I'm Jon Habermaas and I live in Lindenhurst, Il...just a short 10 minutes south of the Cheddar Curtain. I have been fascinated with pipe organs since I first saw and heard that 3/34 Casavant pipe organ in the southside Chicago church where I grew up in.

A friend of my dad, who owned a local plumbing co., had a style D WurliTze (OPUS 1100) in his home, and at about 8 or 9 I got a chance to try out some of my piano pieces on it. Somehow they sounded much different with the xylophone and pipes. That was the first pipe organ I ever played and several years ago I had a chance to purchase it and it is in the final stages of installation in my home. It is still the same style D that came out of Roseland's Parkway Theatre over a half century ago.

After high school I went to work for a local Chicago organ builder, D. S. Wentz. His operation was a little different than most of the other local organ men as he maintained a shop and shop staff, while most of the other organ local organ men just did service work on location. We did quite a bit of shop work for many of the other local organ men, chest releathering, reservoirs, etc. It was a great experience, although most of our organ work was on Moller organs, since Wentz also sold several rebuilt organs a year, it was a chance to work on a variety of builders work, Estey, Kimball, Reuter, Hinners, Tellers..etc. We would often work with the Reuter rep Frank Wichlac when extra help was needed to install a new organ and the Moller rep Gus Fabry. Like Wentz, Gus eventually left Moller to start his own business, which ironically was located for many years in Lindenhurst, Il.

Wentz truly loved pipe organs and his shop was open 7 days a week, 6 days for business, and Sundays when he had open house for those who were known in the business as amatuers...or what we are...home organ owners. I spent many a Sunday in that shop and it was because of Wentz that I had my first pipe organ, which had many "goodies" that were provided by Mr. Wentz...(when Wentz was with Moller it is reported that he developed the "baby cry" which appeared in several Moller Theatre Organs. The Roseland State 3/12 Moller was equipped with a "Wentz Baby Cry" ) When I worked for Wentz he was in his seventies and had heart problems. When he died in the late fifties, that ended my career in the organ business.

I went into the Navy and after moving my 2/8 Robert Morton hybrid several times, I decided that owning a pipe organ was too difficult with the many moves in a Navy career. I regret selling the organ as it did not survive as an intact instrument and I have run into parts of it from time to time.

I spent 20 years in the Navy and retired as a Chief Petty Officer in 1980. Because of the Navy I had opportunities to visit organ installations all over the country, including the two Mortons in Hawaii. After I retired from the Navy I was hired as a maintenance engineer at one of the local Chicago TV stations, repairing and installing Television equipment.

My dad was a professional organist who's dream of a theatre organ career ended with the "talkies". In his later years he was able to earn a living as an organist, but at the Hammond and not the pipe organ. He was very happy with the basement Robert Morton and played theatre pipes whenever he had a chance.

I found out that I was more of a tinkerer than player and have only dabbled at the keyboard over the years. I am back to taking organ lessons and hope eventually be more that just a dabbler. ( I have the secret ambition to someday play the entire Widor's 5th Symphony. Won't be this year and probably not next year either, )

I am currently the newsletter editor for the local theatre organ club (CATOE) and am helping get their website off the ground. Although my involvement is primarily with theatre organs, I enjoy most organ music and like to crank up the old Leon Barry records from the Hub Rink. I draw the line before Ken Griffin and The Happy Organ, but. I do like the "Three Suns", (guess that really dates me), and of course most serious organ music.

Jon C. Habermaas, January 2000

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