Showing posts with label ATOS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ATOS. Show all posts
Monday, January 31, 2022
He helped make theater organ fun!
He passed away at age eighty on 12-30-2021...and he was the very first person I saw play a theater pipe organ in person.
His name was Jack Moelmann.
In November 1984, he did a concert at Nebraska's Bellevue Little Theater, a playhouse that, at the time, had a two-manual, five-rank Wurlitzer theater organ. After the concert, I was invited to what turned out to be an organizational meeting of the River City Theatre Organ Society.
I've been a member of RCTOS ever since.
And Jack was one of the biggest reasons I joined the club.
At the time I met Jack, he was an Air Force colonel who was stationed at Bellevue's Offutt Air Force Base. He'd been in the Air Force since 1965, the year he received his Bachelor of Science degree from Bradley University.
Chicago-born Jack got started in music in 1949, the year he turned eight years old (he not only took to the piano, he also sang in the church choir).
He was hooked for the rest of his life, thanks to the many gigs he played in high school and college.
Theater organ fans around here were very fortunate that Jack lived here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area during 1984-85, a time when RCTOS was in its infancy. This highly-accomplished (both in the Air Force and in the world's concert halls and movie palaces) man helped make those early meetings fun, due to his vast repertoire AND his trademark humor.
Jack joined the American Theatre Organ Society in 1967; in 1983, he launched a 23-year period where he served on the ATOS board of directors in one capacity or another. From 1985 to 1988, he ran ATOS...then became its secretary in 1993, keeping that gig until 2006.
Two years before becoming ATOS secretary, Jack retired from the US Armed Forces. All the time he was in the USAF, Jack earned hardware such as the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit.
Jack eventually left the Omaha Metro and moved to the St. Louis area...where he turned everything up a bunch of notches. He became a lifetime member of ATOS in 1994, an inductee into the organization's Hall of Fame in 2008, and ATOS Organist of the Year in 2018.
The crowning touch (well, I like to think so!) came in August 2008...when he headlined at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. (If I can find that on YouTube, well...)
Jack, I'm glad to have been a part of your life.
I'm glad you were a part of mine.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
High Energy
Finally, finally able to get back to blogging! (Things got so hectic these last sixteen days that I couldn't get back to the computer to post this...and I apologize for that.)
Sixteen days ago, Dave Wickerham (one of the best theater organists on Planet Earth) came to Omaha, where he knocked 'em dead at the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center, the facility better known as the Rose Theater.
It'd been three years since Dave previously concertized here in the Big O...and when he came back for the 2015 version of the River City Theatre Organ Society's annual fundraiser, he was in fine, fine form at the theater's three-manual, 27-rank 1927 Wurlitzer.
Initial fears were that not as many people this time around were interested in watching the Encino, CA native punish (okay, coax) the only concert-worthy theater pipe organ installation in Nebraska.
But a great crowd at the Rose destroyed those fears.
And the audience members watched him lead off with a medley of "Get Happy" and "I Want to Be Happy."
We in the audience got happy, all right...and after the applause died down, Dave got into some banter, then launched into some of the Great American Songbook.
Dave W. kicked that segment of the concert off by saluting Irving Berlin, throwing in tunes like "What'll I Do," "Always," and the one that put Irving on the map for good: "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
The next medley focused on...rain.
That's right, rain. Dave put together "Singin' in the Rain," "Laughter in the Rain," and "Stormy Weather." (Don't laugh at the inclusion of "Laughter," the youngest song in the concert at forty years of age. After all, Neil Sedaka had that Great American Songbook ethos, too...as did other Brill Building graduates such as Carole King and Barry Mann- to say nothing of the teams of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.)
Now the focus was back on a single composer, this time George Gershwin...and this time, the organ tried to punish Dave by going into cipher mode.
He wasn't having any of that.
All Dave did was continue to play through the cipher during a medley that included favorites like "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Strike Up the Band."
It's not really an RCTOS concert at the Rose without a silent movie, and Dave turned to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy for this year's showing. This time, it was the 1926 film called "Putting Pants on Philip," where Stan played a kilt-wearing Scotsman and Ollie was the American who ended up taking him in.
The movie did its job, adding to the fun of the outing better known as "Let's Get Lost in the Music."
"Putting Pants" led to a fifteen-minute intermission; after that, Dave came back out...this time paying tribute to Duke Ellington and his longtime arranger, Billy Strayhorn. The tunes: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and "Take the 'A' Train."
By the way...it's also not an RCTOS concert at the Rose if a nationally-known theater organist isn't paired up with a local act.
And for 2015, the local act was a five-man group known as Omaha Street Percussion.
