2/10 CHRISTIE UNIT ORCHESTRA

2/10 Christie - Opus 2743

History

Gordon is an upper North Shore suburb of Sydney. The Gordon theatre was built on the site of a former timber & fibro structure, Empire Pictures, that operated from 1919 to 1923. My great-uncle (Alfred Blackmore) was a director of Gordon Theatres Limited, and his wife cut a ribbon joining the stage curtains at the opening ceremony on 24th April, 1924. The building provided seating for 1362 and was used for various forms of live entertainment as well as films. By 1928 poor patronage forced a sale to Percival Garling (a later founder of Butler Air Transport) and the theatre was managed by his son Rus Garling. At a cost of 7800 pounds the management acquired the new 2 manual 8 ranks Christie theatre organ. This organ had originally been ordered for the Lyceum theatre, Sydney, but there had been a delay in its installation. The rear wall of the theatre was removed and two chambers, 2m deep, were added at about 2m above stage level. The console (a “D2” model) was located directly in front of the stage, on a platform at floor level in the centre of the sunken orchestra pit. This organ is numbered 84 in the order books of the Australian division of the English organ-building firm Hill, Norman and Beard.

The opening of the organ took place on Monday 14th October 1929 with local organ identity Idwal Jenkins at the console. Idwal remained until February 1931 when he went to the Christie organ in the Plaza theatre, Sydney. He was replaced by Valda Kersey. Horace Weber made guest appearances. The theatre in 1934 was leased to the Kings chain of suburban cinemas, and new art-deco adornment of the auditorium was undertaken. It was a condition of the lease that there be a weekly organ performance of at least 25 minutes. Valda Kersey remained in residence through WWII, until Lance Wells took over in 1945. Muriel Jeavons (from 1946), Percy Burraston, Owen Holland, Reubert Hayes, Gunnar Paulson, and Cecil Cranfield also performed at Kings, Gordon. In February 1944 the theatre’s lease was transferred to Austral American Productions although the Kings name remained. By 1948 ownership passed from Garlings to Oscar Shaft and in 1956 to M.R.A. Pacey. By 1956 the organ had remained silent for some years, and CinemaScope was then installed, covering the former orchestra pit and Christie console. The organ had been brought out and revived for about 6 months from July 1955. The final organist was Ray Myers. It had badly deteriorated and in 1958 was sold to St. Columbs Anglican Church, West Ryde there to be installed by parishioners in the multi-purpose hall that preceded the building of a new church. Two chambers were provided high up in the rear wall, and the largely intact organ sounded well as a theatre organ when played as such. Its use declined after the new church was built and it was bought in 1992 by the proprietor of the Service City Mechanical Instruments Museum at Alexandria. In the following year he offered it for sale to the Theatre Organ Society of Australia (NSW Division) and it remained in storage until 2012.

Over the past 12 years, the organ has undergone meticulous restoration by a dedicated group of volunteers from TOSA, lead by Robert Gliddon and John Weismantel. The organ has been enlarged, with the addition of an Orchestral Oboe and upright piano (both originally from the Christie Cinema Organ of the Roxy Theatre, Parramatta) and a Wurlitzer reproduction Krumet. The precussion and traps have also been greatly added to, with amongst other things a Kimball Celesta, Ken Crome Symphonic Roll Cymbal, and even a set of tuned bird whistles!