Description
Shea's Performing Arts Center (originally Shea's Buffalo) is a theater for touring Broadway musicals and special events in Buffalo, New York. Originally called Shea's Buffalo, it was opened in 1926 to show silent movies. It took one year to build the entire theatre. Shea's boasts one of the few theater organs in the US that is still in operation in the theater for which it was designed.
The theater's "Mighty Wurlitzer" was a custom design built by the Wurlitzer Company and was one of only 5 in the world that had tonal finishing, provided directly from the Wurlitzer factory, after it had been installed in the theater. The organ was used as a demonstrator by the Wurlitzer Factory, in nearby North Tonawanda, whenever a visiting customer wanted to hear an example of a 4 manual (keyboard) organ installed in a theater. The demonstrator for a 3 manual (keyboard) organ was the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, NY.
Built originally to provide silent film accompaniment, like many of the thousands of instruments like it, fell into disrepair, rarely being heard in the 1940s, and 1950s. It was made operational by the American Theatre Organ Enthusiasts, (now the American Theatre Organ Society or ATOS) for a series of memorable concerts. On or around that time, a valuable set of Brass Trumpets, special pipework of a theatre organ, was stolen.
It then sat virtually silent again until the late 1970s, when it was made playable again by the Friends of the Buffalo for the Grand Re-opening of the theatre.
In the late 1970s, the Wurlitzer underwent a huge restoration, provided by monetary grants from various arts organizations, including complete replacement of the relay (switching) system that controlled the organ, as well as restoration of windchests, missing pipe replacements, wiring, and organ console work.
The revitalized organ was premiered to the public with a sold-out concert by noted theatre organist Lyn Larsen. Since that time it has been used for solo concerts, silent films, and background music prior to and after events in the theatre.
In 2006, to commemorate the theater's 80th birthday, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor JoAnn Falletta played a concert there with Anthony Newman playing the organ. Highlights of the program included Camille Saint-Saëns "Organ" Symphony 3 in C minor, selections from The Phantom of the Opera, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and Louis Vierne's Carillon de Westminster.
