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4/34 Robert Morton Organ
Ohio Theatre - Columbus, OH
Maintenance
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Ohio's
Mighty Morton Continues to Reliably Perform After 90+ Years
As things get older, they tend to need more and more work to keep in good shape. However, according to those who know it the best, the Ohio Theatre's Robert Morton Pipe Organ continues to be a remarkably reliable and stable instrument. The phrase "they don't build 'em like they used to" applies in this case. For many years the Ohio's Morton was maintained by local organ builder Bunn=Minnick Pipe Organs. Leo Klise Jr. of Bunn=Minnick was one of the largest benefactors of the instrument. In the 1990s, maintenance was taken over by in house staff led by then CAPA Director of Maintenance Phil Hidy. In 2020 the work was turned over to GT Organ Associates, LLC which is led by organist and proprieter Glenn Taller. Regular maintenance includes occasional tuning, inspection of mechanical action and minor adjustments to things such as key sensitivity and pressure. Less frequent but more time consuming maintenance includes releathering of chests, repair and or replacement of electrical components and reregulation of the wind system. When possible, larger jobs are planned for the offseason when the organ is not used for extended periods. Retired CAPA Director of Maintenance Phil Hidy explains, "Much of the work on the organ takes a lot of time to do. Releathering a chest takes a long time because of the work involved removing the chest, waiting for things to dry and finally putting it all back together. There isn't enough time to do that during the movies." Tuning the instrument takes the least amount of time. "The instrument stays fairly well in tune. The chambers have their own climate control for temperature and humidity." Hidy notes that the organ is usually tuned at the beginning of the movie season and then spot tuning is done prior to the silent film. "There are some ranks you know you'll have to look at more often, but overall things are pretty stable." Funds for maintenance of the organ primarily come from CAPA, the owner of the instrument. Other revenue sources include donations received during the summer movie series, and from private donations. A donation to CAPA can be designated that the funds be used for maintenance of the organ. Information about donating to the Mighty Mortan can be found here.  The organist knows better than anyone else how well the instrument is playing. Here's a "to do list" written during the summer of 2009 by Clark Wilson. Looks like the crew has a lot to keep them busy! |
A short photo
essay of work being done on the Mighty Morton's console.
 Retired CAPA
Director of Maintenance Phil Hidy (standing) supervises Rich
Lewis repairing a second touch contact on the bottom
manual
of
the console.
 Basking
in the limelight, Rich searches for the replacement metal tab
which has
fallen into the pedal board (yet again!). The tab may have won this
battle, but
ultimately Rich's
persistence won the war and got the tab in place.
 With the rails and manuals
back in place, Phil examines a misbehaving stop tab on the top rail.
 With work on the console
done for the day, the process of putting the console back
together starts.
 Phil and Rich position the
top panel of the console.
 Finally,
the music stand is installed and the Mighty Morton is again ready for
action.
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