Now a lot of Wurlitzers claim to be the mightiest because of lots of stops and ranks and toys but this one really might be the Mightiest as it has the highest WP of any Wurlitzer built: 50". When Gardena was not so built up, this organ had a listening radius of perhaps 5 miles. I am told that if you are closer than a few hundred feet, the sound was painfully loud.
The organ crawl took place after the traditional Labor Day remembrances at Roosevelt Memorial Park, in Gardena, California. Here are some observations:
The organ is remarkably complete except for one missing pipe. But the organ barely works. Only two or three ranks in only one of the chambers is all that will speak. We had to burp its massive 32' (true length) diaphones by hand. There are so many ciphers (electrical and mechanical) that you think you are listening to a bagpipe. The swell shutters do not work and we had to pry them open by hand to get some volume. The trems have to be activated by hand. There was a colossal air leak in the leather of the air regulator for the relay. The chimes that had worked up to this point were malfunctioning on this day. There were numerous wires that were broken behind the console and in the relay room. The reproducer mechanism's cables have been cut. There are still a few serviceable rolls of music for this reproducer.
So basically the organ is a sorry victim of benign neglect. If you look at it today, you'll swear no maintenance was done on it in 70 years. People have worked on it though, but only as volunteers and only sporadically. The organ died completely in the 50's and was revived by hobbyists and then played through the 60's. By 1983 only 10 ranks were playing. But that was enough to sustain some popular Easter sunrise services. Now only three ranks speak. Barely.
The current curator, Kyle, has releathered a chest or two and has volunteered his time to make the most critical repairs but unfortunately this is a job that requires a large crew of volunteers plus thousands of dollars in materials.
I certainly hope that this organ can be restored before it becomes just a memory. It really needs a new digital relay and many of its chests to be releathered. A massive amount of cleaning is needed too. Also the building probably should get some seismic retrofitting so it doesn't fall on this wonderful gem in the rough.
Mike Friese