|
Carl Greer Inn - 4/16 Robert Morton
Sacramento, California
Back to the Music Hall Theatre main page
The following is an edited version of an article appearing in Bombarde magazine,
December 1964.
Carl Greer, a Michigan manufacturer and late of Phoenix, Arizona, selected the lot on Fulton Avenue in Sacramento as the site for his long-planned motel. Having seen other successful organ-eateries in Phoenix, Carl was intrested in pursuing this idea for the restaurant of his new motel.
|
Looking for a suitable instrument to install, Carl and organist Clyde Derby made tracks Seattleward and examined the 16 rank Robert Morton in the Music Hall theatre that was for sale. It was in playing condition thanks to Washington enthusiasts. Liking what they heard, Greer put an option on it. That was in May, 1962. |
Clyde Derby |
Months passed and Greer heard no more. He assumed the plan had fallen through. Exactly one year later Greer was notfied that his bid had been accepted.
There was consternation among Seattle enthusiasts when the news got around that the organ had been sold. Organist Dick Schrum, who normally holds down the electronic at the Plaid Piper restaurant hired the theatre for one last bash. The organ was removed by the same Seattle firm which had installed the organ when the house opened in 1929, Balcom and Vaughan. Sandy Balcom knew the instrument very well; he serviced it for the most of its and his life. Sandy removed it and crated the disassembled parts with the same loving care with which he had installed it so many years ago. That was during the Spring of 1964.
Back in Sacramento the lot on Fulton Avenue showed signs of activity. The motel building had been started and about half completed by the first of the year. Greer and Derby liked to show visitors the preparation for the organ, best described as a hole in the ground. Yes, the chambers are underground. The cellar chamber space is 40' x 26' and 17' deep. Sound is conducted up into the eating and guzzling area by what Clyde describes as a 'plenum" a fancy name for a sound conducting chute such as that which conducts the sound from the very remote New York Radio City Music Hall organ chambers to the auditorium.
The organ was installed in 1964 by Balcom & Vaughan employees Dan Adamson, Don Myers and Wayne Puckett.
Console as installed in the Carl Greer Inn
The new home was missing two features of the theatre installation, the console elevator and the rotater console. Around the console was a two-level organ bar complete with periscope so the guzzlers could look down into the chambers and see the pipes actually tooting and the drums thumping.
Quoting organist Clyde Derby shortly after the install: "... that real nasty Posthorn comes through as devastatingly as it did in the theatre. The strings are particularly beautiful and the Kinura real squawky. And there's a real fire siren in the toy counter dept."
Various chamber views of the Carl Greer Inn installation
|
The organ was installed in chambers of reinforced concrete, 40 foot square and 16 feet
high, divided in the middle and located underground below the console. Sound was conducted
through ducts to the shades which were located about 20 feet from the rear of the console
facing the organist. |
Chamber "pit" during construction |
Carl Greer Inn organist Clyde Derby
Seattle's Dan Adamson at the console during installation
Visiting organist Tony Fenelon, c.1969
|
