Tucked inside Brecksville man’s home is a rare Wurlitzer organ that once entertained thousands
Only 200-250 Wurlitzer organs are estimated to still exist, down from 7,000 at the end of the silent film era
BRECKSVILLE, OH (WOIO) - Harold Wright bought his Brecksville home knowing he wanted it to be a musical space.
“When I bought the house, it was with the intention of installing something,” Wright said.
That something was a Wurlitzer organ, an instrument once dedicated to entertaining thousands during the silent film era at the Strand Theater in Akron.
Wright purchased the organ with his late partner. He cleaned, rebuilt and installed the organ in his home, including the hundreds of pipes in his basement. Two vents have been cut in the living room floor to let the sound float upstairs.
The windows in the front of the home had to be removed to get the theater organ in the house.
“It brings tears to my eye, because it is so pretty,” Wright said about the organ.
One problem, Wright does not play the organ.
Enter 30-year-old Donnie Rankin stage right.
Rankin was first exposed to the theater organ when he was three at the Akron Civic Theater. He has been playing the organ since he was 12.
It is estimated that only 200 to 250 of the Wurlitzer organs are still intact, down from 7,000 across America during its heyday from 1915 to the 1930s.
“I wondered how one person could make all that sound,” Rankin said.
The “one man band” was built to replace the orchestra.
“It kind of takes me back to a place I never was,” Rankin said. “When I get the opportunity to play here, it’s incredibly therapeutic.”
The historic theater organ found a home with Wright, found a fan with Rankin and although the crowds that gather to listen are much smaller, she continues to entertain 90 years after the end of the Hollywood silent film era.
(To name that tune, watch the video below)
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