The Theatre Organ Murders

By Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Travel back in time to the early days of vaudeville, nickelodeons, movies, theatre organs and stars. Theatre Row on Dallas Elm Street is bustling and alive with beautiful theatres, crowds of enthusiastic patrons and movies, movies and more movies. But there is something murderously mysterious going on at the fabulous Rivertree Theatre. A cast of villains and other characters fill the pages of this intriguing saga, along with more startling stories of the many theatres that were along the fabulous Elm Street Theatre Row and the theatre organs that were in them. Shocking events and incredible performances await the reader on this journey through seven decades of Dallas entertainment history. Brilliant imagery fills each chapter. Extra features include a history of the theatre organ, an updated list of the theatre organs that were in Dallas, and a detailed list of all of the theatres that were along Elm Streets Theatre Row during 70 years of Dallas entertainment history. Special treats are the complete specifications and history of the famous Palace Publix Theatre Organ, its final resting place and many other exciting details of those unforgettable times and places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 12, 2008
• ISBN: 9781465324924

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has written several books, articles, features and other material. Jeanette is known as The Tomato Lady because of her lifelong association with gardening, growing, researching and writing about tomatoes and other gardening facts. In addition to articles in several publications, she has written “The Lakewood StarWalk”, “Lakewood – Memoirs and Spirit”, :”Street of Dreams, A History of Dallas’ Theatre Row” and most recently “Tales of Jewels and Precious Metals”.: “The Theatre Organ Murders” is a wickedly delightful tale set along Elm Street’s fabulous Theatre Row in Dallas during the heyday of theatre organs, gorgeous movie theatre palaces and the many colorful characters associated with them.

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Copyright © 2008 by Jeanette Howeth Crumpler.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

FOREWORD

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A BONUS CHAPTER

LIST OF THEATRES ON ELM,

MAIN & OTHER DOWNTOWN STREETS, DALLAS, TEXAS

PALACE THEATRE AND

ORGAN HISTORY

UPDATED OPUS LIST FOR

THEATRE ORGANS THAT WERE IN DALLAS, TEXAS

QUOTES WORTH QUOTING

ON OBSESSION

IS THE THEATRE ORGAN

DYING OR DEAD?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Photo on the cover is of Dapper Dan Ronk playing the famous Publix #1 Wurlitzer Rivertree Theatre Organ courtesy of the Right Reverend Will E. Hookem

Dedicated to:

Theatre organ enthusiasts of all ages everywhere, but especially to Don Reasons, Entertainer and his noble efforts on behalf of promoting theatre organs, organs and music in general, to Rodney Yarbrough, whose mind is an absolute treasury of theatre organ and movie theatre knowledge, to Weldon Flanagan, the Premier Organist of the Southwest, to Mary Flanagan, an artist in her own right, and to Jeff Weiler, Organist, Editor of the Theatre Organ Journal, and Writer Extraordinaire of The Wurlitzer Company book and to those inimitable representations of what theatre organs are all about, George Montalba and the Rev. Will E. Hookem.

INTRODUCTION

I used to tell people that I was born at a very early age, at home because I wanted to be close to my mother. I must now admit that was a tale. I was really born on a John Deere Combine out in the field. At that time, my folks owned a small farm. My Dad always liked variety so we had a soybean, rye, barley and dairy farm. Since my Mom never was known for being lazy, she would often put on her bikini in the Summer and drive one of the tractors or the new John Deere Combine.

On this bright, sunny day, Dad left to go check on the cows while Mom was just combining away on that big machine, maneuvering it like she knew what she was doing. At that time, she was very great with child. Actually, she was very great with me. But that little problem never got in her way of running that combine up one row and down the other, harvesting whatever was growing in that field along with an occasional mouse or squirrel for a little flavor. Even though she pushed the steering wheel up as far as it will go, it still rubbed against her puffy belly enough to leave a black mark through her overalls.

Anyway, Mom was just cruising along when she hit that bump and her water broke. She knew what was coming but Dad was still away. So she put that combine in high gear and headed over to the side of the field where Dad has just driven up with Auntie Bootsy. Now I was never sure which of my parents were related to Auntie Bootsy. But she was the local midwife who delivered most of the babies. Mom already knew that the baby was on its way. So as soon as she got to the end of the field, she propped up her feet on that steering wheel, just like she would have done in a hospital. Auntie Bootsy opened the trap door of those overalls just in time. About ten seconds later, out popped little ole me… Will E. Hookem. That was a day of rejoicing for all. And I will always have my one eyebrow to remember the situation, and the steering wheel to prove the story is true. With all of her experience, Auntie Bootsy was a bit hard-headed. She told my Mother that she could not let my Mom hold the baby for thirty days. When my Mom heard that, she loudly proclaimed: I carried that baby for twelve months and nobody is going to tell me I can’t hold it on the day it was born!

Now how, you might ask, does any of this fit in with THE THEATRE ORGAN MURDERS?

