ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Bob Loesch, Nov. 1997
Organ damaged by fire in late '60s or early '70s, (entire solo chamber destroyed) and
removed to Dick Villeman's shop and rebuilt. The
remains were bought by a San Francisco, CA resident for installation in his
home. Upon his demise in 1993, most of the remains were bought by me, and are
also awaiting installation here in Lakeport, CA.
From: Bob Loesch, December 1998
What I've listed as the 16' Tibia is actually the original Rialto Main chamber's
Bourdon. I'm installing the instrument in a rather small room, and I've a
smaller-scaled Bourdon (an Austin) to serve as the low end of the Concert
Flute, so I'm using the (much larger) Wurlitzer Bourdon as the bottom of my
Tibia, a typical Wurlitzer 10" from an unknown installation.
Mr. Wright DID have some few changes made, via Reisner electric switches. There are two or three added
switches hanging on the relay wiring, but I haven't gotten to working on the
relays yet, so I can't tell you what they did. The console is un-altered.
Someone told me (apologies to whomever it was, I can't
remember) that he had changed the Accompaniment 16' Viol to a 16' Vox, but I can't verify that, either.
The only thing to add is that, after Gary's death, the remains of the Rialto 216
were broken up for parts. I was only able to acquire the console and relay
(which no-one seemed to want, as Gary's friend Bill also had a 3-manual and a 4
manual console for sale), the Bourdon and Diaphone 16' octaves, and the VDO and
Celeste. Everything else was sold off to others, whom I cannot remember. A
rather sad end for a great example of what I consider the finest model
Wurlitzer ever built.
From: Jim Spohn, November 2006
There were on the stage of the Rialto, a 16'String, Morton 16'Tibia and some other
rank I don't remember.
Working for Villemin Organ Company, I removed what was left
of the Rialto organ and installed it with a new Solo division AND the console
from the Pasadena studio organ into a home in Walnut Creek CA.
The burned chamber had most of the damage on the main chest (Not to be confused
with the "MAIN" chest and associated pipes.
The offsets were not burned but the water damage was the killer.
We salvaged the bars from the Marimba and the Xylophone and the Sleigh Bells.
The Xylophone bars and Sleigh Bells are on my organ at the Granada in Bakersfield.
From: Lew Williams, May 2012
I have a flyer advertising GW's 1970-71 concerts at the Rialto, containing the
following text:
For this unusual series of eight completely different concerts, we have arranged to
have the resources of the Rialto Wurlitzer considerably expanded to be more
worthy of the unique talents of Mr. Wright. These additions will include
a Wurlitzer Brass Saxophone, Wurlitzer Brass Trumpet, and a large-scale
Wurlitzer Solo Tibia and Solo Vox Humana, plus
numerous additional organ percussions.
Thus, he brought the organ up to 14 ranks in its final year. Bootleg recordings of these concerts
reveal the above voices clearly.
Ticket prices were $3.50 or $4.00 per concert. Those were the days................