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Six Flags Over Texas Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ
By Mike Mills

Hi Jerry,

You are thinking of roll 13294 manufactured by the T.R.T. manufacturing
company and arranged by Ralph Tussing. This roll was released August 3,
1955 according to Matthew Caulfield's website: http://wurlitzer-rolls.com/ 

The rolls were 6 tunes, continuing the business practice Wurlitzer had
diverted to in 1933, keeping the length of a 10 tune roll by repeating
up to 8 or so times. Back when 10 tune rolls were the norm, the songs
were of normal length.

But to the topic of the organ:

Six Flags, the company as a whole has a virtually non-existent record
of maintaining or even getting their band organs to play - so it's a
surprise to me that there was a time "Over Texas" had a working band
organ, although I did previously know about it being at the park. (But
never knew it played for that long.)

The organ almost certainly came with the carousel from Rockaway Playland,
although it is possible that they purchased it separately. The carousel
was manufactured sometime between 1925 and 1926, so the organ is likely
the same age knowing many Dentzels came with 153s.

I'm not quite sure when the organ was used, but I do know it was not
playing by the carousel's restoration in 1985 as the facade was simply
on the ride, not that I've seen it in person, but there's a few pictures
from just before the restoration. Also, the organ was not restored at
that time, the carousel today playing canned music... Like every other
Six Flags park. 

I could guess that the organ played sometime into the 1970's, knowing
the park opened in 1961, but I couldn't tell you for sure as from an
old email with someone who worked with the park, SODA was poured down
the pipes into the organ by either a disgruntled employee or unhappy
guest! Of course, this story could be fabricated, and I really hope it
was! The guy also told me that in the workshop, there's only 3 pipes
left in the organ, which is hard to believe, but I honestly don't know
as that's virtually all the info I know about that organ.

Perhaps you can shed some light on the organ itself as I would really
like to know what happened to it, and if it is in restorable condition
today?

Mikey Mills



(Message sent Fri, 9 Jan 2015 21:27:18 +0000 (UTC) , from time zone +0000.)

Key Words in Subject:  153, Band, Flags, Organ, Over, Six, Texas, Wurlitzer

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