Bloggin’ ain’t easy! (Apologies to Big Daddy Kane)

Trying to entertain and educate the South Florida Theater Organ Society reader is a tough task.

One of the difficulties of being a blogger for a theater organ society, is trying to tie different subjects together, like organs with soda fountains. Since our next meeting on March 30 at 7:00 pm of the SFTOS includes a lecture, “The History of the Soda Fountain” by historian Robert Fenney, I scratched my head and thought, “These two inventions have nothing in common.”

But before I jumped into researching these inventions, I recalled my small town drugstore. Rashkins—owned by Dave and Sylvia, which was my favorite soda fountain hangout. I remembered the number of hours my elbows rested on the marble counter as my butt sat squarely on the red faux leather, circular, spinning stools. I watched the soda fountain jerk toss a scoop of butter pecan ice cream into the aluminum shaker.
The cold metal shaker felt so good in my hands.

The jerk wore the obligatory white paper hat with its red stripe while whipping up a lime rickey, or a root beer float or an egg cream or an chocolate ice cream shake.

I also recalled going up to the Lodge at Wakulla Springs, near Tallahassee, with the family. We sat at their 1920’s soda fountain counter; watched the kids noisily, sucking up–through red and white stripe straws—thick strawberry malted shakes out of ice-cold silver mixing canisters.

We were riding high in April with love of family, ice cream and nostalgia filling our hearts as the Wurlitzer jukebox played in the background.

Well back to my search for commonalities between soda fountains and theater organs. To my great surprise the nexuses popped up like corn in the fields.

Here they are.

Both theater organs and soda fountains:

1. Had their heydays (Didn’t we all) Over seven thousand theater organs installed from 1913 to 1933;

2. Were highly popular in the 1920s (The Golden Years);

3. Had periods of disfavor. This happened to theater organs in the 1940’s. Imagine one day your housed in a magnificent movie palace playing Strauss and a year later your slumming it in a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor playing ragtime and Dixieland jazz. Well that’s life! Frank put the words to song, “You’re riding high in April, shot down in May.”

Many theater organs fell out of use and many were scrapped or abandoned to trash heaps—only later to be rediscovered and rescued by preservationists, the American Theater Organ Society members (formed in 1955), collectors and enthusiasts;

4. Were almost killed off by the march of progress (The talkies and Dairy Queens);

5. Served a valuable function as public spaces where neighbors socialized;

6. Had a professional performing before an audience—one a highly talented musician and the other one called a “jerk”;

7. Brought us back to a nostalgic era. Thereby allowing us to sing Mary Hopkin’s immortal lyrics:

“Those were the days my friend,

We thought they’d never end…”;

8. Brought joy into our lives and still do.

So what life lessons can we learn from such disparate objects as a theater organ and a soda fountain.

Well, they’re just like us older folks:

They had heydays;

They had periods of popularity;

Only to be followed by periods of disuse and abandonment;

They needed preservation.

But hopefully, just like the theater organ and the soda fountain, we brought joy into the lives of those we loved—that’s what makes us immortal—just like these two great American icons.

Want a trip down memory lane, then come to our next SFTOS meeting at Joel and Pam Jancko’s Our Backyard Museum.

Want to remember your favorite soda fountain—two straws in one soda glass, your favorite ice cream flavor and hear the sweetest organ music in South Florida played by resident organist Stephen Brittain on the Opus 1616.

So don’t be a puppet, a pauper, a pirate— but become a king by joining the SFTOS and reserving your seat for the lecture and concert on March 30.

So don’t find yourself flat on your face, pick yourself up and contact our President Susie Tuchklaper at events@sftos.org for all info.

Joinin’ is easy!

I met Connie as she trodded off the treadmill.

“How many minutes?” I asked.

Huffing and puffing, Connie replied, “Thirty.”

“That’s pretty good. But have you started preparing for our Beresheet landing party on April 11th?”

“Yup, I found some noise makers and two Purim groggers for us to swing when it lands. I repainted the groggers with a picture of the landing craft on the lunar surface.”

“Wow! You’re really getting into the party spirit. Well, I ordered each of us the Beresheet T-shirts and I placed an order for a sheet cake from Publix.”

“Cool. Any words written on the cake or just a picture?” Connie inquired.

“Words and a drawing. It reads: A DREAM, A MISSION, A MIRACLE AND A NEW BEGINNING. The drawing is from the photo Beresheet shot of itself from outer space.”

“Connie, have you seen the selfie?”

“Yup, pretty cool photography— with the Earth in the background. The satellite’s plaque has the Israeli flag on it,  the words in English ‘SMALL COUNTRY, BIG DREAMS’ and in Hebrew, it says, “The people of Israel live.”

“The anti-Semites on the Internet are saying the pic was photoshopped. That the whole mission is a fake.”

“You know what I say to those antisemitten?”

“Nope.” Connie replied.

“They can shove our dishwasher-sized robot up their tuchus‘—to that dark  place where the Sun and Moon don’t shine.”

Connie laughed.

“On the other hand, 99% of the online comments cheered Israel on—with congratulations and love. Those positive messages came from all around the world.”

