Originally installed in The Ritz, Stockport, this Wurlitzer Union Special cinema organ is now established in Pollockshaws Burgh Hall, Glasgow, where it is looked after by The Scottish Cinema Organ Trust. Union Cinemas Ltd owned The Ritz cinema chain and had made three of these organs.

This is an electrically operated, 80+ year old, 10 tonne device. It has art deco lights which change colour surrounding the instrument. Hand and foot dexterity is transferred from the organ keyboard, switches, stops and pedals at the front of the hall to the organ loft at the back of the hall, from where a huge range of organ pipes and other devices deliver the music.

In the early days of the cinema, when movies were silent, atmospheric music and sound effects were provided by musicians, most luxuriously, perhaps, by an orchestra or, more economically, by a solo pianist. The cinema organ must have fallen somewhere in the middle of this range, being operated by a single musician yet being an instrument capable of filling an auditorium with a huge voluminous sound, and in addition having the ability to provide sound effects with cymbals, drums, bells, xylophones, chimes and other percussive and wind instruments.

Link The Cinema Organ Society
See this Wikipedia entry