Theater organs far from lost causes

By Diana Nollen

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids' historic theater pipe organs were silenced by the floods of 2008, but not forever.

Both instruments, which debuted in 1928 in the Paramount Theatre and the Iowa Theatre Building, can again fill their downtown homes with the sound of music.

It will just take a while.

The Iowa's Rhinestone Barton is on the first leg of a journey expected to take until the end of March 2011. The console is being rebuilt in Reno, Nev., by Kenny Crome of Crome Organ Co.

The new structure will be based on the designs and techniques used in the 1920s, said Paul Montague, 62, of Swisher. He is treasurer of Cedar Rapids Barton Inc., the non-profit group that owns the organ in what is now known as Theatre Cedar Rapids.

Because all the inner workings were destroyed when submerged in floodwaters, the new shell will return to the orchestra pit with new inner and outer workings, including new keyboards and a new pedal board. That phase will take about seven months and cost $90,000, Montague said.

Covering the shell with fabric and the original type of glass glitter is expected to cost between $11,000 and $12,000.

 “Ajram Fabrics in Cedar Rapids has located a match for the original fabric,” Montague said. “Monroe Screen Printing in Cedar Rapids did a lot of research and will be able to duplicate the original glitter pattern silk-screened onto the fabric. Then Ajram's upholstery side will apply all of that cloth to the organ. It's going to look better than it has in 50 years. ... The original rhinestones will be used and we've found exact duplicates for the missing ones.”

Montague said it's important to understand that even though the floodwaters did ruin the consoles of both the Rhinestone Barton and the Paramount's Mighty Wurlitzer, that doesn't mean the demise of the instruments.

 “In the organ world, when you say ‘organ,' it doesn't mean the thing with the keyboards. It means the thing up there in the chambers with the pipes,” he said.

The chambers in both theaters are housed high above the floodwaters' reach. The solo chamber on the stage left side of Theatre Cedar Rapids has sustained residual moisture damage, Montague said, but that can be fixed. The solo chamber contains the sound effects and percussion instruments that were so vital when the organ provided the soundtrack for silent movies.

Jeff Weiler, 51, a 1981 Coe College graduate and pipe organ conservationist in Chicago, will do that restoration work. The project is expected to take a year and cost $138,000, Montague said.

FEMA funds will be used for the Barton's long-term restoration, Montague said, while a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities covered the cost of moving the instrument out of the theater and into storage, before its recent move to Nevada.

When all the work is finished, “we're going to have a big concert” to celebrate, he said.

Weiler also is working with OPN Architects Inc. in Cedar Rapids to provide a detailed survey of the Mighty Wurlitzer's existing condition “and chart a course forward” for the organ, beginning early next year. When Globe Midwest Risk Management hired him to assess the situation in the Paramount shortly after the flood, he was heartened to find no damage to the organ chambers.

“Certainly the organ can be restored,” he said. “The console can be replicated - it's the smallest part of the instrument.”

As an organ conservationist and someone who has played both instruments, he's especially thrilled by the local support to have them restored.

 “These instruments are real time machines,” he said. “Part of what we want to do is protect their voices so they speak to us in the same way that they spoke to us in 1928.”