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Milwaukee's Oriental Theatre to install 1925 Wurlitzer pipe organ

Posted at 2:14 PM, May 09, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-09 15:14:36-04

MILWAUKEE -- “Without a pipe organ, the Oriental Theatre has truly felt incomplete,” said CEO Jonathan Jackson. Now, the theatre will be complete.

According to the release, Milwaukee Film's Oriental Theatre has secured a 1925 Wurlitzer pipe organ.

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company built 2,243 pipe organs between 1910 and 1943.

The organ being installed at the Oriental Theatre is one of only about a dozen that remains in original condition, as built, with no changes or modifications.

Due to building restoration, the organ is expected to be installed before the end of 2020.

“This instrument reflects the confluence of technological innovations in pipe organs, an American thirst for cinema and an explosion of new movie palaces,” said Jackson.

“It’s a distinct era in cinema history, and it’s also the era when our theater was built.”