What theatre had the first
"orchestra" playing for the movies in Atlanta
What theatre had the first
" organ" in an Atlanta
In truth its hard to say a
definitive answer to both of those questions because its going to depend on
what you are defining as an orchestra or an organ.
One thing that I quickly
found out was that many of the early theatre promoters would tend to embellish
their claims about the offerings that their theatre offered. If it actually seated 750 it was "close
to a thousand seats". If it cost $2500 then they would claim it cost
$5000.
It was always the
"finest in the South" "the Biggest Attraction this side of New York
So when a theatre owner
made a claim about something I usually try and see if there is some other
evidence that would verify or correct their claim
This is especially true of
their claims of an organ, or more specifically "a pipe organ"
Very early on the theatre
owners realized that they needed music to go with the films, or more correct
would be that music be played during the showing of the film. It did not matter
if the music went with the film action as long as there was some sort of sound.
This was fine in the beginning because the films many times did not have a story
to them, but as the movies became more organized in the telling of a story so
to did the music need to follow the story.
The piano was the most
logical choice to provide music, relatively cheap, and a wide variety of music
can be played on them.
As the theatres got larger
they needed more sound, usually a drummer was added to provide a percussive
quality to the music. Not only did they play
drums but also played xylophone, orchestral bells, and also provide sound
effects and occasionally some other musical instrument, such as a trumpet or clarinet.
Then they started adding
string instruments, and pretty soon there was a whole pit load of musicians
playing for these films. In addition to the musicians in the pit, you would
have soloist bellowing out some opera selections during the program.
This transition occurred
roughly around 1905 to 1911
So what does this all mean
for Atlanta
The first theatre to bring
all these elements together was the Alcazar Theatre, which opened April 21,
1909, located at 99 Peachtree across from the Piedmont Hotel.
The Alcazar had an organ,
piano, drummer, and other orchestral
effects, plus a variety of singers. Over the next couple of years more
musicians would be added.
I will say that one month
earlier, the Posey Theatre opened at 79-81
Peachtree Street
The Posey later became the
Savoy
When the Montgomery
Theatre opened on July 31, 1911, they claimed to have an organ, orchestra, and
singers.
Judging from a photograph
of the orchestra pit , there was an organ, piano, drums and music stands for
several other performers.
There was a little balcony
next to the screen that a soloist would come out on and perform.
The Alcazar did have an
organ but, according to an interview with George Hamrick, who was one of the
organist playing in the Atlanta theatres during the 20's said that the Alcazar
organ was a Mason and Hamlin Reed Organ of two manual and pedals. This is not a pipe organ but a very large
version of a "pump organ" Some of the larger ones even had dummy pipe
facades to make them look like a pipe organ.
The organ in the Montgomery
There is no record of what
kind of organ it is.
The Montgomery
After the Tudor closed in
the late 20's the building became the site of Zachery's Men's Store
The first confirmed record
of a real pipe organ in an Atlanta Whitehall Street
This organ was the same
type of organ you would find in any of the churches around town.
The first real theatre
style pipe organ was installed in the Rialto Theatre in late October of 1920.
This was Wurlitzer Opus 351, style 135, consisting of two manuals
and 4 ranks.
In December of 1920 the Howard Theatre
--© John Tanner 2015