Great playing, and the Publix sounds great! Listening to Dick's playing, I suspect he was also one hell of a Hammond player. Does anyone know if that was the case and if there are any recordings of that? Did he do cocktail piano as well? The reason I ask is that many of the great musicians of this era are largely forgotten, and so many of them had unique styles on more than one instrument. Thanks for uploading this, Elliot!
I’m glad you enjoyed it!! I’m sure Dick did some promotions for either Hammond or Conn. He probably played at Sherman & Clay in Seattle who was the Hammond dealer at the time. I know he worked with Russ Evans on restoring the Paramount, or at least getting it to playing condition. I’d have to ask Russ, but I suspect he did some piano playing in bars around the area as well. Many organists had to have “day jobs” so to speak, playing clubs and lounges when they weren’t in the theater’
The console on the Paramount's Publix 1 (Wurlitzer Opus 1819) is not a replacement of the original, but rather is a rebuild and respec of the original by the late great Ken Crome. This is the only commercial recording of Opus 1819 to date, though the PSTOS archives have many full concert recordings.
Dick Schrum was also an excellent organist on the Hammond organ and played cocktail piano. I knew him well and hired Dick as my organist when I had a small organ for a few years in the Neptune Theater in Seattle.
