Robert Hope - Jones - Father of The

Theatre Organ
Robert Hope-Jones, who bore a striking resemblance to the American author Mark Twain, one
of his financial backers, was born on February 9, 1859, in Cheshire and died on September
13, 1914, in Rochester, New York, is considered by many to be the true inventor of the
theatre organ, he thinking that a pipe organ should be able to imitate the instruments of an
orchestra and that the console should be detachable from the organ.

Among his innovations were a kind of electro-pneumatic action, the 'Diaphone' and the
modern 'Tibia Clausa' with its strong 8-foot flute tone, the Tibia eventually becoming a staple
of theatre organs, the thunderous 32-foot 'Diaphone' less successful but making an
impression on audiences of the era, his organs also noted for such innovations as 'stop tabs'
instead of 'draw knobs' and very high wind pressures, of 10 inches - 50 inches, to imitate
orchestral instruments.

He used expression liberally, sometimes enclosing the entire organ behind thick swell shades
for great expressive power and he also used a system of unification which multiplied
considerably the number of stops relative to the number of ranks.

Between 1887 and 1911, he built 246 organs, his company employing 112 workers at its
peak and Hope-Jones eventually merging his organ building operations with those of Wurlitzer
in 1914, Robert Hope-Jones, frustrated by his new association with the Wurlitzer company,
ending his life by suicide shortly afterwards.

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More of Robert Hope-Jones organs can be found online at The Lancastrian Theatre Organ
Trust's Heritage Centre and Hope-Jones Museum, Eccles, Manchester and at http://www.hope-
jones.org/

Thanks to The American Theatre Organ Society http://www.atos.org/ one can learn much of the
detail of Hope-Jones' innovations and much about organs generally in a three-part article
beginning at http://www.atos.org/Pages/Journal/HopeJones/hopejones_1.html and there is a
19-page guide to Theatre Organs at http://www.atos.org/action/ATOS-EducatorsGuide-
Chapter.pdf it including a wonderful architect's drawing of a Wurlitzer organ installation.

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