowl. The guy was hard to stump. He pretty much knew everything they asked for.

[@BruiserFL]

Love this

[@garyedwards8142]

Wow, I’m in ore……… well explained… 🇬🇧👍

[@barneshomestead1240]

I remember when Disney classic movies would premier there on Fridays & it would be the place to be...the Showplace Of The South. Innocent times great movies. Never been to hear the organ played in person though.

[@RWBHere]

Thank-you.

[@alastairchestnutt6416]

Great story.

[@skipstewart9376]

Since there are a lot of silent films in public domain, how about taking the music that’s in public domain, and doing you on one side of the screen, playing the silent, film accompaniment, and the movie playing on the other side of the screen, and use all of those sound effects and wonderful Descriptive sounds and show us how they really did it in 1927. I can suggest a film for you complete with a train and a heroin and a bumbling hero, gloria, Swanson in “Teddy at the throttle.” I’m sure it’s in public domain. I bet the video would be a hit and at the end of the moving picture, you can ask for people to send you a dollar or two as a donation for the upkeep of the organ and the Theatre, you would certainly get my money!

[@fourthlaxer4557]

wow!

[@randolphfriend8260]

🥲 Very Nice ! 💙

[@cannedmusic]

...when it was built, in 27. An amazing investment for such a short life.

[@Peter-pv8xx]

Sadly enough few of the old art Deco theaters are long gone, one in Atlantic City collapsed as it was undergoing restoration, i don't know what became of it. In my City of Perth Amboy NJ we had the majestic theater, my mother recalled them rolling a red carpet down our main street which is called Smith street and the likes of George Burns coming to perform, back then they featured vaudeville and movies, it was a magnificent place but sadly it couldn't compete with the large multiplexes nearby plus the demographics of the city were changing, like so many other small town theater in a last ditched effort it started showing x-rated films, this is before home video did all of them in. The majestic closed and lay vacant for years until a local black church bought it and turned it their main building, across the street was the ELKS club which they also took over, my city is 80 to 90 percent Hispanic so it may be a Spanish church now, i don't go downtown unless i have to to pay the taxes.

[@russellwaite5874]

would have liked a bit more music.

[@ronreed610]

Here's to false modesty :/