TUCSON, Ariz — The Fox Theater is working on a modern expansion but this weekend you can step back to watch a movie the way they did when movie palaces like the Fox were the home of silent films.
Giant pipe organs were the soundtrack for movies before they had a soundtrack. When the movies were silent, grand theaters like the Fox turned to organs like the mighty Wurlitzer, and organists like David Wickerham, to add life to the story and the characters in it.
Sometimes he feels the audience reaction and adjusts what he plays, as he plays it.
“It's almost like the spirit of the room is sort of playing you, it's actually driving where the music is headed," Wickerham said.
Wickerham was eight or nine when he heard his first theater organ. They’ve fascinated him ever since. He says there’s maybe three hundred theater organs left in the world, and maybe a dozen artists like him, who make a living bringing music out of an instrument with so many buttons, keys and pedals.
“It's probably just under 400 stops. I haven't had the exact count of them. That coupled with the keyboards, there's 61 notes per keyboard, there's 32 pedals for the bass, plus a whole bunch of other stuff. It's it's, it's kind of like walking and chewing gum and a lot more.”
On Sunday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. he’ll apply the power of the Wurlitzer to the 1925 silent film Phantom of the Opera.
At 3:30 that day he’ll play a Halloween concert.
Monday, at 10 a.m. he’ll play a concert for school children.
Wickerham says it can be a real workout to play something so complex through a full length movie.
“In a good kind of way. Like any kind of live performance, theater or good performance, whether it's scoring or playing a concert, gentle, gentle, generates natural endorphins, and so physically tired, but mentally wired.”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
