Tom O'Horgan Residence

840 Broadway at 13th Street
New York, NY 10003

Organ Specifications:
► I/3 Flentrop Orgelbouw (1973)
► I/1 "Regal" – Flentrop Orgelbouw


 
  O'Horgan in "The Swamp" (1972)
Chicago-born Tom O'Horgan (1924-2009) was an American theatre and film director and composer. Most of his early career work was in off-Broadway experimental theatre productions at such places as "La MaMa", a theatre club in the East Village. In 1974, he conceived and directed a stage adaptation of the Beatles' classic recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. O'Horgan made his Broadway directorial debut in 1968 with the ground-breaking musical Hair, garnering a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical. Additional Broadway credits include Lenny, Jesus Christ Superstar, Dude, Inner City, The Leaf People, and I Won't Dance. O'Horgan has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director three times, for Lenny, Futz!, and Tom Paine, and was named Theatrical Director of the Year by Newsweek in 1968. O'Horgan composed the score for and directed the screen adaptation of Futz! with Frederic Forrest, Sally Kirkland, and Jennifer O'Neill, composed the score for Alex in Wonderland, and directed the film version of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros with Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, and Karen Black.

Since the early 1980s, Tom O'Horgan lived in a 2,600-square-foot loft in Union Square, at 840 Broadway and East 13th Street. Mr. O'Horgan described his loft as a "junk shop in the sky" and a "wunderkabinett full of everything you could put in it" in a New York Times interview. In addition to a large expanse of indoor greenery known as "the swamp", the loft housed Mr. O'Horgan's huge collection of rare and unusual musical instruments, including horns, harps, dulcimers, oboes, serpents, bagpipes, shakuhachis, a huge 350-year-old Japanese gong, a whole family of smaller Oriental gongs, drums, thumb pianos, xylophones, organs, wind chimes, and dozens of medieval and Renaissance instruments of every size and description. His collections also included didgeridoos, tribal masks, fossils, dinosaur bones and show posters. In 2007, Mr. O'Horgan sold his loft and held a sale of its contents, with plans to retire in New Mexico. Mr. O'Horgan died at his home in Venice, Florida, on January 11, 2009, after years of suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
           
Flentrop Orgelbouw B.V.
Zaandam, The Netherlands (1973)
Mechanical key and stop action
1 manual, 3 stops




This organ was completely restored in November 2007 by Meloni & Farrier, and moved to the retirement home of Tom O’Horgan in New Mexico.
 
  Flentrop at Meloni & Farrier shop

 
Manual – 49 notes
8 Gedeckt
49
2 Principal
49
8 Regal
49

           
Flentrop Orgelbouw B.V.
Zaandam, The Netherlands
Mechanical key and stop action
1 manual, 1 stop



Tom O'Horgan owned a table-top "Regal" by Flentrop that is operated by two hand bellows in the rear; there is also an inlet for an optional blower. The Regal is currently awaiting restoration by Meloni & Farrier of New York City.

 
Manual – 49 notes
8 Regal
49
             
Sources:
     Hopwood, Jon C. Biography for Tom O'Horgan. IMDb web site: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641415/bio
     Meloni, Anthony. Specifications of Flentrop organs.
     Robertson, Campbell. "For Sale: Odds and Ends of a Life in the Theatre," The New York Times (Nov. 1, 2007).
     Gruen, John. "Do You Mind Critics Calling You Cheap, Decadent, Sensationalistic, Gimmicky, Vulgar, Overinflated, Megalomaniacal?" The New York Times Magazine (Jan. 2, 1972).
     Martin, Douglas. "Tom O’Horgan, 84, Director of ‘Hair,’ Is Dead," The New York Times (Jan. 13, 2009).
     Wedemeyer, Dee. "A Lofe in the Key of Avant-Garde," The New York Times (May 5, 1977).
     Wikipedia.com. Tom O'Horgan biography. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_O'Horgan

Illustrations:
     Meloni, Anthony. 1973 Flentrop organ.
     The New York Times Magazine (Jan. 2, 1972). Photo of Tom O'Horgan.