It's sad that the Senate Theatre is closing and that Detroit may end up losing one of its 4 [[not 3 as the article mentions) remaining theatre organ. The 4th organ is the Moller 3/12 organ in the lobby of the Fox Theatre [[besides the mighty Wurlitzer in the auditorium). Only 4 theatres are known to have had an independent organ in the theatre lobby [[many had pianos), and the Moller at the Fox is the only lobby organ still in its' original site.

The problem with concerts at the Senate is that the theatre is located in a rough area of Detroit, and the DTOS folks have had a hard time getting patrons to venture down there. Hence the closure of the theatre.

From what I gathered there were discussions with the Detroit Opera House [[originally Capitol Theatre of 1922) to possibly move the organ there.

The Capitol Theatre has the largest organ grilles [[on either side of the Procenium arch) of any theatre in Michigan. Therefore the Capitol's Publix 1 Wurlitzer organ of 1925 provided the best sound of any organ in Detroit... even better than the larger 4/34 Wurlitzer at the Fisher and the larger yet 4/36 Wurlitzer at the Fox. A duplicate Publix 1 Wurlitzer was installed at the State Theatre in 1925, but the organ grilles were much smaller, thus providing a poorer sound than the Capitol. Sadly the organ chambers of the Capitol have been empty since much of that old organ ended up long ago in the Oakland Paramount in California.

A move of the organ to the Capitol [[Opera House) would therefore be a great combination of wonderful venue and organ.

However, the devil is in the details. The DTOS folks wanted virtually unlimited [[24 hour) access to the organ, which the Detroit Opera House logistically could not provide. Also, during operas, the organ console would have to be temporarily moved, because of the orchestra pit space needs of operas, again something that was unacceptable to the DTOS folks.

The Fisher's 4/34 Wurlitzer organ was a special order one of a kind instrument. Several of the 7 Fisher brothers played the organ at their family church, and wanted to have the Fisher organ have some of the attributes that a church organ had. So an order was placed at the Wurlitzer's North Tonawanda, NY organ company HQ that specified specific requirements that no other theatre organ had. The Fisher organ is probably the 8th largest surviving theatre organ in the country. It would be a shame to see it leave Detroit.

A "little birdie" told me that the principal donor of the Fisher organ lives in Ann Arbor, and he's working with a professor at the U of M to get them to build/provide a new location for this unique instrument.... which I guess is better than seeing it leave the state. But it would be a loss for Detroit to lose this wonderful instrument, whose console still bears the vibrant colors and details of the incredible [[but destroyed) Mayanesque style old Fisher Theatre.

You just cannot move a large theatre organ to just any space and expect it to have great sound [[such as a suburban Chucky Cheese's). It requires theatre like space with a proper mix of acoustics and organ chamber size and location.

My personal 2nd choice [[after the Detroit Opera House) location for this wonderful instrument would be if the Ilitch's were actually restoring the Detroit United Artists Theatre.... a theatre that also has massive organ grilles and wonderful acoustics. But we still don't know exactly what the Ilitch's are doing with the newly roofed and cleaned up United Artists [[Theatre and Building). But a restored United Artists with the Fisher organ would be a match made in heaven!