Old movie house organs still filling theater seats

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The line that starts forming outside Richmond's Byrd Theater well before showtime every Saturday night is hardly an unlikely sight for Washingtonians used to cult films and world premieres. But the Byrd is a second-run movie house, meaning that the films it shows have been out for quite a while.

So what's the story here?

The answer comes when the crowd, a diverse group of younger folk, old-timers and families, settles into the Byrd's cavernous auditorium complete with French Empire appointments and an 18-foot chandelier hanging from a central dome.

The house lights dim, and from the depths of the orchestra pit rises the centerpiece of it all, a spotlit theater organ, built especially for this theater back in 1928 and played with aplomb by master organist Bob Gulledge. The crowd cheers. There are even a few "woo-hoos."

"I love the sound when he plays," says Blake Butler, 13, from Mechanicsville, Va. "Dad plays the organ in church, but there's nothing like the Mighty Wurlitzer."

The Mighty Wurlitzer. The very phrase conjures up images of a largely vanished time, when grand movie palaces dotted downtowns and folks got dressed up to see the show.

Just don't expect to find any in the District: Our own movie palaces and their organs are long gone. You'll have to venture farther afield to check out the vintage tones of a Wurlitzer or a Kimball.

But they are there to be heard, whether in solo performances, accompanying a silent film or, as at the Byrd, before a show of "talkies." And they are all within a two-hour drive of town.

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The 1928 Byrd Theater operates 365 days a year, and a glimpse of its elaborate interior alone is enough to make a jaunt to Richmond worth the price of gas. But Saturday nights are special, because that's when the Wurlitzer wows the crowd before the movie show.