Link Organ Returns to the State Theatre The State Theatre's original Link organ console, removed from the theater in 1968, was returned to the theater Tuesday, December 7, 2004. The console has been stored in an unheated garage with several other State Theatre Link items for over thirty years. Historic Ithaca's Preservation Services staff located the organ parts in March 2004 and have been negotiating their safe return to the theater ever since. The State Theatre's organ is believed to be the first portable theater pipe organ and the only known Link organ remaining in an original installation location. The State Theatre's organ was designed and built by the Link Organ Company of Binghamton, New York. The Link Organ Company, originally incorporated in 1916 as the Link Piano Company, began with Edwin Link's 1910 management and subsequent purchase from creditors of a bankrupt coin-operated musical instrument company founded c. 1900 as Automatic Musical Company of Binghamton. At the height of its productivity in the mid-1920s, a work force of 60-126 employees produced six coin-operated pianos per week for installation primarily in speakeasies. After Edwin Link's retirement to California, his sons, George T. Link and Edwin A. Link, Jr., managed the business. In 1925, the Link family engaged the services of famed organist Charles Sharpe Minor, who went by the name C. Sharpe Minor, to design a series of instruments that became known as Link-C. Sharpe Minor Unit Organs. The resulting organ possessed an unusual number of sound effects and was excellent for accompanying silent films. The Link Company is believed to have produced just over 100 theater pipe organs prior to its collapse, brought on by the arrival of sound movies and the stock market crash of 1929. The State organ was originally a traveling pipe organ built in 1926 from a design by C. Sharpe Minor. In order to promote sales and generate publicity, C. Sharpe Minor created a portable organ, which he took on tour as part of a traveling road show. The organ consisted of eight pipe voices, many tuned percussions and sound effects controlled from a three-manual console. According to the Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ - Volume 1 (Pasadena, California: Showcase Publications, 1985) by David L. Junchen, the organ was transported in six large cases and was set up with sequined swell shades, velvet curtains and a jeweled console. Minor would unpack the organ and perform opening concerts accompanied by dancers, singers and various vaudeville acts. In 1928, the organ was purchased for permanent installation in the State Theatre at a cost of $26,000. It is suspected that the theater was designed and constructed prior to the decision to purchase the organ as the organ lofts are very difficult to access and contain acoustically restrictive plaster grilles. Chamber pipes in stage left were installed in reverse orientation from standard practice and organ blowers were housed in an undersized room beneath the stage that would have permitted blower noise into the auditorium and required sump pumps. Approximately 20,000 feet of wire connected the organ console, located in the orchestra pit, to the sound pipes in the organ lofts above the proscenium. The playing of the Link organ was a featured event at the State Theatre's opening night performance on December 6, 1928, along with music by Paul Tremaine and the Aristocrats of Modern Music, the movies Show Girl and West of Zanzibar. According to The Cornell Daily Sun, Harry Springer, an organist of "considerable fame in the Middle West and the Pacific Coast," performed on the State Theatre's Link organ, cited as the "largest organ for theater use built by this concern." The organ continued in regular use throughout the 1930s and 1940s, falling into disrepair sometime after World War II. The advent of hi-fidelity stereo recordings in the 1950s spurred a national revival in theater organs and organ aficionados began scouring every city to discover remaining organ chambers. The State Theatre's Link organ was known to many people. In the mid-1960s among them was Robert Engel, a Syracuse-based organ restorer, was negotiated to purchase the organ from the Berinstein family, the original State Theatre owners. In 1968, Mr. Engel removed the console, blower motor, two tremolos and four sets of pipes from the stage left chamber. These items were moved to his property in Syracuse where they have remained along with a vast collection of other theater and church organs. Other pipes were disassembled, but not removed from the chamber. Following Historic Ithaca's purchase of the theater in 1998, a group of volunteers led by Larry Chace, a system progammer at Cornell University with a passion for theater organs, removed all the organ pipes from the stage right voice chamber, taking care to store them in the basement of the theater to prevent ongoing damage or vandalism. Finding the original relay and switching system located outside the stage right chamber already destroyed by water infiltration and beyond salvage, Mr. Chace placed plastic over all sensitive components that could not be moved. The stage left chamber, containing organ special effects, such as windstorms, train whistles, sleigh bells, auto horns, fire gongs and thunder claps created through the use of fourteen control pistons, was found to be dry. Due to its difficult accessibility, it had suffered less loss. Recently closed to the elements, this area had served for many years as an unsupervised pigeon coop. The organ was powered by a seven horsepower blower, three horse power vacuum blower and generator accessed from the dressing room under stage right. Portions of these items were still in situ and functional. Preservation Staff maintained contact with Larry Chace and other members of the New York organ community over the years and have been following-up leads on the location of the State Theatre organ console. There was no record of any correspondence with the Engel family since the organ removal in 1968 and no known contract for the organ sale. We learned of Mr. Engel's passing from other members of the Syracuse organ community, but efforts to reach the remaining family members were fruitless. Then, in November of 2003, Larry Chace invited us to a recital by organist David Peckham at SUNY-Cortland on a Link organ newly restored by his firm Lauren A. Peckham & Son of Breesport, NY. David is a third generation organ restorer and performs professionally throughout the U.S., Great Britain and Australia. He was awarded the David Junchen Technical Scholarship by the American Theare Organ Society in 1995 and was nominated for Professional Technician of the Year in 2004. Being an upstate New York native, Mr. Peckham has a particular interest in the Link organ and has been involved in the restoration of the SUNY organ and the Link organ located at the Roberson Center in Binghamton. We found David and his father Lauren to be not only a wealth of information on the Link organ and its restoration, but valuable allies in the return of the State Theatre organ. Inspired by David's performance, the Preservation Staff renewed its efforts to track down the Engel family. An introduction from David to Syracuse organ enthusiast Charles Schubert provided us with the last known address of Mr. Engel's widow, Ruth. We followed up with letters to the Engel family, garnering no response. In April of 2004, Janet Shure made a trip to the Engel's Syracuse neighborhood and was in the process of knocking on doors and talking toneighbors when Robert Engel's widow and daughter arrived to check on their vacant property. After introductions and an explanation of Historic Ithaca's sincere interest in the return of the organ parts, Mrs. Engel promised to discuss the matter with her family and get back to us. Weeks of discussion and the assistance of Larry Chace, David and Lauren Peckham, Charles Schubert, and Engel family friend and former Landmark Theatre Director Richard Johnsen culminated with a visit to the Engel family's storage areas on June 19, 2004. Janet, Trina and a small crew which included the Peckhams, Larry Chace and Scott Smith, an organ restorer from Lansing, Michigan, met three generations of the Engel family and Richard Johnsen and together sifted through a legendary collection of organ parts to locate and identify the State Theatre organ. Now with the unwavering support of David Peckham and Richard Johnsen, the Engel family has agreed to donate the organ console and various parts back to the State Theatre. We are overjoyed to have the organ back in the theater, and now we will begin the process of slowly acclimating the console to a heated environment and finding the financial resources to restore the organ to its 1928 condition.