Ralph Waldo Emerson...

Ralph Waldo Emerson "Laugh and the world laughs with you," might have been written of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Even when he goes padding around the studio in bedroom slippers at six o'clock on a winter morning, he's liable to break out any time with a "ha ha" that starts an echo in 20 or 30 states.

As an organist, Ralph has always been an explorer, looking for adventure. He discovers things in the big organ that even the builders didn't know were there.

One time, when he had played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in a slow, throbbing rhythm, with startling effect, he explained: "I always see the old boys of the G. A. R. when I play that---they can't march so fast now."

Few, even of the people who are in the studio every day, have ever seen the view of the organ pipes shown on the right.

Only the console, or keyboard, is in the studio.

The pipes, chimes, drums and thousands of electrical connections are back in a sound-proof room.

Still back of that is the great blower, with a five horsepower motor, and the whole responds instantly to the gentlest touch of the organist.

This organ was designed especially for WLS.
WLS pipe organ

Return to the 1932 WLS Family Album index page

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Created by Rich Samuels (e-mail to rich@richsamuels.com)