Well, I will tell ya. When I was a little kid, my dear ole Dad would sit for hours and cut out the pictures in the Sears and Roebuck Catalog and paste them onto the back of Rook playing cards. Then he would flip the cards and show us his vintage motion picture made from the Sears & Roebuck Catalog. Sure it was crude, but we enjoyed the show, as bad as it was. Finally after one three-day cutout marathon, Mom discovered the holes in her wish-book and came to the conclusion that my Dad was the culprit. When he came in from nursing the cows that night, Mom told him she was gonna murder him if she ever found another hole in her Sears & Roebuck catalog.

The tension was mounting in our home, although we knew it was just a play fight. Still, we had to find a new source for our entertainment. So we drove down the road six miles to the Wintergarden Theatre in the next town. They named the theatre Wintergarden after the okra processing plant in town where almost all the white folks worked. Movies at the time were only seventy-five cents. I was told the high price was required because the theatre was air cooled as opposed to some other way of cooling.

One Saturday afternoon at the Wintergarden Theatre, this strange lady with a red hat was out front, asking questions of everyone, almost as if she was interviewing us. Little did I know what she was doing. As it turned out, she was a published author on the Internet. We thought that was a bit strange since Al Gore had not yet even invented the Internet. But that’s what she told us, she was a published author on the Internet. Since we were farm folk, we didn’t know the difference. We found out later that the strange lady with the red hat was writing a book and needed some local color. She really WAS a published author on the Internet.

A few decades down the road, we heard about this new book about the Theatre Organ Murders. Since we had a Conn theatre organ at church, I thought it might have a story about the Methodist preacher who ran off with the wife of one of the choir members and the choir member chased the two lovers through the sanctuary with a long pole from a banner that said Light Of The World. Another idea was the book might be the story of the Baptist preacher who misappropriated eighty-five thousand dollars from the church bank accounts because of his wife’s drug habit. I think some of his deacons tried to murder him after that little episode of ask and ye shall receive.

But no, this little book contains even more twisted situations and stories which are, I suppose, all based on the naked truth, on plain talk, and on the actual state of the matter even when they happened in another state. As they always say, truth is stranger than fiction and usually funnier. When you finish this book, you, too, will realize the obvious and accepted facts in the words of Abraham Lincoln who was fond of finding a press-conference and saying so many rhetoric filled platitudes like Don’t touch that! or You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time and usually, that is sufficient. This book kinda does that.

Signed,

Rev. Will E. Hookem

2007

FOREWORD

Warning. Don’t take offense. Read with a sense of humor. Think about it. Loosen up. Don’t let your halo be on too tight. Don’t draw any hasty conclusions. These are cautions you might observe before going any further. That is, if anyone ever reads a Foreword.

Personally I had only a slight interest in theatre organs when my Father told me years ago how enjoyable it had been hearing the lovely music of the theatre organs in theatres. He often said, If you ever hear one, you’ll never forget it. There was just something about it. And when it is played in a theatre the way it was meant to, it will never leave you.

The theatre organs were long gone when I was growing up in Wichita Falls, but when I moved to Dallas in 1948, there were still a few around. Most were not playing though.

I was privileged that same year to hear and see Weldon Flanagan at the lovely Palace Theatre Wurlitzer here in Dallas, Texas. I almost cried myself when I heard it that first time. Many times during the late 1940s, 1950s and on into the 1960s I heard and saw Weldon at the Publix #1 Opus 2125, 4/20 Wurlitzer playing before hundreds of people each week. Wow, what memories! There was absolutely nothing like going into that gorgeous theatre; 3,000 seats filled to bursting and seeing that magnificent console rising up. Weldon completely entranced all of us with his playing and his personality. He was a true crowd pleaser who knew how to show off the organ at its best. His tireless efforts of more than 20 years there were dedicated to preserving that organ and presenting its music to new audiences that perhaps had never seen and heard a theatre organ before. He was awarded the organ when the Palace Theatre was to be torn down. Fortunately parts of the organ are in another restored theatre and organ in California, and the console is now owned by an individual who is a great theatre organ enthusiast.

In 1999 when I was writing a book called The Lakewood StarWalk, As Seen Through the Eyes of D.O.T., in addition to writing the history of the Lakewood Shopping Center, the Lakewood theatre and the other buildings in the center, I wanted to write about the Robert-Morton theatre organ that was in the theatre. It was fun tracing its origin, learning it had been manufactured in Van Nuys, California in 1927. This 3/8 (three keyboards, 8 ranks of pipes) organ was originally installed in 1928 in the Old Mill Theatre (which had been built in 1913) at 1525-29 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas. The organ was called The Organ with an Imagination. The ads of that period also stated that Grown men cry when it is played. After a fire in 1934, it was stored under the stage. The theatre re-opened in December of 1935 as The Rialto, but the organ was not used again and the pipe chambers were closed. In 1958, a rescuer finally got all of the organ, the pipes and equipment, all of which were undamaged and took it to Austin, Texas. After more journeys, including being used for some years in a funeral home, Thurlow-Weed, in Austin, it was purchased by a man in Victoria, Texas then bought by a Dallas resident who kept it in storage for 20 or more years before it was installed in the Lakewood Theatre in 1984. Unfortunately, it is no longer there.

