On Oct 14, 2004 ‘melders’ wrote: ‘The organ at the Fox is known as the “Crawford Special” not the “Fox Special”.’ Sorry to say this is totally incorrect, as verified by an interview with Jesse Crawford himself who denies designing the organ, but admits suggesting the inclusion of several of the ranks. This ‘urban legend’ of the Fox organs being ‘Crawford Specials’ no doubt comes from the fame Jesse acquired from playing the prototype of the Fox model at the New York Paramount. Jesse Crawford did not design the WurliTzer 4/36 models any more than B.B. King designed his famous guitar ‘Lucille’. In both cases the musicians made the instrument famous. Mr. Crawford DID design the Publix I, a four manual 20 rank organ of which a significantly larger number were built for the Publix chain of theaters. These were a far more ‘cost conscious’ design, but were magnificant instruments in their own right, despite the fact that none of them originally contained a Posthorn rank.
I visited the Milwaukee Theater in the very early 1960’s when, as an overly optomistic youth of 16, I had intentions of purchasing the organ and installing it in either my home or the auditorium of my high school. The organ would ‘start up’ but in no way could it be deemed playable. The console was obviously Barton, but I had no idea that it also had WurliTzer components in it. The specification appeared to be fairly stock Barton (at least from what I knew as a 16 year old). Does anyone know what portions of the instrument were WurliTzer?
On Oct 14, 2004 ‘melders’ wrote: ‘The organ at the Fox is known as the “Crawford Special” not the “Fox Special”.’ Sorry to say this is totally incorrect, as verified by an interview with Jesse Crawford himself who denies designing the organ, but admits suggesting the inclusion of several of the ranks. This ‘urban legend’ of the Fox organs being ‘Crawford Specials’ no doubt comes from the fame Jesse acquired from playing the prototype of the Fox model at the New York Paramount. Jesse Crawford did not design the WurliTzer 4/36 models any more than B.B. King designed his famous guitar ‘Lucille’. In both cases the musicians made the instrument famous. Mr. Crawford DID design the Publix I, a four manual 20 rank organ of which a significantly larger number were built for the Publix chain of theaters. These were a far more ‘cost conscious’ design, but were magnificant instruments in their own right, despite the fact that none of them originally contained a Posthorn rank.
LES KNOLL
I visited the Milwaukee Theater in the very early 1960’s when, as an overly optomistic youth of 16, I had intentions of purchasing the organ and installing it in either my home or the auditorium of my high school. The organ would ‘start up’ but in no way could it be deemed playable. The console was obviously Barton, but I had no idea that it also had WurliTzer components in it. The specification appeared to be fairly stock Barton (at least from what I knew as a 16 year old). Does anyone know what portions of the instrument were WurliTzer?