A Pipe Dream Comes True in Fullerton : Preservation: A team of volunteers is restoring and introducing computer technology to a Wurlitzer organ at Plummer Auditorium.

When it comes to old movie theater organs, Bob Trousdale’s passion for music, technology and nostalgia combine like notes in a resounding chord.

So it’s not surprising that when Trousdale finished a yearlong contract in 1993 to electronically upgrade the powerful Wurlitzer at historic Plummer Auditorium, he decided to work for free on other aspects of the pipe organ’s restoration.

This volunteer effort is in its 16th month. And Trousdale, who heads a team of 16 fellow volunteers, shows no signs of abandoning the exacting task of fully restoring the historic organ owned by the Fullerton Joint Union High School District.

“It’s a tremendous job,” he said, “and it was obvious the school couldn’t afford it. That’s when we decided to go volunteer. We’re just having a ball.”

George West, the school district’s assistant superintendent of business services, said that without Trousdale, the complete restoration would not happen.

“From the district’s point of view, we were able to save what we consider a national treasure--there are only one or two organs like it operating in the United States,” West said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it without Trousdale’s love for the organ.”

Trousdale’s bid of roughly $42,000 to restore the Wurlitzer was about $200,000 below the other bids, West said. And after the contract was completed, Trousdale and other members of the Orange County Theatre Organ Society have put in “hundreds and hundreds of hours” of volunteer work, West said, with the only expense to the district being $10,000 for parts.

“It’s just like a child to them,” West said.

The organ made its concert premiere in 1930, the same year the auditorium was dedicated. But this “rather clumsy instrument” was hampered by ineffective pipe work, Trousdale said, and a poor overall design that kept it from being either a true theater organ or a classic church organ.

Because of its limitations, the instrument was rarely played at public gatherings over the years, with the exception of school commencements and similar activities. However, new life was finally pumped into the organ with the 1992-93 renovation of Plummer Auditorium, which is owned by the school district and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Fullerton Redevelopment Agency paid $2.6 million to expand, air-condition and modernize the 1,313-seat auditorium at Chapman Avenue and Lemon Street. Funding to revamp the organ’s electronics was provided by the school district’s Educational Foundation.

The 70-year-old Santa Ana resident, who has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, retired from the aerospace industry in 1976 to pursue his love of pipe organs on a full-time basis. Through his Trousdale Organ Co., he designs and builds electronic systems for the instruments.

Now, Trousdale and his volunteers are immersed in the Herculean effort of putting new leather on hundreds of the Wurlitzer’s pneumatic devices, and disassembling, cleaning, reassembling and sometimes shortening many of the 2,400 pipes, which range from half an inch to 16 feet long.

Volunteers are also adjusting the pitch, tone and volume of the pipes, and adding new sounds--many of them electronically synthesized--to expand the organ’s versatility. Properly tuning the pipes requires a lot of experience, Trousdale said, but not many tools. He routinely uses a table knife to make the delicate adjustments.

Built to re-create all the sounds of a pit orchestra, Plummer’s organ has four manuals (keyboards), about 260 stop keys, and 29 ranks (sets) of pipes. The wood and metal pipes, housed in three chambers built into the auditorium’s walls and ceiling, can produce everything from piercing high notes to room-rattling bass.

“This organ’s got a lot of sock to it,” Trousdale said, as the auditorium rumbled from the sound of a tuba horn. “You can go from extremely soft to ridiculous.

“You can almost get any sound you could imagine,” Trousdale added, as he showed off the organ’s intimidating array of features. “You have to be an airline pilot to play this thing.”

Continuing his briefing, Trousdale opened a cabinet in back and revealed a piece of equipment unheard of in the 1930s--a personal computer with a color monitor. On the screen was a representation of the organ’s manuals and pedals.

Using a software program designed by Trousdale, the organ can now be played “just like a tape recorder” to re-create previous concerts, note for note. There is also a “jukebox” mode for playing individual songs in any sequence. The music can even be played backward, for reasons that are probably clear only to techno-types such as Trousdale.

Asked to explain his intense devotion to pipe organs, Trousdale chuckled, then told of being psychologically addicted to the marvelous instruments that were swept aside decades ago when the “talkies” took hold in movie theaters and there was no longer a need for musical accompaniment for silent films.

“There’s a fascination for Harley-Davidson motorcycles,” he said, “there’s a fascination for old cars, for historical stuff, for steam trains, model trains, etc., etc. And there’s a fascination for theater organs.

“And it is a disease,” he said. “Once you catch it, you can’t get rid of it.

“For me, it is an incredible challenge technically. This is where my real interest is, in taking an instrument like this and making it perform.”

Trousdale predicts the renovation will be completed by April. But, of course, there’s always routine maintenance to be performed, and minor improvements to be made as he and the other volunteers “add a cymbal here, a gizmo there.”

“We will probably never really finish it,” Trousdale said. “It’s like Disneyland.”