A query about the organist who performed at the Gaumont Cinema in Watford, prompted Mrs P Lear, of Watford, to write in: "I remember Tommy Dando who played the Wurlitzer organ at the Gaumont Cinema very well. His sing-songs were great fun and his parodies on popular tunes very amusing.
"At the Plaza, later the Odeon, there was a Compton organ and the organist was Leslie Compton. I was an avid film goer in my youth and visited all seven cinemas in Watford."
A brief perusal of websites dedicated to cinema organs tells me that the organ at the Watford Gaumont cinema was dispatched from the Wurlitzer factory on February 8, 1937, which suggests it would have been installed in Watford that year. My findings suggest that this organ was dismantled at an unspecified date and its parts distributed.
Can any readers recall when Watford's cinema organs were installed and dismantled? What happened to the Compton organ at the Odeon? Does anyone have any recollections of playing one of these instruments?
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