Granada Theater's original organ is almost ready to play once again

Mar. 9—By GREG JORDAN

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — After years of complicated and painstaking work, an organ which is approaching its 100th birthday will soon be ready to fulfill its original purpose by providing music for a classic silent film.

On April 20, musician Teddy Gibson is scheduled to play the Granada Theater's original organ while the 1926 silent movie "The General" starring the late Buster Keaton is shown on the Granada's big screen.

Built by the Wurlitzer factory in the state of New York back in 1927, the organ was used at the Granada Theater in downtown Bluefield until it was taken to the Evans Theater in Indiana and later transferred to the Keith Albee Theater in Huntington. Former Bramwell resident Bob Edmunds discovered the organ there while teaching at Marshall University. It became available after the Keith Albee's original organ was found, and the Bluefield Preservation Society worked to bring the Granada's organ back to its original home in June 2015.

The organ's original console, which now stands before the Granada's stage, has been restored as well. Volunteers with the Piedmont Theater Organ Enthusiasts, a nonprofit organization which is a chapter of the American Theater Organ Society, have been working on the organ's restoration and installation for about three and a half years, said volunteer Barry Simmons.

"And it is a labor of love," Simmons said Friday.

Simmons was working along with volunteers including Chance Parrish and Mac Abernethy to made adjustments so the organ will be ready for the April 20 show. Abernethy came down from one of the organ's chambers and sat down in a theater seat to talk about the work that's bringing the vintage organ back to playing condition.

"We've just about checked all the boxes," Abernethy said. "There will always be something we can find to do when you're talking about an instrument. It will be celebrating it's 100th birthday in '27, 2027. Everything's been restored, re-leathered, but there's always things you have to do when they're settling in. Each one has its own personality. And this sat here five years down in the basement and it was kind of hard on it through that."

The organ can be played now, he said.

"We kind of did a little bit of a show last night, a little itty bitty one, so she's ready to go," Abernethy said. "We've just got some fine little points to clean up we're doing today up here and a little bit more voicing."

Voicing refers to the organ's percussion harp which has a hammer striking a bar. The mechanism has to be adjusted carefully. Issues like humidity and temperature have to be considered.

"And I rebuilt this, but until you get it on its normal air supply and adjust the valves out, how does that hammer strike or does it strike at all? In about half of it, the hammers are hardly striking, so you have to go in and adjust," Abernethy said.

When the first large theaters were used to show silent movies, full pit orchestras or bands provided music.

This became too expensive when theaters offered up to six shows a day, he said. Rudolph Wurlitzer, who was known for band instruments, saw an opportunity.

He found a musician named Robert Hope-Jones who had invented what he called the unit orchestra. Wurlitzer eventually started manufacturing theater organs, and movie theater owners found that having an organ and hiring a few organists to play it was less expensive than paying a band.

Silent movies like "The General" are sometimes shown on television, but Abernethy said he dislikes how they are presented.

Without the big screen and the music accompanying the movies, viewers can't have the same experience that theater audiences enjoyed decades ago.

"Until you've seen a live performance on the big screen, it's not the same as seeing it on TV," he said. "It's the same idea as seeing 'Gone with the Wind" on the TV in your kitchen and seeing it on the big screen. It's two totally different experiences."

The theater is located in downtown Buefield.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com