By way of introduction, my name is H. J. "Joe" Zivnak. I reside in Southern California.

My interest in the organ dates from my days in grade school. I began taking lessons on a Hammond spinet my parents purchased for me when I was in the fifth grade. The first I heard of the pipe organ was a set of LP recordings of Virgil Fox at the Riverside, Ray Bohr at Radio City MH., Reg Dixon at the Tower Ballroom, and Reg Foort on the Joe Kearns Wurlitzer. I think this was published by Reader's Digest.

In my teens I graduated to an RT-3 (I still have it!) and was fortunate enough to be able to attend some of what was then ATOE's Saturday "crew sessions" at the Wiltern Kimball. I think I decided right then and there that I would own a theatre pipe organ one day.

I stopped playing the organ in my early twenties when my father passed away and I had to take over the family-owned manufacturing business.

Today, with 47 years on the clock, a wife and two daughters, I thought it was time for the older of the girls, who is 9, to start music lessons. I was going to get the Hammond out of storage for her when I thought how boring it was compared to the "real thing".

I started looking around, one thing led to another, and I am now the proud owner of Wurlitzer Opus 1839, a 235 Plus originally installed in the Palace Theatre, Indianapolis, Indiana in February 1928. The organ was purchased from Ben Thompson who removed it from the theatre in 1961.

The original components of the organ are largely intact except for the console, which was replaced with an early Style 260 refurbished by Ken Crome, and the Marimba/Harp which was replaced with a Morton. Ben also added a Devtronix relay and four more ranks to the Solo: Brass Sax (Trivo), Post Horn (Wurli), Solo String, and Oboe Horn (Gottfreid). The Plus in this case was the addition of a Horn Diapason and Brass Trumpet to the usual 11 ranks, so the organ is now 17 ranks.

As far as the project goes, I have removed the organ from the Thompson residence and it is now stored at my shop. I have started rewiring the Solo, it still had the original double cotton covered wire, and cleaning all of the pieces. I hope to do most of the installation work myself.

Email Joe