Los Angeles Theater
1 Muskrat Ramble
2 Similau
3 Parade of the Tin Soldiers - I love a Parade
4 Gauiott - Peruvian Waltz
5 Show Tune Medley: Dancing on the Ceiling - The Lady Is A Tramp - All The Things You Are - Can’t Get Started
6 Walk On The Wild Side
7 Harlem Nocturne
8 18th Century Drawing Room
9 Green Leaves of Summer
10 Happy Island
11 The Song Is Ended - I'll Get By

Senate Theater Detroit
12 Bellita
13 Green Dolphin Street
14 Minute Samba
15 Quiet Night of Quiet Stars
16 Pavane
17 Gipsy Dance from Carmen
18 Jamaican Rhumba
19 Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet
20 Ode to a Man About Town
21 Cadiz
22 Love Is Blue

Ann Leaf was affectionately known at the "mighty mite of the mighty organ" since she was tiny in stature and often had to have large blocks attached to the swell pedals so that she could reach them. But there was nothing tiny about her talent. Her passionate love for music inspired the fierce devotion of hundreds of thousands of appreciative listeners and the overwhelming respect of critics, musicians and educators, who praised and honored her since she first won recognition as a child prodigy, playing two Mozart concerti with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra at the age of eleven.

For more than a decade Ann was presented coast to coast, in a nightly concert, "Nocturne," on the CBS radio network. "Ann Leaf at the Organ" was another of her own radio programs. She was the star attraction for three years at Radio City’s glamorous Rainbow Room and in addition she set the emotional pitch for such famous "soap operas" as Stella Dallas, Woman of Courage, Nora Drake, Lorenzo Jones, Mr. Keene and many others.

Her arrangements are skillful masterpieces – listen, for example, to what she does with the Peruvian waltz Gauiott. One might think that there were several musicians at work, so intricate (and delightful) is her arrangement.

Ann Leaf’s distinguished career took her to the consoles of the most outstanding organs in the most celebrated theatres in the country, including a spell at the famed New York Paramount.

The historic Los Angeles Theatre was the last and most extravagant of the ornate movie palaces built on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles between 1911 and 1931. It was designed by S. Charles Lee with a French Baroque-inspired décor - its majestic six-story main lobby and 2,000 seat auditorium of carved plaster ornamentation, mirrors, and cove-lit murals recall the glamorous days of 1930s Hollywood. Famous for its huge crystal fountain in the lobby, the Los Angeles Theatre was considered one of the four or five finest movie palaces in the world. Not an inch of the interior was left undecorated, from the elegant stage curtains and ornate balcony, to the intricately-carved ceiling of its lobby. It was spectacular.

Several years into the sound era, the Los Angeles Theatre hardly required a pipe organ but H.L Gumbiner, the owner, moved in the organ from his Los Angeles Tower Theatre where it was originally installed. The organ saw little use after its first year or so. Ann Leaf did a concert there and recorded the first part of this CD there in early 1970. The organ later vanished and is presumed to have become part of some larger installation. It was a style 216, opus 1620 and was designed for West Coast Theatres by Frank Lanterman. The 216 was a "hot rod" version of the 215, the circuit’s standard organ. Frank felt the 215 lacked the "crack" that he felt was necessary for the new theatre and so he replaced the Kinura with an English Horn and added couplers and a crescendo, features rarely found on two manual Wurlitzers.

The 4/34 Senate Theatre organ, Wurlitzer opus 1953, was originally installed in the Fisher Theatre in Detroit in 1928. Its unique Mayan-style console was quite unlike any other. The organ contained several rare features including a Cor Anglais stop, a 16’ open wood on the pedal and a 32’ resultant. The stop layout is extraordinary, with the stops being grouped by chamber rather than by pitch and manual. This makes the organ difficult to play without heavy reliance on combination pistons. The Fisher was remodeled in 1961 and the instrument was sold to George Orbitts, who with other theatre organ buffs formed the Detroit Theatre Organ Club, which leased the Iris Theatre and installed the organ there. The club soon outgrew that theatre and bought and refurbished the Senate theatre in 1963, renovated it and reduced seating from 1200 to about 900, turning the building into a showplace for the instrument, which is among the largest of its type in the country. Mr. Orbitts eventually sold the organ to the club, which later became the Detroit Theatre Organ Society, and as of this writing it is still operating at that location, though there have long been rumors of a possible move to a Detroit suburb. The organ remains one of the finest on the concert circuit.