Rye Wurlitzer Academy - Richard Moore & Michael Wooldridge

Richard Moore and Michael Wooldrige came to talk to the club about the “Rye Wurlitzer”.

The “Rye Wurlitzer” organ was built in North Tonawanda, USA in 1925. It was given the unique Opus Number -999 and was transported to it’s home in England - The Palace Cinema in Tottenham, North London, which at the time was under the ownership of Provincial Cinematograph Theatres (PCT).

Once installed at Tottenham, the Wurlitzer accompanied all the silent films of the day until 1929 when the “talkies” arrived. It then went on to be used for solo spots, providing music during the interval, and accompanying sing-alongs.

The organ was purchased by Rye Grammar School for the sum of £450 in 1957. Since then, there have been sporadic periods of maintenance from interested scholars and organists, however nothing consistent.

Rye Old Scholars Association came to the rescue and organised some fund-raising concerts to be able to keep the organ at the school. But, these began to make a loss, and eventually they declared enough was enough.

Having grown attached to the instrument, Chairman of ROSA, Mr Richard Moore, decided to go it alone. He founded the society “Friends of Rye Wurlitzer” and much money was raised and ploughed back into the restoration project.  With the help of lottery funding, by 2003 the Wurlitzer had been returned to its former glory of 1925. This included the replacement of the missing percussion items.

Michael Wooldridge is the principal tutor and music advisor at the Rye Wurlitzer Academy. Michael entertained the club with his performance of Gershwin on the piano.

For more information on “Friends of Rye Wurlitzer” please click here.

To read more about Michael Wooldridge, please click here.

The club presented Richard and Michael with a donation towards the “Friends of Rye Wurlitzer”.

Thank you Richard and Michael for such an entertaining evening.