The Mighty Wurlitzer — Egyptian Theatre Preservation Association

The Mighty Wurlitzer

The Wurlitzer console: curved rows of colored stop tabs above four stacked keyboards

Installed 1925

An orchestra in one instrument

One of the theatre’s most notable features is the Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra organ, sitting intact and still operable as originally installed in 1925 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company for $32,000. It arrived in crates, more than 50 for the pipes alone, and took three weeks to assemble. It has provided music for over a century.

It was designed to sound as much like an orchestra as possible but be played by a single person: a pre-electronics synthesizer, in effect. Many firms in the United States, England, and elsewhere built theatre organs, but none caught the public’s imagination like the “Mighty Wurlitzer.”

Behind the console, the Wurlitzer commands a startling range of sound: pipes, a whole percussion section, and a toy box of effects waiting in the wings.

Inside the chambers

The organ chambers sit on each side of the theatre, behind the lyre players. Thousands of pipes of every shape and size wait there to be brought to life by the mighty bellows that pump air through them.

What sets it apart from a church pipe organ are the extras housed alongside the metal and wooden ranks: drums, castanets, cymbals, a slide whistle, a marimba, and other percussion, including a bass drum with a smaller snare beside it, a silver triangle, three castanets, hollow blocks that mimic galloping hooves, and the wooden marimba bars with felt hammers poised to strike.

Ours is the only Wurlitzer in Oregon still in its original location. During the summer, the organ is played on Wednesdays between noon and 1:00. A 2022 documentary, “The Egyptian Theatre’s Wonderful Wurlitzer,” tells its story.

Hear It Play

See and hear the Wurlitzer

Words only go so far with an instrument like this. Here it is in its own voice, in a bonus feature from the 2022 documentary.

“Bonus Feature: The Egyptian Theatre’s Wonderful Wurlitzer,” from Pipe Dreams and Pizza Crusts. Shared with permission. Watch on YouTube ↗

Inside the organ

Side view of the Wurlitzer console, showing its curved wooden casework — The side of the console and its curved casework.

Ranks of organ pipes standing in rows inside a chamber — Ranks of pipes lined up inside a chamber.

Metal organ pipes of varying heights inside the chamber — Metal pipes, in every shape and size.

Wooden organ pipes standing among the ranks — Wooden pipes among the ranks.

The marimba's wooden bars with felt hammers poised to strike — The marimba, its wooden bars struck by felt hammers.

Cymbals mounted among the organ's percussion — Cymbals in the percussion section.

A bass drum with a smaller snare drum beside it — The bass drum, with a smaller snare beside it.

The organ's percussion section, with drums and other effects — The percussion section that sets a theatre organ apart.

The organists

A great instrument needs great players, and stewards who care for it between performances. Rex Stratton played the Wurlitzer on the theatre’s 1925 opening night.

Paul Quarino seated at the Wurlitzer console wearing a gold pharaoh headdress

Paul Quarino Organist & Wurlitzer steward (in memoriam)

For 44 years, Paul Quarino served as the steward and caretaker of the Egyptian’s Wurlitzer: the hands that kept it in voice and the heart that kept it beloved. He passed away in December 2024, and in 2026 was posthumously honored with an Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for that lifetime of devotion. The music he coaxed from the organ, and the care he taught others to give it, endure every time the instrument plays.

There was a time in Paul Quarino’s association with the Egyptian Theatre that his co-workers at Hillsboro’s Rodgers Instruments thought there must be something or someone pretty special in the Coos Bay Area, given his frequent week-end trips to the South Coast. Little did they realize the reason that drew him then, and has continued to draw him for some 40 years now, is his special relationship with the Egyptian’s Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ.

Paul is a master at keeping the 98-year-old instrument, original in its installation, playing and in working order. Paul learned pipe organ repair and maintenance from Fred C. Weickhardt of the Wangerin-Weickhardt Company, Milwaukee, WI. For 40 plus years Paul has made the trek to Coos Bay after Thanksgiving and before The Sounds of Christmas concerts to ensure that the organ is playable and in tune. He has given generously to the Egyptian of his time and expertise. In addition, over the years Paul has presented concerts and silent movie events at the Egyptian, playing the film accompaniments on the Wurlitzer. His devotion and long service to the Egyptian have earned him the Golden Charioteer designation.

Born in Milwaukee, WI, Paul majored in music education at UW-Milwaukee and continued at the MacPhail College of Music in Minneapolis. For five years, Paul taught Piano and Organ performance at North Central Bible College Minneapolis. For many years Paul performed as a Wurlitzer Concert Artist and is fondly remembered by many as the musical director and organist of the former Organ Grinder Restaurant in Portland. Most recently, he retired after 16 years as Musical Product Evaluator at the Rodgers Instruments Corporation.

Paul is a lifetime member of the ETPA.

Written in his own board bio. Its reference to the “98-year-old instrument” (1925 plus 98 years) dates this text to around 2023, not his 2012 board start date.

Lee Littlefield at the Egyptian's Wurlitzer console during a concert, with the audience seated behind

Lee Littlefield Organist

Lee Littlefield continues to bring the organ to life, carrying its music to audiences at concerts and events, proof that this century-old instrument still has plenty to say.

Keep the Music Going

Keep the Wurlitzer playing

Pipes, bellows, and percussion all need ongoing care to keep this 1925 instrument in voice. Your support helps make sure it plays for another hundred years.

Donate See the restoration