Loew's Avenue B Theatre - New York City (photo: Patrick Crowley on Cinema Treasures website)
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Loew's Avenue B Theatre

72 Avenue B at East 5th Street
New York, N.Y. 10009

Organ Specifications:
► II/4 "Style B" Wurlitzer, Op. 1372 (1926)
• IV/31 M.P. Möller, Op. 1947 (1915)


Loew's Avenue B Theatre, designed by Thomas W. Lamb, had 1,750 seats and opened on January 8, 1913. Marcus Loew, who was born on the same spot, spent $800,000 to build this luxurious theatre which at first featured vaudeville and showed movies only as fillers. In his opening night speech, Marcus Loew said, "This is the most pretentious of the houses on our string, because my better judgment was over-balanced by my sentimentalism and my longing to do something better here than I ever did before."

During its first decade, the Avenue B was the most successful Loew's house on the Lower East Side. In the mid-1920s, however, this success was eclipsed when the Loew's circuit took over the Commodore Theatre, which enjoyed a better location on Second Avenue. The Avenue B was reduced to playing movies at the end of their Loew's circuit run, and remained so until its closure around 1958.
         
Wurlitzer Organ Company
North Tonawanda, N.Y. – Opus Op. 1372 (1926)
Electro-pneumatic action
Style B
2 manuals, 4 ranks, piano console


This organ is dated June 25, 1926. It is unknown if the Wurlitzer organ replaced the Möller organ (see below) or was perhaps installed in another area of the theatre.
           
Pedal – 32 notes
16
  Bourdon
  Pedal 2nd Touch
8
  Trumpet
  Bass Drum
8
  Flute
  Kettle Drum
8
  Cello
  Cymbal
           
Accompaniment (Manual I) –- 61 notes
16
  Contra Viole [TC]     Snare Drum
16
  Bourdon     Tambourine
8
  Trumpet     Castanets
8
  Salicional     Chinese Block
8
  Flute      
8
   Vox Humana     Accompaniment 2nd Touch
4
   Salicet
8
   Trumpet
4
   Flute      
          Three Adjustable Combination Pistons
           
Solo (Manual II) – 61 notes
16
  Contra Viole [TC]
2 2/3
  Twelfth
16
  Bourdon
2
   Piccolo
16
  Vox Humana     Cathedral Chimes
8
  Trumpet     Xylophone
8
  Salicional     Glockenspiel
8
   Flute      
8
   Vox Humana     Solo 2nd Touch
4
   Salicet
8
   Trumpet
4
   Flute     Xylophone
4
   Vox Humana      
        Three Adjustable Combination Pistons
           
General
    One Balanced Expression Pedal    
    One General Tremulant    
    One Vox Humana Tremulant    
           
Effects (operated by pistons)
   
Sleigh Bells Bird Fire Gong (reiterating)
Triangle Train Steamboat Whistle
Horse Hoofs Auto Horn Siren
Surf Effect Fire Gong Tom-Tom
     
operated by push button:  
Door Bell    
         
 
M.P. Möller, Inc.
Hagerstown, Md. – Opus 1947 (1915)
Electro-pneumatic action
4 manuals, 69 stops, 31 ranks


Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
           
Sources:
     Cinema Treasures web site: http://www.cinematreasures.org
     Junchen, David L. Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, Vol. 1. Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1985.
     Junchen, David L. The WurliTzer Pipe Organ – An Illustrated History. Compiled and edited by Jeff Weiler. Chicago: The American Theatre Organ Society, 2005.
     Kaufmann, Preston J. Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, Vol. 3. Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1995.

Photo:
    Cinema Treasures web site. Exterior.