Tag Archives: The House With a Clock in its Walls

20th Century-Fox organ found and restored!

This was maybe my favorite story so far this year. Composer Nathan Barr (The Americans) loves mechanical musical instruments from the early 20th century. So he went after the biggest one imaginable: a Wurlitzer organ from the silent-movie era. And not just any Wurlitzer: the one that, from 1928 to 1997, resided on the scoring stage at 20th Century-Fox (for which such legendary composers as Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith wrote). Barr found it, brought it back to L.A., spent a fortune restoring it, and even built a new recording studio to house it. It’s an extraordinary story, published here in Variety, and I was thrilled to be the first to pass along the details. (Photos by Dan Goldwasser.)