Pipe cleaners

Sunday, Dec. 5, 1999 | 9:35 a.m.

During its heyday the 1927 pipe organ at New York's Roxy Theater accompanied the greatest silent films ever made.

It thrilled audiences during daring chase scenes, tickled them during Charlie Chaplin comedies and tugged at the heartstrings as Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers fawned over Clara Bow in "Wings."

But like any other theater organ, its time was brief.

After the 1927 debut of "The Jazz Singer," talkies filled every screen. The grand theater organ was no longer needed. Sound and music scores took over.

The once-adored Kimball organ at the 6,000-seat Roxy Theater was saved when the theater was torn down in the 1950s. Today it sits center stage under the bright lights of Roxy's Pipe Organ Pizzeria at the Fiesta hotel-casino. The pizzeria opened last week.

People wanting a slice of pizza can experience a slice of American history that might have been forgotten if it weren't for the efforts of collector and Fiesta owner Phil Maloof and his restoration crew.

The New Mexico resident, who also has a home in North Las Vegas, purchased the organ 20 years ago for a ballroom in Albuquerque, N.M. A year ago Maloof decided to bring the instrument to Las Vegas.

When the royal burgundy organ, which underwent a year of restoration, is played nightly at the pizzeria, it rises from under the stage. Shudders open and the 3,000 pipes and horns behind the glass windows electrify the room.

The immense instrument is three stories high. A blower in the basement supplies wind to the pipes, putting out 5,000 cubic feet of air a minute.

On the floor above, metal and wood resonators stand among reed pipes, flute pipes and brass trumpets.

"It's like walking in a forest," Las Vegas resident Bob Maes said last week while walking through the pipe chamber, making last-minute adjustments. Maes, owner of Pipes & Palaces Productions, is in charge of the restoration.

Maes has been in charge of four other restorations similar to the Kimball organ, and has been involved in more than 130 others. "There are very few people who will put the money in restoration projects like this one," Maes said.

When played at full force, the organ will put out 125 decibels, he said. The instrument can be played manually or via computer programs set when artists previously played the instrument.

To demonstrate, Maes turned the organ on and the 1948 Cole Porter hit "Another Op'nin Another Show" filled every corner of the room. The orchestrated sounds from a different era bounced off the 40-foot-high vaulted, double-barrel ceiling.

Artists from across the country will be brought to the pizzeria to play their different styles of music.

To add visuals, the stage is equipped with a puppet show and silent movies. The silent movies will be played intermittently, depending on the artist, Maes said. "Some organists can play silent movies. Some can't."

The machine, however, can do almost anything.

"This can play any kind of music," he said. "It can play swing, boogie woogie, country, jazz and blues."

Newer selections from the Disney films "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid" can be heard at the pizza parlor, as well as ragtime and music from classics such as "The King and I."

"It's a very complex instrument," Maes said. "There are literally over 20,000 moving parts, valves, springs and pneumatics. And each one has to be perfect or the organ won't speak."

The organ looked completely different when it was hauled in a year ago on semitrailers.

"It was in thousands of pieces," Maes said. "It was tired and worn out."

Maes hired an army of craftsman to restore it. A crew of 25 artists, cabinet makers and electricians, some from out of town, resurrected the pieces. Nearly 9,000 hours were put into the restoration and placement of the organ.

"There are only about five people in the world that know how to put this together," said Rebecca Conway, the visual designer who painted and gilded the instrument. "This went through a lot. It had to be completely rebuilt."

Out of the 6,000 theater pipe organs that were built by 1929, only 300 are left, and only 20 of those are in good condition, Maes said.

Theater organs were originally conceived in 1915 when silent movies became popular. Larger theaters had full orchestras, but smaller ones needed something other than a piano, Maes said.

The church organ was changed to make a fuller sound and syncopated with percussion. Sound effects, such as lightning, thunder, galloping horses and train whistles were added.

When talking pictures took over, theater organs sat unused. During World War II the U.S. government needed metal, and many theater owners donated the pipes for scrap, Maes said.

Many organs that survived were removed in the 1950s to make room for air conditioners. Some instruments were destroyed when theaters were torn down.

Not until the 1950s, when the American Theater Organ Society was formed, were the remaining organs salvaged.

The group began locating and removing theater organs. Some were placed in pizza parlors, churches and high school auditoriums, Maes said. Others wound up in warehouses, collecting dust.

Fans such as Maes and Maloof have breathed new life into the pipes. Maes got hooked in the 1960s when he was a teenager and his parents dragged him to the Rialto Theater in Joliet, Ill.

Once he saw the organ rise out of the pit, he fell in love. Members of the local organ club took him under their wings and showed him how the instrument works. Years later he gave up his trucking company and devoted his time and business to theater organs. His company restores, designs and installs them.

Maloof first heard a theater pipe organ 20 years ago in a pizza parlor in Arizona and fell in love with the sound. He wanted everyone to experience it. He began collecting organs.

In addition to the Roxy's old Kimball at the Fiesta, Maloof owns a 1927 Barton theater organ that played for 60 years at Chicago Stadium. The organ played at Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural ball in 1933, Maes said. It is the largest free-standing organ console in the world. Maloof built a 4,200-square-foot music room at his North Las Vegas house to hold the instrument.

Maloof's music room is home to parties where guests dress in 1940s garb. Members of the Nevada Opera Theatre, the Nevada Desert Lights Theater Organ Society, singer Robert Goulet and several actors have come to see the organ.

The room also holds a smaller theater pipe organ and two band organs. Counters on opposite walls hold the percussion, including the world's largest bass drum. A balcony, which overlooks dozens of statues, offers theater-style seating and antique conversation chairs.

In the center is the restored Barton.

"That one went through a fire," Conway said as she pointed to the organ. "It looked like the color of a brown paper bag."

It took Conway one year to paint the instrument. Today its gold leafing and detailed ornamentation are dazzling.

After the first of the year Maes will install another theater organ in Maloof's house.

He'll also be making weekly visits to the Fiesta to maintain the 1927 Kimball.

"It's a very specialized field," he said.

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