As I met more people involved with the theatre organ, it was certainly interesting and at times painful to observe the effects of what seemed to many to be an obsession gone wild. Scoundrels did indeed abound, but there were a few decent folks too. Having been a community activist and conservationist, I was impressed with how at least the common ground was to preserve the theatre organ or to quote the American Theatre Organ Society’s statement: The American Theatre Organ Society, a six thousand member international group, all dedicated to the preservation of the American Theatre Pipe Organ and its music, which was considered to be a uniquely American institution like jazz. A noble statement and one that is still looked to as a standard pertaining to the preservation part. Unfortunately, there have been disruptions as to conduct. Among other things, in addition to writing about the Lakewood Theatre and its organ frequently, I was a publicist for entertainers connected with the theatre and the organ and freely publicized several events at the Lakewood Theatre for some years including the theatre organ performances. There were mostly successes and a few failures, but all of the hundreds of people that came just wanted to hear and see the organ. Sad to reflect that at that time, it was one of only two playing in a theatre in Texas. Again with its removal, another theatre organ has more or less bitten the dust due to the neglect, abuse and misrepresentation of others. Shame on them.

I used to get at least 60 to 100 calls after any kind of theatre organ event at the Lakewood and all wanted to know When is the next one? Now I get maybe one or two calls a year wanting to know what on earth happened. I don’t regret any of that time except the lost opportunity of having a theatre organ actually playing in a theatre here in Dallas, nor do I regret the writing of this book. It gave me some insight into the minds of those so dedicated and it certainly gave me an education on what can happen when obsessions of any kind get out of control. Maybe it will do the same for you. This book reflects the good and bad of that kind of thing.

Enjoy.

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Dallas, Texas 2007

Psalm 150:4

For my project, I made a pencil taped to a pen. In this way, we see the duality of writing devices that occur in nature.

Eric Cartman of Southpark

CHAPTER ONE

The History of the Theatre Organ

We know what murders are.

But what on earth is a theatre organ? To be accurate, the proper name is the term Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra. That term will eventually be changed to Wurlitzer-Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra, Theatre Pipe Organ and possibly other names, depending on who built them.

As far as is recorded, the organ’s origin supposedly goes back in time to the third century BC in Egypt when a man named Ktesbios placed reed pipes together and blew or forced air through them. Then by the first century a somewhat larger instrument was produced. But it was in 67 AD during Nero’s reign, that an instrument called the Hydraulis was produced. This was a water-driven instrument with one set of pipes on top, two bellows in the back for pumpers and a keyboard of sorts on the front. It has been said the sound was much like a calliope. The pumpers stood in back of it and using bellows continually forced air into a bell-shaped container which was immersed in a basin of water. When the keys were played, the water pushed the air up into the bell and out of the pipes. There is a picture of the instrument sitting in an alcove that helped propel the sound toward the audience. No bench was mentioned but it was there to be sure. Wonder what the sound was really like?

Over the years the Emperor Constantine was intrigued by the organ which by several hundred years later it had become a more successful instrument. He had it covered with gold and jewels and used it for his personal church services. At first the church fathers did not like music at all in their churches. Too pagan, too much like the pipes of Pan, they said. But again the people loved organ music. The organ design evolved from these past instruments became varied and was continually improved upon and marvelous tonal qualities emerged. With the church’s sanction, the organ became connected with religion. People loved playing them and people loved listening to the music produced by them. By the 15th century amazing organs were being built and more intricate systems including the reed organs came about.

The basic requirement was a wind supply pulsing through regulators then into wind chests, up through pipes and set by the stop keys as well as the keyboard when it was played. Then there were wooden cases made that contained and gave more resonance to the sounds, and the consoles evolved into imaginative and appealing designs. The Industrial Revolution was the deciding factor in producing enough power to completely change how wind assists organs. The pipes themselves ranged in size from small pencil size to huge ones up to 32 feet and even a rare few up to 64 feet. Imagine ranks of pipes, numbering 70 or more in each chest, with massive blowers pushing wind through to a reservoir then to a regulator which in turn allowed the air into the pipes, and out comes the music, depending on what keys are pressed on the console which was another miracle.

When the words pipe organ are used, the human mind usually pictures an enormous colorful console, but the pipe chambers are the real heart of the organ and are the real music producers. The console is much like a computer of today in that when certain keys and stops are set and played, certain tasks within the chambers result in sounds, glorious sounds, at least if the right person is doing it. For several hundred years, organs evolved from rather simple instruments into intricate, huge overpowering conglomerations that dominated whatever surroundings in which they