When Omaha Street Percussion walked onto the Rose Theater stage and began to take to all those unorthodox forms of percussion (trash cans, trash can lids, etc.), the energy at the theater kicked up a notch...actually, a bunch of notches.
After the first selection, the men of OSP launched an audience-participation exercise: "We'll give you a beat, and we want you to clap to it." The left half of the throng got a different beat to clap to than the right half.
The audience ate it all up, all right.
As one concertgoer put it: "High energy."
Two high-energy numbers later, Dave himself jumped in, joining OSP in the famous "Tico Tico."
With the crowd all pumped up after OSP's segment of "Let's Get Lost," Dave ran the event's anchor leg, delivering a medley that he played at this year's American Theatre Organ Society convention (held mostly in Philadelphia, PA, with Atlantic City, NJ taking on the convention's other events).
Yep...it was a patriotic medley. (And yep...it brought the house down at this year's ATOS get-together.)
"Yankee Doodle" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" got in there as part of Dave Wickerham's song cycle. "The Girl I Left Behind" and "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" were in there, too, along with "This Is My Country."
For the medley's last song, Dave motioned the audience into standing up.
And then, he took it all home with "God Bless America." (Many, if not most in the crowd, sang along.)
With Dave showing why RCTOS brought him back to the Big O to concertize, and with Omaha Street Percussion more than holding its own (okay...that's a real understatement!), this was one of the best fundraisers the local ATOS chapter ever staged.
All right...it was THE best!
Sixteen days ago, Dave Wickerham (one of the best theater organists on Planet Earth) came to Omaha, where he knocked 'em dead at the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center, the facility better known as the Rose Theater.
It'd been three years since Dave previously concertized here in the Big O...and when he came back for the 2015 version of the River City Theatre Organ Society's annual fundraiser, he was in fine, fine form at the theater's three-manual, 27-rank 1927 Wurlitzer.
Initial fears were that not as many people this time around were interested in watching the Encino, CA native punish (okay, coax) the only concert-worthy theater pipe organ installation in Nebraska.
But a great crowd at the Rose destroyed those fears.
And the audience members watched him lead off with a medley of "Get Happy" and "I Want to Be Happy."
We in the audience got happy, all right...and after the applause died down, Dave got into some banter, then launched into some of the Great American Songbook.
Dave W. kicked that segment of the concert off by saluting Irving Berlin, throwing in tunes like "What'll I Do," "Always," and the one that put Irving on the map for good: "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
The next medley focused on...rain.
That's right, rain. Dave put together "Singin' in the Rain," "Laughter in the Rain," and "Stormy Weather." (Don't laugh at the inclusion of "Laughter," the youngest song in the concert at forty years of age. After all, Neil Sedaka had that Great American Songbook ethos, too...as did other Brill Building graduates such as Carole King and Barry Mann- to say nothing of the teams of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.)
Now the focus was back on a single composer, this time George Gershwin...and this time, the organ tried to punish Dave by going into cipher mode.
He wasn't having any of that.
All Dave did was continue to play through the cipher during a medley that included favorites like "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Strike Up the Band."
It's not really an RCTOS concert at the Rose without a silent movie, and Dave turned to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy for this year's showing. This time, it was the 1926 film called "Putting Pants on Philip," where Stan played a kilt-wearing Scotsman and Ollie was the American who ended up taking him in.
The movie did its job, adding to the fun of the outing better known as "Let's Get Lost in the Music."
"Putting Pants" led to a fifteen-minute intermission; after that, Dave came back out...this time paying tribute to Duke Ellington and his longtime arranger, Billy Strayhorn. The tunes: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and "Take the 'A' Train."
By the way...it's also not an RCTOS concert at the Rose if a nationally-known theater organist isn't paired up with a local act.
And for 2015, the local act was a five-man group known as Omaha Street Percussion.
When Omaha Street Percussion walked onto the Rose Theater stage and began to take to all those unorthodox forms of percussion (trash cans, trash can lids, etc.), the energy at the theater kicked up a notch...actually, a bunch of notches.
After the first selection, the men of OSP launched an audience-participation exercise: "We'll give you a beat, and we want you to clap to it." The left half of the throng got a different beat to clap to than the right half.
The audience ate it all up, all right.
As one concertgoer put it: "High energy."
Two high-energy numbers later, Dave himself jumped in, joining OSP in the famous "Tico Tico."
With the crowd all pumped up after OSP's segment of "Let's Get Lost," Dave ran the event's anchor leg, delivering a medley that he played at this year's American Theatre Organ Society convention (held mostly in Philadelphia, PA, with Atlantic City, NJ taking on the convention's other events).
Yep...it was a patriotic medley. (And yep...it brought the house down at this year's ATOS get-together.)
