GLENDALE : Officials Ponder Fate of Historic Organ

Glendale officials may decide this month what to do with a huge, historic organ that has played nary a note since it was purchased four years ago.

The city bought the Fox Lanterman Organ--a relic originally installed in the Fox Theater in San Francisco in 1929--from the city of La Canada-Flintridge for $50,000 in 1990 with the intent of installing it in the Alex Theatre. But the ornate instrument was too large for the theater, and now officials are considering selling it to the highest bidder or restoring it and keeping it somewhere in the city.

Last month, the city placed newspaper ads offering the organ for sale. The city also offered to sell it back to La Canada-Flintridge, but that offer was turned down. “We considered it, but it was just so impractical,” said La Canada-Flintridge City Manager Gabrielle Pryor.

“There just didn’t seem to be any place or any way for us to keep it.”

A city-appointed committee has proposed installing the organ at the Glendale High School auditorium, at an estimated cost of $1 million. The figure includes both the installation and the cost of restoring the organ, estimated at between $250,000 and $800,000, officials said.

Half of the money would have to be contributed by the city and its Redevelopment Agency, which has already spent about $110,000 to move, store and maintain the organ over the past four years.

The other half would be raised from the community, although no concrete sources have been identified. The idea received a lukewarm reception by City Council members at a meeting last month.

The first offer to buy the organ came from Buena Vista Pictures, which has offered $110,000 for it and proposed using it for live music during intermissions at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.

Members of the Redevelopment Agency are expected to decide what to do with the organ at their June 13 meeting, officials said.