[ Vicki Webb wrote in 000417 MMD: ]

> It has come to my attention that a quintadena that was on loan to the
> State Theater in Pasadena, California, was stolen.  The value of this
> rank falls into the grand theft category so it will be investigated
> completely.

I am very aware of theatre organ installations around California.
I am not aware of a State Theatre in Pasadena which has a pipe organ.
The nearest public theatre organ venues are Pasadena Civic Auditorium
on Green St.  (5-manual 28-rank Moller), and the nearby San Gabriel
Civic Auditorium in San Gabriel (3-manual 16-rank Wurlitzer).  The
San Sylmar Nethercutt collection in Sylmar CA is considerably west of
Pasadena (4-manual 73+rank Wurlitzer), but this would never be a site
for pipework to be stolen from.

Decades ago, there were days in and around Pasadena where pipe ranks
were being swapped and swiped from one installation to another.  One
theatre in South Pasadena supposedly had ranks of pipes coming and
going quite continually until the organ burned in 1971.

There are, however, many, many documented cases of "Midnight Organ
Supply (M.O.S.)" where rare and valuable ranks would disappear in
the dead of night.  In 1966, the San Francisco Orpheum had a rank of
English (Post) Horn pipes stolen.  Around the same time, the Tower
Theatre in Upper Darby PA lost a Saxophone to the M.O.S.  Sadly, there
are many examples of pipe thieves throughout the years.

Pipes stolen from the State Theatre Pasadena?  If so, it must have
happened decades ago.

Tom DeLay (retired editor, Theatre Organ Journal, ATOS)