The grant obtained enabled the hall to be completely refurbished, soundproofed and air conditioned and, in January 1996, the installation of the organ got under way in earnest. Investigations showed that sufficient space could be created at the back of the existing stage, and, with the enthusiastic support of the then Mayor, Cllr Glyndwr Rapps and the Neuadd Pendre Management Committee, the installation of the Wurlitzer became the keystone of a successful application for National Lottery funding from the Arts Council for Wales. The catalyst for installing the Wurlitzer in Neuadd Pendre was the Tywyn Town Council's plan to extend the building which was used mainly as a Youth Club. Work then proceeded on restoring the storage-ravaged parts which had not been used at Carlisle, and this was indeed a big job which took another year and more to complete but brought most of the organ into a playable condition to provide some really entertaining sessions in the stable, albeit for very tiny audiences of about six or eight people!! It was now that ambitious plans to open a new entertainment centre around the organ were drawn up but, for a variety of reasons, they failed to materialise.
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But it took another van the following weekend to complete the job!Īt Tywyn the organ was stored in an old stable in the middle of the town and, over the ensuing months the many hundreds of working parts were checked and overhauled until eventually, at Easter 1993, most of what had been playing in Carlisle was up and running again, even though it was in the totally unsuitable surroundings of the stable!
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This had been made a condition of the sale.Īfter a few days of preparatory work - disconnecting wiring etc, both teams arrived with vans on a glorious Saturday in July 1992 and set about the removal of the instruments.īy nine o'clock that evening most of both organs had been dismantled and loaded into the vans and John's cargo arrived safely in Tywyn some six hours later. The result was that John agreed to purchase the Woolwich organ from him and they arranged for the removal of both instruments at the same time. This enthusiast was aware that John Smallwood, General Secretary of the Cinema Organ Society, was interested in the instrument whilst his own main interest was in the Workington one.
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He used part of the Woolwich organ to enlarge his existing instrument and connected the Woolwich console up so that the organ could by played from both consoles.įor the next twenty years the remainder of the instrument was stored in outhouses and attics - and suffered accordingly.ġ991 saw both organs offered for sale and acquired by an enthusiast in Edinburgh. After removal, the organ was acquired by a gentleman in Carlisle and who already had the Ritz, Workington, Wurlitzer installed in his music room. In fact, David Lowe, who played the opening concert in Tywyn, well remembers playing at Woolwich during this period.īut safety regulations eventually required that the raked cinema seats were replaced on a level floor, and the organ had to be removed. But by the 1960's television had laid claim to the mass home audiences and the organ was no longer played on a regular basis.Īt the same time, the Granada Woolwich closed its doors as a cinema but the organ initially remained in situ when the building reopened as a Bingo Hall and from time to time was used to entertain the Bingo players. The opening concert in 1937 was given by none other than Mr. One of the most spectacular interiors was to be found in their 1937 Woolwich cinema in South East London and included the organ now installed in Neuadd Pendre Community Hall in Tywyn.Īll of the nearly 600 pipes and percussions were in two chambers under the stage, and the cream and gold console was on a lift in the centre of the orchestra pit.
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Granada cinemas were no exception and installed organs in most their cinemas - mainly Wurlitzers. In the mid 1930s the proliferation of cinemas throughout the United Kingdom saw many circuits competing to provide the grandest decor and features to encourage people to desert their homes and their worries for an evening of escapism - 'at the pictures'.Ī central feature of this was, for many cinemas - the Mighty Wurlitzer.