The Sounds of the Elsinore

The Elsinore Theater has been a significant entertainment venue for the Salem area since its construction in 1926.  It was known for silent movies accompanied by a large Wurlitzer theater organ. 

The heart of the Historic Elsinore Theatre in Salem isn’t in its Tudor Gothic lobby or gilded auditorium.  Instead, you have to go up an extension ladder through a trap door and walk up three flights of rickety wooden stairs, stepping into a hot, claustrophobic loft over the stage.  Here is the home of the Parks Murdock Mighty Wurlitzer Organ.  The loft, lined with tongue and groove cedar, is packed with two tons of organ equipment, 24 ranks or sets of pipes for 1,644 total pipes. Largely invisible to the audience, the organ is most visible in the organ loft, where four chambers are packed with pipes and instruments.

When organist/house manager Rick Parks sits down at the organ console, the light opera sounds of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” thunder in magnificence, and the jazz classic “Tuxedo Junction” swings into elegant but dominating mode. The sound seems to pour from everywhere, as well it might for the biggest theater organ in the Pacific Northwest, rivaled only by the Paramount Theater in Oakland, Calif., on the West Coast. “It’s almost like being in a cockpit of a 747, Parks said of playing the console. “I can’t talk to somebody while I’m playing.”

The Elsinore organ – which has been under construction for more than 20 years at the theater; cobbled together from bits and parts of other organs all over the country – is not just remarkable for its size and power. It’s also notable for the fact that it is mainly the creation and contribution of Parks, 27, and his father, Clayton Parks, 69. Now valued at around $250,000, the organ was given to Stage, Inc., by the Parks, who have contributed most of the labor to build the organ. “I tell people my truck is up here, my new home is up here,” Clayton said.

The 1925-26 Elsinore, built as a vaudeville/movie house, originally had its own organ, but as with many old movie theaters, the organ was removed in 1962. Dennis Guthrie, son of the builder of the theater, A. B. Guthrie, incorporated the organ into his Portland home. The organ was dismantled and “parted out” 10 years later, its parts sold around the world to complete other organs. The original was 13 ranks, 850 popes, considerably smaller than the current organ. In Oregon, only the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay, which opened in 1925, still has its original theater organ.

The Elsinore’s new organ got its start in 1996 when Clayton, formerly in radar operations for the Federal Aviation Administration, became smitten with organs. “What it helps to be, if you’re going to do something like this, is to be a millionaire, be crazy, and have an understanding wife,” he said.

Although Clayton plays the piano rather than the organ, his son was drawn to playing the organ at an early age, taking lessons since he was 11. The organ started at 250 pipes in the basement of the Parks’ West Salem Home but out-grew that space after 20 years. “We had too many components,” Rick said. “We wanted to put it in a place where the public could hear it.” Then-owner Tom Moyer loved the organ and encouraged the Parks to move it to the Elsinore, where he asked Rick Parks to play it before movies.

After Stage, a nonprofit, purchased the theater, the Parks gave it to the organization, primarily to qualify for a $60,000 grant from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust to expand the organ. Rick joined the Stage staff as part-time house manager 1993, taking the job full-time in 1995.

Now, after years of work, the Parks are drawing close to finishing their labor of love following some recent additions. “We’re almost done,” Rick said, adding, “I mean, we never finish; we’re always building.”

The Parks  in 2001 added a set of six diaphones, or foghorns, mounted at the back of the stage, which rise to about 10 feet. These 1918 creations came from Kansas City, Mo. The console, by contrast, came from the Paramount Theatre in St. Petersburg. Fla., by way of Los Angeles. Parts typically have come from all over the country, and some even came from the original Elsinore organ.

The foundation chamber, at the south end, includes louder pipes and a base drum, including parts from the former Organ Grinder in Portland; the solo chamber, with the solo voices, features pipes, snare drums and castanets; the main chamber, or complimental voices, is primarily pipes; and the unenclosed chamber has percussion pipes. The pipes are made of lead, tin, and various kinds of wood. Also housed in the unenclosed chamber are the relays and switches, part of the new computerized relay system. If anything can be improved now, Rick said an upgraded computer system would be a major asset.

The organ has already proved to be an asset to the Elsinore, where it is featured at weddings, monthly silent movie showings, and special events.

For Rick Parks, there is no place he would rather be, even though he was aimed at a better-paying career in the state social service system.

“I have fun at it,” he said of the organ.

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Bibliography:

Statesman Journal newspaper, June, 2001, “The Sounds of Elisnore” by Ron Cowan

This article originally appeared on the original Salem Online History site and has not been updated since 2006.