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Over time Wurlitzer changed to producing only its organs and jukeboxes, but it no longer produces either. The factory, in the same complex as that of the Eugene DeKleist company (another maker of band organs and orchestrions, acquired by Wurlitzer), is in North Tonawanda , New York, USA. It now houses apartments as well as separate factory units. JUKEBOXES The Wurlitzer was the iconic jukebox of the Rock 'n Roll era, to the extent that Wurlitzer came in some places to be a generic name for any jukebox. The Wurlitzer is often used to invoke the period in films and television; for example, the show Happy Days prominently featured a Wurlitzer model 1015. A Wurlitzer jukebox is prominently featured in the 2006 movie V For Vendetta in V's hideout. Replica jukeboxes bearing the Wurlitzer name are still available. More recent models are able to play CDs. BAND ORGANS Band organ models once produced by Wurlitzer include #103 ( Flying Horses Carousel , Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts , USA), #104, #146A, #146B, #153 ( Antique Carousel , Canobie Lake Park , Salem, New Hampshire , USA), #157 ( King Arthur's Carrousel , Disneyland Park, Anaheim, California , USA), and #165 ( Glen Echo Park Dentzel Carousel , Glen Echo, Maryland , USA). Some orchestrions made by the company can be found at Clark's Trading Post , Lincoln, New Hampshire , USA. The company's patents, trademarks and assets were acquired by the Baldwin Company . THEATRE ORGANS Perhaps the most famous instruments Wurlitzer built were its Pipe Organ s (from 1914 until around 1940), which were installed in theaters, homes, churches, and other public places. "The Mighty Wurlitzer" Theatre Organ was designed, originally by Robert Hope-Jones , as a "one man orchestra" to accompany silent movies. In all, Wurlitzer built over 2,200 pipe organs (and indeed more theatre organs than the rest of the theatre organ manufacturers combined); the largest one originally built was the 4/58 instrument at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Music Hall instrument is actually a concert instrument, capable of playing classical as well as non-classical repertoire. It was the only Wurlitzer installation still in use that has dual identical, but independent consoles. Other large Wurlitzer organs still in their ''original'' locations include the in Miami, Oklahoma; the Denver Paramount Theatre in Denver, Colorado. Smaller instruments in the UK exist in their original installations, such as the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn and the Blackpool Tower Ballroom in the UK. These instruments are still being played several times a week. Much larger, and more versatile, theatre organs have been built in the last 20 years by well-heeled private enthusiasts, the largest being the magnificent 5 keyboard, 80 rank (sets of pipes) organ at the Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington, IL. Other examples include the San Sylmar, CA Nethercutt Collection 4/77, the Organ Stop, Mesa, AZ 4/77, and the John Dickinson High School Wilmington, DE 3/66 mostly W.W. Kimball. These were built by a combination of older organs, and new pipework to achieve results. New digital recreations of these instruments have else reached technological peaks in the last few years. Companies such as Walker Theatre Organs, Allen Organ Company & Rodgers Instruments have utilized high-level, digital sampling of original pipe organ sounds to incorporate into their electronic instruments, resulting in very close duplications of these original musical wonders. In the 1950s, the American Association Of Theater Organ Enthusiats ( AATOE ) was formed to save and preserve theater organs that still remained. (There were other builders as well, including The John Compton Organ Co. LTD, Hill Norman and Beard, W.W. Kimball Company , M.P. Moller , Inc., Robert Morton Organ Company, George Kilgen And Sons , Marr And Colton Organ Company, the Bartola Musical Instrument Company ( Barton Theater Organs ), and the Wicks Organ Company .) The AATOE is now know as the American Theater Organ Society (ATOS) . and there is smaller but comparable society in the UK, the Cinema Organ Society. [http://www.cinema-organs.org.uk/ Wurlitzers in Britain There were a number of Wurlitzers in Britain in the period before the Second World War (1939-45). The first was a very small instrument installed at the Picture House, Walsall in the West Midlands. A number were in the larger cinemas and broadcasts were made by the BBC on a regular basis. The more famous of these organs were at the Empire Cinema in London , The Ballroom at the tower in Blackpool , and at the Granada cinema in Tooting . British concert organist Reginald Dixon was well known for his performances on the Blackpool organ. The last new Wurlitzer to be installed in the UK was at the Opera House, Blackpool, in 1935 to the design of Horace Finch . ELECTRIC PIANOS From 1955 - 1982 the company also produced the highly regarded Wurlitzer Electric Piano range, an electrically amplified piano variant. EXTERNAL LINKS
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