“Connie, now you’ve become Tevya on me—with all this ‘on the other hand stuff.'”

“Mort, you know I like to look at both sides of the argument. That way you have a better chance of seeing the big picture.”

“Remember the big picture the last time we talked, we discussed good luck charms on Beresheet. Well, I read the entire manifest; I made notes on what’s on board the moon lander and in its time capsule.”

“Mort, I’m listening.”

I pulled the list out of my pocket and read:

“Three discs with 30 million pages of information including: children’s drawing of the Moon, the Torah, the recollections of a Holocaust survivor, Israeli songs, works of art, literature and photos of Israel’s landscape. a photo of Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut. He died on the fatal mission of the Columbia and one full version of all material in Wikipedia. The last item serves as a backup to humanity’s knowledge. Just in case our planet takes a hit.”

“Wait a effing minute! Do you know how many times ‘know-it-alls’ have told me never to quote Wiki because it is unreliable; now future generations of mankind and aliens are going to study Wikipedia as the knowledge base of our civilization!” Connie exclaimed.

“Yup, but on the other hand, since the space engineers didn’t put a hamsa or a mezuzah on board at least the aliens will be able to read about them on their Wiki pages.”

Connie smiled.

“Connie, two aliens meet on the Moon in the year 3019, they examine Beresheet’s time capsule. One alien voices his exasperation, ‘Meshugenahs! No Hamsas! No Mezuzahs! These primitive creatures new nothing about space travel.'”

Connie belly laughed.

“Then other alien says, ‘On the other hand, these Earthlings seem pretty smart. They new the value of Wikipedia.'”

Connie didn’t laugh or smile but added, “You got any more?”

“Yah one more. Both aliens look quizzically at each other, one exclaims, ‘Gevalt! Oy, vey is mir! 30 million pages of information and they forgot a recipe for gefilte fish!'”

Connie giggled.

“Now that there is going to be a digital Torah on the Moon, it’s time for the party planners to start thinking destination lunar Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.”

“Connie, talking about parties, how many people are we going to invite to our Beresheet party?”

“Mort, I thought opening it up to all the members of the JCC. We can ask them to RSVP, to get a sense of how many will show up.”

Wow! You’re really thinking big picture. Wouldn’t it be great if Temples, Hebrew Schools, Evangelical Churches and JCCs across the globe threw Beresheet landing parties.

I paused for dramatic effect.

“Well, on the other hand, that project sounds like a lot of work.”

Connie smiled and shook her head as if questioning why she even bothers talking to me.

Mort Laitner is an author and a public speaker. He resides in Cooper City and can be contacted at mortlaitner@bellsouth.net

 

I’m in Joel and Pam Jancko’s “Our Backyard Museum” studying their Opus 1616. I note that this theater organ was manufactured by the Wurlitzer Company in 1927.

It’s almost a hundred years old and I think, “That name rings a bell. Wurlitzer—a name from my past.”

“I got it! It was that South Fallsburg restaurant, right next to the bridge, the waterfalls and where the roads crossed—The Crossways. A culinary establishment that housed a Wurlitzer jukebox. In those days juke boxes were in every bar, lounge and in most restaurants. They were money makers.

The Crossways’ Wurlitzer was a beauty– glowing neon in red, yellow, blue, green and orange. This musical rainbow machine was framed in glistening chrome. Just looking at it made you happy. Touching this electronic work of art warmed your heart.

Back in the Sixties, Joel, Pam and I loved Crossway’s pizzas, Cokes and our favorite Beatles tunes playing on the Wurlitzer.

The Crossways’ pizza’s: tomato sauce tasted so sweet; the mozzarella cheese or was it provolone dripped warm oil down our chins; and the crust had just the right amount crunch and chewiness.

Washing  a mouth full of Crossways pizza down with an ice-cold Coke made teenage life almost perfect or a least almost bearable.

The only thing missing at the Crossways was Arthur Fonzarelli tapping on the Wurlitzer and getting a free play. Those were our “Happy Days.”

Happy days where we studied the jukebox’s selection of the newest hits. (This activity required much discussion. Life was much more difficult in the Sixties.) Then, we memorized the letter/number combination to play our selections and dropped a quarter in the machine—this fact is still hard to believe— for which we got three songs.

Then we pushed in the combination of buttons and not only did we get rock & roll music, we got to watch the robotic arm select the record, lift it up and lay it on the record deck. The Wurlitzer way too cool.

Well on April 13, 2019, at Our Backyard Museum, there will be no Cokes, no pizzas, no Fonzie. But the South Florida Theater Organ Society has a Wurlitzer theater organ and has paid a lot more than a hand full of quarters to hire the United Kingdom’s most renowned theater organist, Simon Gledhill to play the Opus 1616.

In 1997, Simon won the ATOS Organist of the Year Award.

Simon’s first experience with a theater organ was when he heard the “Mighty Wurlitzer” at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom.

This concert will be a sold out.

So if you what to relive your “Happy Days” and warm your heart become a member and reserve your seat for the April 13th Simon Gledhill concert. Contact events@sftos.org for more information.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Tuchklaper, our President Susie and Marvin’s beloved son.