The Alabama Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ is back in Birmingham and is ready to rock.
The beloved instrument, affectionately known as “Big Bertha,” was reinstalled in the downtown theater on Tuesday, Oct. 22, after eight months away for repairs and maintenance. The elaborately decorated console of the Mighty Wurlitzer — that is, the part the audience sees, with the keyboards and pedals — left the building on Feb. 18 and headed to the A.E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Co. in Lithonia, Georgia.
“I was not worried at all,” said Gary W. Jones, house organist for the Alabama Theatre. “I was very excited for this because I knew what the end result was going to be. I knew that it was going to make my job of playing so much better and so much easier.
“Now, that being said, I was a little nervous when the Schlueter Pipe Organ people arrived and they were taking her out of the building,” Jones added. “But it literally took me about three minutes to figure out that this team knew what they were doing. They had done this before. They were very respectful and very careful. After about three minutes, I was like, ‘Hey, let’s go get coffee.’ I stayed out of the way, let them do their job, because they were consummate professionals. We were very, very lucky to have that team involved.”
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The ornate console of the Alabama Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ returned to Birmingham on Oct. 22, 2024, after an eight-month repair stint in Georgia.(Courtesy of Gary W. Jones)
Maintenance on the vintage instrument is painstaking and persnickety, as you might expect, and the theater has been raising money for an Organ Console Renovation Project, hoping to reach a goal of $160,000 and posting information for prospective donors via its website. The Alabama Theatre is owned by Birmingham Landmarks Inc., a nonprofit that also owns the nearby Lyric Theatre.
There was a specific timetable to consider, as well. Organizers at the Alabama had promised that Big Bertha would be back in action for an Oct. 27 screening of the 1925 silent film version of “The Phantom of the Opera.” And sure enough, Tom Helms is set to play the organ on Sunday, showcasing a score he composed for the classic horror movie. (More on the ‘Phantom’ screening here.)
“Everything is fine. Everything is working,” Jones told AL.com this week. “We’re very confident at this point.”
He was the first official organist to play Big Bertha upon its return, making sure the repairs were successful and nothing had been damaged in transit. The last few days have been busy ones at the theater, Jones said, as he and the organ’s crew chief, theater volunteer Larry Donaldson, got Big Bertha settled and worked out a few kinks.
“When you do any kind of project like this — with something that I like to refer to as mechanical mayhem to begin with — there’s always going to be something we didn’t anticipate,” Jones said. “A few people said, ‘Oh, you know, you’ll roll her back in, plug her in, and off you go.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s not the real world.’”
The console of the Alabama Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ returned to Birmingham on Oct. 22, 2024, after an eight-month repair stint in Georgia. Theater volunteer Larry Donaldson is at left.(Courtesy of Glenny Brock)
The organ’s console, although extremely important, actually is just one part of the Mighty Wurlitzer, which also has three chambers tucked into the theater’s innards. Those chambers hold pipes of various sizes that provide specific sounds — violins, tubas, oboes, sleigh bells, bird whistles and much more — and actual instruments, such as a piano keyboard, drums, cymbals and a xylophone, that play when triggered by an organist.
The chambers are cramped, asymmetrical spaces at the theater that most folks will never see, accessible only by climbing narrow ladders, maneuvering in tight crevices and walking on wooden planks over sheer drops.
READ: Longtime volunteer’s wizardly ways keep Alabama Theatre (and its Mighty Wurlitzer) running smooth
Big Bertha’s console, on the other hand, is very familiar to theatergoers who’ve watched the majestic pipe organ slowly emerge from its hiding place beneath the stage, with musicians such as Jones at the keyboards.
“The most thrilling ride that you will ever take is to ride that thing up while you’re playing,” Jones said. “And it is, of course, the best seat in the house once you reach the top, because you are in control of such a very powerful instrument. Then you turn around and there are 2,000 people looking at you. So you are now the ears, the eyes, the connect that folks have with the Alabama.”
Jones made sure to give Big Bertha a public test run this weekend, taking his seat at the organ for a sing-along on Friday at the Alabama, as a prelude to that night’s screening of “Hocus Pocus.” He’s been the house organist since 2009, and said performing on the historic instrument never gets old.
“It’s exciting, adrenaline,” Jones said. “You’re captivating a group of people. You’ve got folks that have heard that organ a hundred times, and they’re going to be listening for everything that you do. And you’ve got folks that have never heard that organ. This is their first time, their first exposure. You always want that experience to be equally as good, so I’m always very mindful. When people leave, I better have done my job, and I better have done a good job.”
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Gary Jones continues a storied tradition of organists who have performed on the Mighty Wurlitzer since the Alabama Theatre opened in 1927. (Photo by Butch Oglesby/Blue Moon Studios)
The Wurlitzer organ (technically known as the Wurlitzer Opus 1783, Style Publix 1) was built in 1927 and has been a key element at the Alabama Theatre for nearly a century. The theater opened on Dec. 25, 1927, and the Mighty Wurlitzer was a dazzling part of the show.
“I don’t mean to take away from the beauty of the architecture of the Alabama Theater, because it is a stunning building,” Jones said. “But the one thing that makes the Alabama so unique and so memorable is the organ. When that big red and gold and black console comes up out of the pit, you are changed. It is very emotional. You know, it is a living, breathing instrument. And it connects with the human soul because there is a presence there. So not only visually do you have that console, which is what the public sees. But hearing that living, breathing instrument is just a mind-boggling experience. It’s the most talked-about feature and fixture of the theater.”
In case you’re wondering, three things were important to the organ’s recent repairs: “New SAM (stop-action magnet) assemblies, refurbished stop tab rails, and reconfigured stop tabs — all the things that make the organ work,” according to February social media posts from the theater.
And this won’t be the only time the Mighty Wurlitzer leaves the building for refurbishments. According to Jones, the organ is scheduled for “a cosmetic repaint, the pretty stuff” in the next few years. That’s likely to happen out of town, as well.
“As a highly complex, living and breathing machine, Bertha is always in need of routine and regular maintenance,” Jones said. “Every few decades, major maintenance and upgrades are needed to keep her in tip-top shape. Our last major overhaul was the summer of 1998, so she was due.”
