{"id":126,"date":"2020-11-05T08:37:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T08:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/?page_id=126"},"modified":"2020-11-11T17:37:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T17:37:49","slug":"1917-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/?page_id=126","title":{"rendered":"1917"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here\u2019s an interesting fact to start us off. If you are of a certain age you might remember the renowned organist Reginald Dixon, who performed at the Blackpool Tower ballroom, and was massively famous on the BBC. If you\u2019ve ever heard \u201cOh I do like to be beside the seaside\u201d, it\u2019s probably him! This is Reginald, with the \u201cMighty Wurlitzer\u201d organ he played in Blackpool – probably the most complicated beast of its time<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\"1917
1917 Reginald Dixon<\/div><\/div><\/a>\"1917
1917 The Mighty Wurlitzer<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for mentioning him is that he was born in Sheffield, and started playing piano and organ when he was just two years old. In 1917, at the tender age of 13, he left school to concentrate on music, and became the organist at Birley Carr Methodist Church. He soon became interested in cinema: film was silent in those days, and cinemas had a resident organist to improvise music appropriate to what was happening on screen. Often the organ (and organist) would rise up into view from underneath the floor! Around 1921 he was musical director at the Stocksbridge Palace cinema, earning \u00a33 per week (perhaps \u00a3150 in today\u2019s money)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it seems like Birley Carr was his first job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an interesting fact to start us off. If you are of a certain age you might remember the renowned organist Reginald Dixon, who performed at the Blackpool Tower ballroom, and was massively famous on the BBC. If you\u2019ve ever heard \u201cOh I do like to be beside the seaside\u201d, it\u2019s probably him! This is Reginald, with the \u201cMighty Wurlitzer\u201d organ he played in Blackpool – probably the most complicated beast of its time The reason for mentioning him is that he was born in Sheffield,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":173,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126\/revisions\/345"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gbcplayers.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}