A Kimball Keepsake Don Thompson at the Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA and the Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville PA Available on CD CD $17 Quantity:   UK Customers Only (PPD): CD 12 GBP Quantity:

To hear samples of the tracks on this cd, click on the track names below.
(The player will continue to play each sample in sequence after your selection - click the pause or close button on the player to stop it)

01 Fanfare by Richard Purvis
02 Body and Soul
03 Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
04 Judy Garland Medley – The Boy Next Door, Meet Me in St. – The Boy Next Door, Meet Me in St. Louis, While We’re Young, Somewhere over the Rainbow, The Trolley Song
05 Rose Marie Medley – Song of the Mounties, Rose Marie, Indian Love Call, Rose Marie Reprise
06 Colonial Rag
07 The King Steps Out – The music of Fritz Kreisler includes Caprice Viennoise, Liebesfreud, Schoen Rosmarin and many others
08 Temptation
09 The Desert Song Medley – Azuri’s Dance of Triumph, Song of the Brass Key, The Desert Song, One Flower Grows Alone, One Alone, Romance, It, Foreign Legion March, One Alone Reprise
10 Dill Pickles Rag
11 Elaine, My Moving Picture Queen
12 Gold and Silver Waltz
13 Madame Butterfly – Love Duet from Act One

ABOUT THE THEATRES
The Wiltern Theatre was originally designed as a vaudeville theater and initially opened as the Warner Brothers Western Theater, the flagship for the theater chain. Quickly closing a year later, the theater reopened in the mid-1930s and was renamed the Wiltern Theatre for the major intersection which it faces (Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue). When the theatre first opened in 1931 it housed what was at that time the largest theatre pipe organ in the Western United States . The organ was removed in the mid eighties and put in storage. The Wiltern Theatre's interior is renowned for its Art Deco design, including the sunburst on the ceiling of the auditorium.

The Colonial Theatre was built in 1901. In its early days the theatre hosted live stage shows, vaudeville acts and musicals. Real movie buffs know that the Colonial was featured in the 1958 science fiction classic ”The Blob,” starring Steve McQueen. The theatre closed in 1978. Chester County Center for the Performing Arts took over ownership in 1979 and re-opened it but it later closed again.  The Theatre is now owned and operated by the Association for the Colonial Theatre (ACT), a non-profit corporation, which re-opened the theatre in 1999.

ABOUT THE ORGANS
The Wiltern Kimball had 37 ranks and was famed for its string chorus and its notorious biting reed called “Serpent” which is prominently featured in the “Fanfare,” with its tricky “walking” pedal line. The huge Wiltern console was “dressed” for concerts by the L.A. Chapter of ATOS by having a “scarf” draped on the console.

The Colonial Kimball was a three manual 25 rank instrument. It was formerly installed in the State Theatre, Philadelphia in August 1929. The organ was removed in 1968 to storage and was later re-installed in the Colonial Theatre in 1979-1980. Sadly, it has recently been broken up for parts.

ABOUT THE MUSIC
The Wiltern had such wonderful tibias and strings that it was a natural decision in that 1971 concert to feature several ballads that used smaller combinations as well as featuring the two more bombastic concert pieces. This recording was made by Joe Koons (of Bike Shop fame) on his portable reel-to-reel recorder at 7½ i.p.s. during the actual concert, so it was not of digital quality. As far as possible audience noise was removed from this recording.

The Colonial Theatre featured operettas of the era, and this recording features several examples, such as Rose Marie and The Desert Song.

Don’s first performances were on the piano, playing ragtime music and two examples of ragtime are on this recording, one of which, Colonial Rag, is an original Thompson composition written especially for this recording.

 “Elaine” is a tribute to Clara Bow and is an appeal for her to “come down from the screen and be my moving picture queen” and dates from 1916.

Since the Colonial was built as an opera house it was felt appropriate to include a small example of grand opera on this CD. Don chose the closing love duet from Act one of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” 

“Gold and Silver Waltz,” when recorded in 1984 for this album, memorialized the 25^th anniversary of Don’s concert career and his fiftieth birthday.

Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, Fritz Kreisler, the great violinist, may very well have played this theatre on one of his many US concert tours. Musical purists considered Kreisler’s compositions to be “trifles” but they are undeniably beautiful lilting waltzes and serenades with some exciting harmonic progressions as featured in The King Steps Out medley.

ABOUT THE ORGANIST
Shortly after Don Thompson’s arrival in the United States in 1968 he began playing concerts and by 1970 was already well-known on the national concert circuit. In 1971 he began playing in huge organ-equipped pizza parlors in Northern California. He was resident organist for seven years at a similar establishment in Toronto which became the busiest restaurant in Canada. He returned to Northern California in 1982 and played for another six years in a pizza parlor there. After almost twenty years of playing five or six nights a week, five hours a night, he retired from that field but has continued playing for church services until this day. He now lives in the Palm Springs area.

CREDITS
Thanks are due to the late Jim Breneman, owner of the theatre and Sam LaRosa for readily agreeing to the recording and making the instrument available in excellent condition, and to Sam LaRosa for acting as recording engineer and providing the equipment. Thanks also to Random Chance for re-vitalizing the original recording and designing the CD printed matter.