Detroit Theater Organ Society

About The Detroit Theater Organ Society :

The Fisher Theatre was a grand Moving Picture Palace with a great unique Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ, one of the largest ever built. It closed December 31, 1960. The building was about to be remodeled for another purpose, so the organ was to be sold and removed. The Fisher brothers, anxious to preserve the pipe organ as it was in its theater days and to keep it in the Detroit area, sold it to George Orbits, a local organ buff.

Orbits original intent was to install the organ in his new home. Until his home was built, Orbits and a few theater organ buffs created The Detroit Theater Organ Club in 1961, and leased the old Iris Theater on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit where the organ was installed. Many great concerts were performed there by the top performing artists of the country.

The Club's popularity grew and the Iris Theater was soon outgrown, causing Orbits and the DTOC to search for a permanent home for the Club and the organ. The derelict Senate Theater was found after a city wide search. Club members spent several thousand man hours over two years restoring the building while the organ was being installed in four new chambers built on the old stage and in the two original organ chambers on either side of the stage.

In 1989 the DTOC became The Detroit Theater Organ Society, an all volunteer non-profit organization. The DTOS and the preceding DTOC have been in existence for 47 years, far longer than the founding members had ever anticipated.

The organ was purchased by the organization and this mighty Wurlitzer has now been playing longer in the Senate Theater than in its original home in the Fisher Theater. This remarkable organ has been featured in monthly concerts at the Senate with internationally known artists since 1964. The Society continues its purpose of preservation, maintenance and playing of theater organs in a proper setting.