Crescendo! Episode 166 - The Roxy and Chicago Stadium Consoles 

I remember when ATOS had the convention in Chicago ND ATTENDING AT THE Chicago Stadium. To go from the first balcony to the second I had to walk all the way down to the ground floor and the take a different staircase to the second balcony just to take pictures down on the console. Glad I was a youngster then and not 75 as I am now!

The Chicago Stadium organ is one of the first I ever heard, about 1949.

I'm so glad to see that Phil Maloof got the Chicago Stadium Barton console! It's a real shame all the pipework got burned up in a fire, but the chambers that it is now connected to, serve that massive console well.😉 Great demo on both consoles Mark!!😁🎵🎶🎵👍👍

The Chicago Stadium Organ brings back memories from the good old Chicago Blackhawks Games! It should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto! I think it would be nice it would make a great visit to the United Center too! The Hawks fans would like that too!

Fabulous - Like the flight of the bumblebee at the end!

👍...words cannot describe the musical pleasure your demo provides.....

Unbelievable that they still have the organ from the Roxy Theater! I read a story about 50 years ago that said that the theater was torn down long before that article was published. It said that the organ had been saved but was in parts in some warehouse! Glad SOMEBODY has restored it. But I wish that it was on public exhibition somewhere. The Roxy theater was an incredible place. They had like a dozen ushers who were inspected down to their fingernails by the head usher!

I was playing the Barton and accidentally started the B-52. Not many toy counters have one of those. What a magnificent console to sit at. My dad played it - and stunned all of us at his prowess. The Roxy Kimball is a pretty special organ, too. Fun times for a real novice at the keyboard.

Hes awsome his fingers just float across the keyboard just delightful, awsome

Absolutely magnificent. Very seldom have I had my soul awakened and my total being absorbed with such wonderful and beautiful musical sound! Thank you very much

Amazing. Great. Chapeau! Like this.

Magnificent, many thanks.

Such a beautifully grand sound

Absolutely amazing! I enjoyed every note of it!

I have a record album of Al Melgard playing the Barton. I think the record was made in 1958. On the back cover of the album there is a story about the time there was a prize fight at the stadium when the crowd got out of control, and Al taking charge of the situation, opened all the stops, and played the Storm. Windows and chandeliers came crashing down when that 100 horsepower motor bellowed through all of the pipes.He thought he was going to get fired because of that, but they offered him the job for life.

What a magnificent instrument! For the opening he played just a snippet of the Sinfonia by Bach. What a wonderful pipe organ sound! and wished he could have played the full Sinfonia which was popularized by the late Virgil Fox.

Sorry to read about Johnny Seng’s passing. I knew him when I was a teen. We often went to Joliet with Tom Sheen to hang out while an organization restored that instrument. Seng was the staff organist at Wurlitzer, and a magnificent talent. P

Super excellent with very good interesting video

Probably asked too much, but here goes. Tour? I've been attempting it for about 6 years. I joined the Maloof foundation to see if they send anything out. Well, after a couple years, not so much. Well, I realize the one I joined is the art museum. I'm out in Vegas about once a year, usually in April. This year (2020) I moved the trip to September. I've done other organ tours like Wanamaker and Midmer-losh.

Super excellent

I attended hockey games at the Chicago Stadium and the organ sounds great. Also, is it me, but it looks much cleaner than when it was in the loft at the Stadium...

I think the dog was singing along!

I take it Chicago Stadium had six ranks of strings back in the day.

Sounds so much like Radio City Music Hall.

A person who can't get a "lift" from music like this is bad off, indeed.

Great sounds from the Kimball. Re dog bark: Put 4' tibia, tibia twelfth and 2 ft stops, trems off. Palm of hand down on as many notes together staccato on the octave above middle C, and this gives a good imitation of a dog bark. So that's - say - 15 notes including harmonics, all playing together in utter dissonance. With a noise level possibly over 100 dB(A), no wonder a dog's bark is so annoying - worse than the noise of fingernails scraping down a blackboard IMO. (I don't mind the latter so much myself although I remember the effect on some of my classmates when the teacher's chalk slipped and fingernails screeched down the blackboard - such is the subjective power of sound/noise!)

Блестящий!

They need to put that organ in the United Center!

Sadly Phil passed away in 2020. I am curious what is going to happen to this console? Does anyone know!

The Chicago Stadium Barton Pipe Organ should be at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

So glad to come across this today, Mark! I am appreciative of the fact that this Barton console is now being used once again. I worked for the Berghaus Organ company of Bellwood, IL when the organ had it's percussive section re-built. I worked with George Anderson on them some and help to re-install them. The instrument was quite a monster to work on with it's High wind pressures and volume that it could put out. Years later I went out on my own and serviced and rebuilt organs in IN, and IL. And more recently I had your company Artisan Instrument build the electronics for my custom digital organ at home, which I love dearly! I am curious to know if any of that pipe work is in the organ, or is it digital or both? Thanks again for a great show of what this instrument could do! James Begly

Why not put it in the united center? if they have to remove it and relocate it.

Is that how the Barton would’ve sounded at the Chicago Stadium?

i enjoy the big barton but it has hot the same feeling from the chicago stadium with the echo....it dosen't feel powerfull like the old days..

Oh my. :-O

Mark, do these organs share pipes? Any Artisan voices?

Are both of these consoles hooked up to the same organ?

Dang shame the organ wasn't moved to the new stadium.

Phil Maloof passed away April 4th from complications from coronavirus.

Wonderfully cheesy :)

Do we really need such pompousness............................................................................................

When recording is going on, it's very inconsiderate of Maloof not to keep his barking dog in another room.