The Theatre Organ saw the light of day with the advent of the movies. In the days of grand movie palaces and black and white silent films.

Cinemas that could afford to hire an entire orchestra or band would do so, but for the majority it was just not economically viable. A plan had to be made.

In the early days, Classical or Church Pipe Organs where used and found to be unsuitable for the cinema.

An Englishman, Robert Hope Jones, met with Rudolph Wurlitzer, maker of the Wurlitzer pipe organs. Robert invented what would become the Theatre Organ.

Collaborating with Wurlitzer the first Hope Jones Unit Orchestra was produced The new innovation took the cinema world by storm. Safe to say that the Theatre Organ was the forerunner of the modern keyboard orchestras we have today, in addition it was also the forerunner of the karaoke systems.

So what is it exactly?

Hope-Jones, added to a pipe organ real instruments that could be played by the organist from the console, tremulants and pipe modifications where done that enabled this Mighty Instrument to sound like a full symphony orchestra or band.

Added was sound effects, like bells, car horns, chirping birds, to name a few, that would add to the overall sound effect as desired.

Earlier mention is made of a karaoke system, during the intermissions, plates where projected onto the screen that contained the lyrics of popular songs of the day, the audience would sing-a-long accompanied by the organist at the console.

South Africa was not without its share of Theatre Organs and a few installations exited, the most known was probably the Wurlitzer installed in a now demolished cinema in Johannesburg, and played by legendary South African Theatre Organist, Dean Herrick.

This instrument was bought by Dean when the cinema closed, he looked for a house in which he could have it installed. Dean made numerous broadcasts on local radio as well as the BBC program "The Organist Entertains".

Sadly, upon his death the organ was sold to a local City council for installation in their City Hall, it played once and after the concert on its descent into the pit, it got stuck about a quarter way from the top. It has been in that position for many, many years. Council has not the funds to repair the lift and other priorities demand financial aid more than is warranted by the console, (In their opinion).