And for more than a quarter of a century, that home was Oriental Theatre. The organ, however, was deemed too large for the space, so the Kimball Theatre Organ Society was formed to protect and restore the instrument, as well as find it a new permanent home. Wisconsin Ave., for the venue’s opening in 1931, but when a divider was built in the middle of the space to split the cinema into two separate auditoriums in 1973, the Kimball was removed and donated to Milwaukee Public Schools to be added to the Milwaukee Trade & Technical High School’s (now Bradley Tech) auditorium. The instrument was first installed in the former Warner Grand Theatre, 212 W. While the Kimball did not move into the Oriental Theatre until 1991, the organ is still deeply rooted in Milwaukee history. "The club is as sad as everybody else that the organ is coming out of the Oriental," he added, "but they genuinely believe that it is the right thing to happen – and so do I." "I can’t tell you the detail of those … but I will say they were explored very thoroughly and the decision to transfer the ownership of the organ and for it to be removed from the theater took into account several different issues and was taken only after considering all of the options."
"When the matter was discussed among the society, lots of options were discussed and lots of issues were discussed," said Simon Gledhill, a UK-based representative for the current owner – an individual who chooses to remain unnamed – as well as a KTOS member himself and a semi-professional organist who performed three times over the years on the Oriental’s Kimball organ.
A new owner soon acquired the organ before months later, in July 2017, the KTOS officially dissolved.Īs a part of the ownership transition, the KTOS also voted to remove the Kimball organ from the Oriental Theatre – a process that started earlier this week as the instrument was disabled and, over the next few months, will be carefully moved into safe storage while the new owner determines its next destination. Last year, however, the KTOS met and unanimously decided it would transfer ownership of the Kimball organ into new hands. Instead, the instrument has played under the watchful eye of the Kimball Theatre Organ Society (KTOS), a group which owned and maintained the organ since 1979. The current Oriental tenant, Landmark Theatres, does not own the organ.
#RECYCLE KIMBALL ORGAN MOVIE#
If you saw a movie Saturday night at the Oriental, the biggest story wasn’t what you saw onscreen but what you heard before the film: the popular Kimball theatre organ, playing its final show in the iconic Milwaukee movie palace.
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