Events

[WURLITZER] Back in the day when I was an assistant projectionist at the Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda, on nights when I didn’t have to get up early the next day I would often lock the place up, get a six pack and spend a few hours playing the grand piano they had backstage. On a few occasions—I’m pretty sure the statue of limitations has expired on this—I even fired up the Mighty Wurlitzer organ, a transgression for which the organ society would surely have called for my head. There aren’t many of these instruments in working condition, and rank amateurs (and I was as rank as they came) are not encouraged to lay their grubby fingers on them. But I have to tell you, you don’t truly know what a power chord is until you’ve played one of those beauties.

The Riviera has undergone a lot of renovation since then, as has the Mighty Wurlitzer. The theater is now owned and operated by the Riviera Theatre and Organ Preservation Society, Inc., and maintenance of this treasured instrument has been a priority. (You can read about it in detail here.) In 2010 organist and tonal finisher Clark Wilson was brought to supervise technical adjustments that took two months to accomplish, all with the aim of maintaining and fine tuning the special orchestral sound of the Wurlitzer.

Wilson, whom has been called a “Master of silent film and showman of the first order” by no less than Leonard Maltin, will be back at the Riv this week for one of the theaters’ monthly shows, combining a concert designed to show off the nearly endless capabilities of the Wurlitzer with a silent film classic the organist will accompany. This month’s film will be Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality. If you’ve never been to one of these shows, you’re missing one of western New York’s unique cultural advantages.