The 1925 Rye Wurlitzer is the second oldest Wurlitzer organ in the UK

The 'Rye Wurlitzer', Opus Number 999, was the second Wurlitzer to play in the UK, opening on 6th April 1925 at The Palace Cinema in Tottenham, North London, which at the time was under the ownership of Provincial Cinematograph Theatres (PCT). The two manual, six rank (2/6) organ was installed in a single chamber high up on the right side of the stage in what had formerly been a theatre box. Once installed at Tottenham, the Wurlitzer was opened by Jack Courtnay on the 6th April 1925 with a showing of the silent films: “Find Your Man” and “Never Say Die”. To begin with, the Wurlitzer accompanied all the silent films of the day until 1929 when the “talkies” arrived. It then went on to be used for solo spots, providing music during the interval, and accompanying sing-alongs. Subsequent resident organists at the Palace Cinema included Frank Matthew, John Bennett, and Alan Cornell. During the 1950’s, with the advent of television, and a change to the format of cinema presentation, the Wurlitzer came to be used less and less, until it was finally put up for sale in the middle of 1957. The organ was purchased by Rye Grammar School for the sum of £450. It was removed from the Palace Cinema during August 1957 and reinstalled on a balcony at the back of the newly built school hall. There wasn’t enough room in the chamber to install any of the percussion items (except the Cathedral Chimes) and so these were put into storage but over the years they became damaged and lost. During the late 1950’s and 1960’s the Wurlitzer was in receipt of regular maintenance and was often heard playing in the school but during the 1970’s this ceased due to a lack of funding, and its condition rapidly declined. In 1980, a new chemistry teacher, Nigel Spooner, started at the school, and he was also a fine organist. He breathed some life back into the Wurlitzer and once again it was heard playing in the school, including being featured in quite a few concerts organised by the Theatre Organ Club of Great Britain (TOC) with renowned players including Bobby Pagan and Trevor Bolshaw, and a relative newcomer, the 1980 UK Young Theatre Organist of the Year, Michael Wooldridge, who played in a number of the concerts. Mr. Spooner moved on around a decade later and the Wurlitzer was threatened with being sold on. The Rye Old Scholars' Association (ROSA) came to the rescue and organised some fund-raising concerts to keep the organ at the school but these began to make a loss, so eventually they declared enough was enough. Having grown attached to the instrument, the Chairman of ROSA, who was a former Head Boy and now a music shop proprietor, Richard Moore, decided to go it alone. Richard founded the Friends of Rye Wurlitzer society (FORW) and much money was raised to go into the restoration project. With the help of lottery funding, by 2003, the Wurlitzer had been returned to its former glory of 1925, including the replacement of the missing percussions. In 2007, the organ’s console was moved from the balcony, where nobody could see it properly, to be sited on the stage, now on its own lift. The following year, the console was completely refurbished. The installation of a modern relay system, the brain which connects the console on the stage to the pipes on the balcony, has allowed the addition of some extra pipework, a Clarinet and a Kinura, bringing the organ to 8 pipe ranks, bringing it to just under 600 pipes, varying in length from 16' long for the deepest sounds, to just a few inches, the size of a pencil, for the highest sounds, all of which are tuned by hand for each concert. The organ now also benefits from a couple of digital (electronic) ranks, an Oboe and a String Celeste, so the Rye Wurlitzer can now be classed as a 2/10 hybrid.

The Rye Wurlitzer Academy (RWA)

The RWA is based at Rye College, which is part of the Aquinas Academy Trust. The Wurlitzer Academy was founded following the receipt of a specific donation “In Memory of the Life of Rita Akehurst” to the Friends of the Rye Wurlitzer preservation group (FORW), with the wish that it be used to show some young people the theatre organ. This allowed the Founder and President of the FORW, Richard Moore, to try out an idea he'd had for a long time, which was to offer some form of regular teaching about the historic Wurlitzer Theatre Organ to young people, all be it originally for just a short trial period. With the full support of Rye College’s then Executive Principal, Ann Cockerham, he arranged a student master- class featuring a top organist and preservation expert, at which a group of pupils indicated they would be interested to learn to play the Wurlitzer, and so the Rye Wurlitzer Academy was born. Richard's vision was that every student be given a FREE home practice organ (some kindly donated by local supporters), FREE music, and above all else, FREE tuition with a professional music teacher. Right from the start, Richard had decided everything should be FREE to the students, including educational visits, so that it could be accessible to all. Of course, whilst these benefits are free to the students, there is still a significant cost to the RWA. Some limited fund-raising and further donations allowed this pilot scheme to grow enough to prove that Richard's concept could work, but it was soon apparent that to retain the students’ enthusiasm and to allow their music-making to flourish, they would need more regular lessons with a specialist teacher. Having sought recommendations from well-respected members of the theatre organ community, renowned international theatre organist, Michael Wooldridge, was asked to become the RWA’s Principal Tutor at the start of 2010, a role he has filled with passion and enthusiasm, and it is largely down to his inspirational teaching and unstinting commitment that the project has flourished. In order to keep the Academy running, we need to produce a permanent stream of funding, so that we can preserve both the playing skills needed to control an historic mighty Wurlitzer, and also the separate skills required to maintain it. Since we began, hundreds of children have seen, heard and enjoyed the Wurlitzer organ. It is a continuing thrill for us to be able to inspire a great many young people to participate in the preservation of this piece of our musical, cultural and technological heritage. At the same time, if we can teach young people to both play and to understand the workings of the instrument, they can then share their new found skills with the community at large, through special events and open days, which will allow far more people to be aware of this important piece of our entertainment history.