"Yankee Doodle" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" got in there as part of Dave Wickerham's song cycle. "The Girl I Left Behind" and "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" were in there, too, along with "This Is My Country."
For the medley's last song, Dave motioned the audience into standing up.
And then, he took it all home with "God Bless America." (Many, if not most in the crowd, sang along.)
With Dave showing why RCTOS brought him back to the Big O to concertize, and with Omaha Street Percussion more than holding its own (okay...that's a real understatement!), this was one of the best fundraisers the local ATOS chapter ever staged.
All right...it was THE best!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Extraordinary Talent...and Then Some
It's the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society, the River City Theatre Organ Society.
Yesterday afternoon, RCTOS put on the 2013 edition of its annual fundraiser. Every year at this time, the club holds a concert at Omaha's Rose Theater, the one-time movie house (originally called the Paramount Theater; later the Astro) whose official current title is the Rose Blumkin Center for the Performing Arts.
The place was packed.
And the talent was packed, too!
The theater's got a 3-manual, 21-rank Wurlitzer theater pipe organ that was built in 1927...and, currently, it's the only concert-ready theater organ in the Iowa-Nebraska-South Dakota area.
Getting back to the talent being packed...this year's featured organist was Walt Strony, the Illinoisan-turned-Californian who was voted ATOS' Organist of the Year not once, but twice...in both 1991 and 1993.
Right from the first chords of his opener ("On the Sunny Side of the Street"), he showed the crowd just why.
And when Walt followed that up with a medley from "My Fair Lady" and then his version of Mario Lanza's 1950 smash, "Be My Love," the Rose audience was in for one heck of a ride.
Three selections later, Walt cued a silent movie, "Two Tars." (The two tars were none other than Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.)
Walt isn't just great. He's G-R-R-R-E-A-T!!
He and his unique style hit the theater-organ circuit in 1974 (at a time when Walt was 18)...at a time when RCTOS' 2008 featured organist, Donna Parker, was in her teens as well (and playing the organ at Los Angeles Dodgers games).
After the showing of a movie that still proves to be some kind of funny, it was intermission time.
And after Walt came back out and fired up another number, the Pathfinders (a barbershop chorus group from Fremont, NE) took to the Rose Theater stage.
Last year, when Rob Richards played the Rose Wurlitzer, the Pathfinders turned out the concert with their movin', groovin' brand of a cappella singing...and proved to be so great that RCTOS invited them to come back for 2013.
The Pathfinders opened with a song called "Harmony" to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the International Barbershop Harmony Society...then brought back a tune they did in 2012, the 1967 hit "Lazy Day." ("Lazy Day" was how Spanky and Our Gang followed up their debut hit, "Sunday Will Never Be the Same.")
Fremont's Number One plus factor (well, I like to think so!) does the old, old ones, too...like "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi."
One of the Pathfinders used to run RCTOS. His name is Greg Johnson, and he's no slouch as an organist, either.
Greg's successor as the club's president is no slouch, either. His name is Bob Markworth...who'd just been named ATOS Member of the Year for 2013. (Bob and his wife Joyce own a 1927 Kimball 3-manual, 24-rank theater pipe organ, the instrument locally known as "The Beast in the Basement.")
Because of Greg, Bob, Joyce, and Jerry Pawlak (he's the club's secretary-treasurer), RCTOS membership grew exponentially throughout this early going of this 21st Century.
The club now has 162 members. And you can't beat that with a stick!
Well, after the barbershoppers showed how "The Joint Is Jumpin'," Walt came back out to join them.
After Walt got the show (this year's show was titled "Let's Take a Musical Stroll") going, he talked about how some people ask him to play rock songs during his theater-organ concerts.
Walt's answer is: "Forget it. You need a melody."
Guess what Walt Strony and the Pathfinders teamed up to do?
They worked out "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."
By the Beatles.
Oh, by the way...the 'Finders (formed in 1972, the year before Donna started playing at Dodger Stadium and two years prior to Walt's first theater-organ concert) recently did their thing at the IBHS competition in Toronto, ON, Canada...and ended up winning tenth place.
That's right: The Pathfinder Chorus is one of the WORLD'S ten best barbershop choruses.
No slouches are they.
Then Walt ran the concert's anchor leg by himself, closing it all out with a patriotic medley that featured the theme song from each of America's five military branches. (He invited veterans to stand up; veterans from four of the nation's five branches did just that...with only the Coast Guard lacking representation at yesterday's show.)
The medley continued with "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and closed out (the concert did, too) with what some people feel should replace "The Star-Spangled Banner" as our national anthem: "God Bless America."
Can't wait 'til next August...to see who's going to make the joint (ahem, the Rose Theater) jump.
How about you?
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