Over 1200 attended that premier concert event. It was fitting that organist Larry Ferrari, who played the final concert in the Boyd Theatre, play the first concert in Dickinson High School. The first concert in the high school was just one year after the final concert in the theatre.
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The active high school Audio-Visual crew stepped up, not only to help remove the organ but to help install it in the school. Since the organ had been donated to the high school, it seemed natural to look to the students for help. We were given only two months to get the organ out of the theatre. The big question was ‘Who would be able to help move the organ?’.
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In addition, there were things like a full size upright piano (located in a chamber high in the wall of the theatre) and a massive relay system that controlled the organ. The console (the part you see) weighed about a half-ton. There were many thousands of parts, including over 1200 pipes ranging in size from the size of a pencil to those over 16 feet long and 2 feet square. First of all, the organ was removed from the theatre and taken to the school. Since that memorable night in 1970, a great deal has occurred. The Boyd Kimball pipe organ, now greatly augmented through the years, would become the world-famous Dickinson Theatre Organ.
His opening theme, entertainer Steve Allen’s This Could Be the Start of Something Big, was unknowingly at the time, a prophecy. At midnight, organist Larry Ferrari played the Boyd organ. A near generation of dust greeted the inspectors, along with bent and damaged pipes (from the Cinerama screen’s installation), but overall, the organ was found to be, in their words, in excellent condition.Ī farewell concert was deemed to be practical and thus, on Washington’s Birthday 1969, the great blue and silver console arose from the depths in the theatre for one last time. The orchestra pit was raised to stage level and carpeted, but the organ console was remained lowered on its own lift, covered at floor level with a wooden cover. The magnificent proscenium was all but obliterated from by a Cinerama screen, part of which was even fastened inside the organ pipe chambers. The grandeur of old was little in evidence.
Dilworth and his associates inspected the theatre on November 9, 1968, the years had not only taken a toll on the Kimball organ, but also of the theatre itself.
Dilworth concluded a contract for the Boyd organ to be removed for use in the Dickinson High School auditorium. Robert Dilworth, a member of the faculty of the John Dickinson High School, near Stanton, Delaware, had for some time been negotiating with Walter Froehlich of the RKO-Stanley Warner Corporation (successors to the original owners of the Boyd Theatre) about the possibility of acquiring a pipe organ from instruments still installed and unused in RKO theatres. As was customary for many theatre organs of the era, it lay dormant for decades until a memorable evening in 1969. The organ was used only for a short time, as it was never used to accompany silent pictures. House organists were Otto Beck and Joseph K. In keeping with the decor of the theatre, the console was decorated in French Blue with silver trim. Kimball Company, the instrument (opus 7050) featured 19 ranks (sets) of pipes and a three-manual, horseshoe-style console. A live feature at every performance was the playing of the Boyd’s grand organ, situated on a separate lift, to the left of the orchestra pit.