| The Golden State Theatre was originally equipped with a 2 manual 8 rank Style F Wurlitzer when the theatre opened in 1926. This organ was one of the few smaller instruments to have been placed on a hydraulic lift to raise the console into the view of the audience.
Wurlitzer opus 1334 reigned supreme in the Golden State from 1926 until early 1954. Over the years, a serious roof leak caused the instrument to eventually be declared inoperative and it was sold. During the instrument's heyday in the Golden State, it was played on opening night, August 6, 1926, by Morte Mortensen, and later by Pauline Hellam (pictured), "Bud" Buttle, Danny Danzigger, Harold Wright, and Edward C. Hopkins. Pauline Hellam broadcast the organ over Monterey County pioneer radio station KDON. Prior to the Golden State's restoration in 2005, in a backstage box of junk, a toggle switch box was found that had an old style phone jack with a tag which reads: Remote: KDON Radio.
The original organ (pictured right) was sold to the Vallejo collector who never installed the organ. It was then sold to a couple in Napa who installed the organ at their home. This same couple moved to Oregon in the 1990s and took the Wurlitzer with them. In the late 1990s, the organ was sold to a couple in Anacortes,WA who never installed the instrument. The Monterey Golden State Wurlitzer was again on the move and was sold to a collector in Colorado who presently has the instrument up and playing.
In 1992, an agreement was reached between the owners for the Golden State and local theatre organ collector and Monterey native Tom DeLay. The installation of the organ in the Golden State Theatre began in June 1992. In December 1993, enough of the organ was playable to be broadcast live over Ed Dickinson's "Way Back Now" then broadcasting on KNRY Monterey. In September 1994, Monterey/Pacific Grove native, Tom Hazleton returned to his hometown to play the grand opening concert on the Golden State's "new" Mighty Wurlitzer.

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The Golden State's "new" Mighty Wurlitzer was built in 1928 and shipped in May to the San Francisco Parkside Theatre. This organ was Wurlitzer opus 1887, a style 200 sp. This organ was virtually identical to the original Wurlitzer in the Golden State Theatre from 1926. The organ remained in the Parkside until May 1938 when the organ was sold to the United Presbyterian congregation in Salinas, CA for $3000. The organ was stripped of its percussions, second touch accents, and any other theatrical effects. In 1973, the organ saw some limited restoration back to its theatrical roots. In 1989, the organ was sold from the church when a new pipe organ was donated and installed. Mr. DeLay began a thorough restoration program on the organ that included the restoration of all percussions, second touch stops, and a removal of the 5 ranks of quiet church pipes that were added while the organ was in the church. These 5 ranks were replaced with 100% Wurlitzer pipes on original Wurlitzer wind-chests. Any and all changes/additions that were made to the organ at this time (1989) were all from long-previously-dismantled Wurlitzer instruments. Some of these parts came from the State Theatre in Brooklyn, NY, Shea's Hippodrome/Center Theatre Buffalo, NY, Metropolitan Theatre Los Angeles, California/State Theatre San Francisco, and the one-of-a-kind Wurlitzer from the 20th Century Fox mogul J. J. Murdock in Beverly Hills. The original Parkside Wurlitzer is still otherwise intact and plays on its original electro-pneumatic relays and console combination action.
The present Monterey Golden State Theatre Wurlitzer is patterned after the legendary South Pasadena Rialto Theatre Wurlitzer that the equally legendary organist George Wright played regularly during the 1960s.
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