"Ourselves," the weekly newsletter of the company, announced the gift in its April 24, 1925 issue, noting that plans had been underway some time for its purchase and installation. Employees W.M. Isham, Assistant Office Manager: Harry Whitney, who was also a church organist; and T.C. Jewett, had spearheaded the plans for the organ. It was a given that the installation would not be completed till around March, 1926, but it was hoped that it would be sufficiently functional to perform its first concert - a Christmas concert - by December. Obviously, they succeeded.
The enormous organ required space involving four floors of the L.A.B. The 25 horse-power motor necessary to operate the organ was located in the basement. The beautiful carved mahogany console occupied space in the first floor light court, with a Steinway Concert Grand Piano placed nearby. The main organ was located in the north end fourth floor balcony area. A wall of pipes regally overlooked the light court from the fifth floor north balcony.
The pipes! Figures vary depending on the source of information, from 6691 to 7396 to 7700. Gilded with gold paint, the display pipes reigned awesomely over the light court and balconies. A beautiful mural painted by the company artist, Alexander O. Levy, played homage to the organ from below the pipes on the fifth floor balcony wall.
Mythical musicians were portrayed in the aptly named artwork, "the Spirit of Music."
Parts of the organ were connected with 2 ½ to 3 inch diameter cables containing over 1000 separately insulated wires.
The organ, with all its parts and including the Steinway piano, weighed over 30 tons.
The article in "Ourselves" noted that "...It can be said without an exaggeration that we shall have not only the largest, finest and most costly organ in the city, but one of the finest in the country." The author added, "To those who know the majesty and beauty of organ music, and can visualize the completed instrument, practically three stories high, in our Administration Building, there is a a promise of something to glory in, something added to our Golden Anniversary Year that is worthy of the event with which it is connected."
In an article written subsequent to the installation of the organ, the unnamed author provided an analysis of the organ's stoplist of pipes and pedals, comparing it to "the multi-layered quality reminiscent of many large 16
th
to 18
th
century European organs...The lavish approach meant that a tonal cornucopia could be created, a Joseph's Coat of Color." It seemed an old-fashioned style for Frank Lloyd Wright's contemporary design, the author observed, but "as a tone producer, it has a leonine dignity all its own."
Three people were authorized to play the organ: Harry Whitney, W.M. Isham (who had also written the music and lyrics of the official Golden Anniversary song, recording it on the Larkin labeled record to be played on the Larkin premium symphonola, all of which can be viewed and - on request - heard in our Larkin Gallery),
and another Isham family member who was employed by the L.S.C as the Larkin wearing apparel buyer but who was also an amateur organ player who played by ear. Lloyd Klos, writing in October, 1970, noted that company supervisors had been instructed that if any guest in the building (they received about 5000 guests a year) desired to hear the organ, they were to ask one of these organists to play, and regardless of what he was doing, his work would be second to playing the organ. These employee-organists also readily played special requests from any of the 2000 employees.
The L.A.B. also became, in effect, a concert hall for special concerts given, not only by local organists who desired the opportunity to play this magnificent instrument, but also by renowned national and
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international organists. For instance, Pietro Yon, a world famous organist and composer, Honorary Organist of the Vatican in Rome and Music Director of St. Patrick Cathedral in New York City, gave a recital on November 13, 1934.
In 1926 a great Belgian organist, Firmin Swinnen, performed a recital for several hundred invited guests.
At Christmas time each year the L.S.C. held concerts and choraling throughout the day. Members of the community were free to come in to the work place to listen to and enjoy the music. An employee, Francis Burnet Frazee,
wrote for the Buffalo Arts Journal's January 1927 issue, about the 1926 Larkin Christmas party for employees and their families at which over 8000 people attended throughout the afternoon and evening to hear the organ being played.
On Fridays at noon, local organists were invited in to perform. In 1932 Tuesday concerts were broadcast over radio station WEBR.
Figures vary about the cost of the organ and its installation, ranging from $60,000 to $110,000. The disparity may be the result of the larger figure including installation, while the smaller figure is limited to the purchase. What is clear is that the expenses were not corporate expenses. J.D.L. made the gift from his own pocket. It was truly a gift to his employees - his Larkin family - for whom he felt tremendous affection.
Frazee writes about a brief encounter he had with J.D.L during that first concert. I have quoted this in a previous article, but it bears repetition. Frazee had noticed J.D.L. standing in the light court by himself, listening to the music, and commented to him about its beauty. J.D.L.s response was:
"Isn't it beautiful that we may all enjoy it together. I hope
the day will come when it may be amplified throughout the
entire plant so that the men at work in the warehouse and power
house and all through all of our buildings may enjoy it with us."
As beautiful as it was, J.D.L's thoughts were of those employees who had not yet had the opportunity to hear the organ.
Frazee, in his article entitled, "Where Culture and Commerce Meet," written about a year after that first concert, contemplated:
"...it is not too early to reckon its influence on us all. One
cannot hear it played, as it is frequently during the day, without
gratitude for all it brings to upbuild and feed the cultural side of
our lives. Surely where music is sweet, concord reigns, and one
goes about the daily task with that happy, cheery outlook, that
free and buoyant spirit which is a guarantee of work well-performed."
J.D.L. had died after a brief illness at the age of 81 six weeks after that Christmas concert, in February, 1926. Frazee mused that "J.D.L. left us all a beneficent influence that will make nearer and dearer and richer and fuller the family life we all live in this great humane organization. But he has done infinitely more than this! He has blended, as was always his desire, the cultural with the commercial. He provided for our daily work-a-day lives, an inspirational element out of which the spirit of an organization may rise to things which transcend the merely commercial."
What happened to the Moller organ, I am frequently asked. As the L.S.C. fell into increasingly dire financial circumstances in the late 1930's and after the L.A.B. was foreclosed upon by the city of Buffalo for unpaid taxes, the organ was sold to Schlicker Organ Co. for $6000. It was dismantled and parts of it sold to several churches before the L.A.B. was demolished in 1950.
Bynum Petty, in his article, "A Temple of Commerce: Soaps, Perfumes, Peanut Butter, and a Moller Organ," (The Tracker, Spring 2014), concludes:
"The destruction of Wright's building ranks among
America's worst man-made architectural disasters, and
the same could be said of the Moller organ."
