Partners Pull Out All the Stops to Save Wurlitzer’s Music Hall

For nearly 30 years, the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo has helped re-create themoviegoing experience as it existed during the silent film era and the early days of talkies.

The sound of a 1925 Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ filling the air during a silent movie or before the screening of a vintage Hollywood film has made visiting the theater a special event for numerous Southern Californians.

In recent years, Sunday nights have often been reserved for various musical performances, including ragtime, jazz and blues festivals.

But the hall may be going the way of silent films.

Attorney Mel Horowitz, a spokesman for the organizers of these film screenings and concerts, says rent hikes may force tenants Bill Field and Bill Coffman to leave the 180-seat venue. On Monday, the monthly rent at the hall will increase from $1,200 to $2,500. Horowitz says the rent was just $900 last August.

Programming was originally scheduled to cease after Sunday’s New Year’s Eve event, and Field and Coffman have been considering moving their operation to another site. But Horowitz said this week that they should be able to pay the increased rent for January. If so, movie screenings and concerts will continue through next month.

Lee Clements of the McLees Investment Co. Inc., an agent for the building’s owner, disputes this claim of financial hardship. He says Field and Coffman recently declined McLees Investment’s offer of a $1,000-a-month donation to the pair’s nonprofit Old Town Music Hall Inc. This donation, coupled with a smaller offer of financial support from a local service club, would have effectively kept the rent from increasing, he says.

Horowitz says that Field and Coffman want to stay at the Old Town Music Hall and are now willing to accept McLees Investment’s donation. But Clements said the offer had been rescinded after the pair failed to accept the proposal by McLees’ Dec. 1 deadline. The proposed donation money has since been reallocated, Clements said.

In the meantime, Horowitz, Field and Coffman are attempting to drum up financial support from local service clubs so that the Old Town Music Hall’s programming can continue for the next six months to a year, if not longer.

Field and Coffman also hope to purchase the long-dormant Aurora Theater in the revitalized old town district of Torrance. But approximately $500,000 may be required to buy and refurbish that 500-seat venue. So far, Old Town Music Hall Inc. says it has raised more than $45,000 from solicitations sent to 12,000 patrons on its mailing list.

Wurlitzer players and aficionados, Field and Coffman started booking organ concerts at the Old Town Music Hall in 1968. The duo began emphasizing old films in the early ‘70s, while continuing to present occasional concerts.

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The Wurlitzer organ is an essential part of experiencing films at the theater, even when the movie on display already has a soundtrack. Each screening is preceded by about 20 minutes of organ music provided by either Field, 61, or Coffman, 74. The audience is subsequently invited to sing along to the music as lyrics are projected onto the movie screen. An old comedy short is also shown before the main film presentation.

The Mighty Wurlitzer organ contains 2,000 pipes and 244 keys on four keyboards. It was widely used in the 1920s in vaudeville and to accompany silent movies. The Wurlitzer can create various sound effects. Bells, cymbals, flute, trumpet and drums are some of the instruments this organ mimics.

“I love playing the organ and I love the sound of it,” Field says. “I know it’s fascinating to a lot of people, too. When people come out of the theater, they are smiling because of [the Wurlitzer] and the pictures that we run.

“Older people tell you that they haven’t had such an experience in so many years. They recall the times they were kids going to the movies with their parents. Now we’re also dealing with younger people who are bringing their kids. They tell us how they came to the theater when they were in the third grade. We get a lot of that now.”

* Old Town Music Hall, 140 Richmond St., El Segundo, (310) 322-2592. Sunday, a special New Year’s Eve show with newsreels, comedy shorts, a film featuring Guy Lombardo, organ and piano music and sing-along. 8 p.m. $10.