Thankyou!

Having been a wood craftsman hired by AoI during most of the restoration, it was a delight to have this video production to watch and yes, to enjoy!! Thank you.

Greetings from London, UK! A heatrwarming story, and it's so lovely to know that there are still people who value their cultural heritage and are prepared to pay for its preservation. Well done to you all, and long may this superb organ continue to entertain and educate audiences in your city -and beyond. Peter A :) :) :)

Those instruments are an important part of American musical history and American culture. BTW: it's funny for an European like me to hear someone talk of an instrument from the 1930ies as "old". Some instruments still existing in Germany are from the 17. and 18. century and had been proved and played by Johann Sebastian Bach himself. The eldest organ still playable was built between 1426 and 1431.

Thank you for this kind of: Memories are made of these. Honour your historical & musical passion.

That's both heartwarming and really cool! Thanks to all for their great efforts and achievements.

I am so happy that this organ has been saved. When I returned to Oklahoma in the 1980's from the west coast, I formed a company with Paul Haggard, who had been one of the installers of the organ when it went to the Civic Center Music Hall. We had a small workshop in the music hall, and in payment for that shop, did the maintenance on the organ for about 3-4 years. During that time, the relays were modernized from a pneumatic system to a digital coupling and relay system, which allowed the complete organ to be played for the first time in several years. For three of those years, I played a Halloween organ concert with organ accompaniment to several silent movie thrillers - Nosferatu, and Phantom of the Opera - were two of them, and we had great attendance. After the third year of that, attendance fell off, and the music hall operators decided not to repeat for a fourth year. Right after that I came to southwestern Oklahoma and opened my pipe organ business. Paul had retired by then, and I had very little to do with the Kilgen after that. I missed it very much, but was very happy when I learned that the organ department of OU had taken it over. Although I have not yet heard it in its new surroundings, I'm certain that its sound fills the room with majesty and delight. Thank you for alerting the public to the treasure they now have in the Historical Center. I hope it is played as often as possible.

I own the Kilgen like this from the Nashville, Tn. WLAC studio.

Great Story.. Pity we did not hear more of the organ.

Thanks. Love this & love the 'theater organ'.

BEAUTIFUL!!

Wonderful story. Thank you.

I enjoyed watching this video, but I do have one question, why was all of the accompanying music created with piano, strings, etc. and no organ?

Nice to see people with the insight and foresight to save one of these magical instruments. When roaring with music, these theatre organs will give you chill all up and down your spine. That's what they were DESIGNED for to do while accompanying silent movies. U of Penn has an organ from the '20's and we had Keith Chapman perform on it to accompany Phantom of the Opera during Halloween. Suggest doing that. Make it a fund raiser event. Serve champagne and hors d'oeuvres. Sell T-Shirts ... You wanna see a BIG Organ?

My wife and I attended a performance there two or three years ago. I wish I could remember the name of the artist. But I remember thinking that I had never enjoyed myself at a musical performance more than that one. It was a great show!

I’m so glad that it was saved. People just want to throw things away and go buy new these days.

How about a follow up with this instrument being played?

Great that you preserved this historic organ, but too much talking. You should have played the organ in this video. Less talk, more music.

Wonderfully narrated history. What does it sound like? Can you verbally describe that for us?

Wonderful organ, just wish I could see it and no videos online, why?

I thought this one was a radio studio organ rather than a Theatre Organ.

I enjoyed this documentary, but I cannot fathom why on earth we only got 20 seconds of organ music at the very end, and that for nearly 20 minutes, we had weird instrumental music in the background but didn’t get to hear any of the darn instrument the whole documentary is about! *sigh*

It's an inexcusable shame the background music throughout this video was an orchestra instead of the organ.

No performance?

A lot of talk. Wouldn't it be great to hear the organ. Why so much talk?

Ya too many yappin humans. We have an organ educational program in OK. They helped restore they should be playing it! They must be used and maintained but the youngun they are talking don't have access to it. Students from every source should be playing this every day. But that would be too much effort for the museum staff. Lmao Well the igo contracts won't let paid organists to be recorded or video. That's why it's not on KZfaq or the museum site. So in a way it has been silenced! But the museum can do anything they want. They choose to not let it have international or even national exposure. I agree every performance should be accessible on the museum site. We are paying for it. Ultimately. There are MANY organists that would play this on their digital world. But it's easier to pay a igo concert organist few grand for concerts! Anyway it's still nice they saved it because most organ are being scrapped. Still can't figure out why students don't have social media access to it .

Read comments below. The Brits were better at saving their material culture that the US. We've been addicted to new new new and destroyed our monuments. Look up Penn Station in NYC...utter desecration

What I find disappointing, it the makeup of the audience shown. Not a single young face! It is truly a shame, that the young people of today, have no interest in this fantastic instrument.

"PERCUSSION" is the plural of "PERCUSSION." I heard the word "percussions" at least twice in this video-- from people who should know better! Come on.....