The Louis E. Plummer Wurlitzer Pipe Organ

It was 1929. The stock market had crashed, launching the United States into the depression of the 1930's. The technology of photographically recording a sound track along side with the photographic frames of the motion picture had been introduced, ending the necessity of the motion picture theater pipe organ. A pipe organ for a motion picture theater in Fullerton, California, had been ordered from The Louis E. Plummer Wurlitzer Pipe Organ Company, but was thereafter cancelled before shipment. The wealthy landowning Chapman family of Orange County had a 1,300-seat auditorum built that they donated to the Fullerton High School District. A "concert" pipe organ was planned for inclusion in this auditorium, so The Louis E. Plummer Wurlitzer Pipe Organ Co. was contacted. Consequently, the organ that had been ordered for the motion picture theater was reconfigured, according to the influence of someone in the music department of the high school, then delivered and installed in the auditorium, which is now Plummer Auditorium (photo) on the Fullerton High School campus.

In 1930, the same year that the auditorium was dedicated, the debut performance of the organ was accomplished by Dr. Alexander Schreiner, the famous organist of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was considered to be the best in Los Angeles at that time, and was the chief organist at the Metropolitan Theater in Los Angeles in 1927. Dr. Schreiner was an accomplished theater organist but, as was typical of theater organists, he chose to play classics for this performance, such as the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach and Largo by Handel.

The organ then had four 61-note keyboards, a 32-note pedalboard, 150 stopkeys, four swell pedals, one crescendo pedal, 28 ranks of pipes, a chrysoglott and a set of chimes. The pipes and percussion instruments were located in three chambers. Each pipe and instrument hammer was controlled by an individual magnet, so there was, as a result, a need for an elaborate switching system (called a "relay").

To our knowledge, The Louis E. Plummer Wurlitzer Pipe Organ had the only remaining example of a "remote capture action" built by Wurlitzer. The concept was that the organist could quickly and easily modify exactly which stops were changed in response to pressing a piston while sitting at the organ. All other Wurlitzer combination actions could not "capture"; i.e., the selected stops had to be programmed by means of setting a series of small switches located inside the back of the console. This style is called a "setterboard" action.

It is not known whether the Plummer remote capture action action ever was fully operational. It was realized, however, that it was extremely rare, and so it was carefully disassembled and shipped to Barrington, Illinois, where it will be displayed in a music museum being constructed by Jasper Sanfilippo (owner of the largest theater pipe organ in the world).

The original organization and the limited number of stopkeys on the console made it difficult for the organist to play a broad range of literature. But it nevertheless basically was a very good quality instrument with some very nice theater ranks of pipes along with some ultra-soft "classic" ranks. Because of the limitations, the organ was rarely used and then played only for such events as commencements, an occasional concert, and organ classes offered by the high school and the community college which was, and still is, located just across the street. Mr. Ed Bridgeford, the present "official" photographer of the Orange County Theatre Organ Society (OCTOS), was enrolled in one of these classes. Some of Mr. Bridgeford's photographs appear on this Website.

When Plummer Auditorum was used by the Fullerton Light Opera Association for stage presentations, live orchestras were employed rather than the pipe organ, which still is the arrangement to this day. Since the French-style console was located at the left end of the orchestra pit and featured French caps which extended above the stage level, they caused an unnamed member of the school board to bitterly complain that they obstructed her sight-line of the stage, so they were unceremoniously sawed off and replaced with 1/4" plywood and a new top. (Oh my!! A real butcher job!) Even the corbels, the scrollwork located beneath, and to the left and right of, the manuals, were butchered; the corbels having since been replaced.

The organ has fortunately, all this time, been kept under lock and key to prevent vandalism and from being raided by "midnight" organ supply companies.