Imagine you’re at the Coliseum Theatre on South Franklin Street in 1929. You’re watching “Atlantic,” the first Titanic movie, one of the first with sound. The Kimball organ, played by Carol Beery Davis, is providing music, chimes, drums, sleigh bells and bird whistles.
Fast-forward 86 years to Gallery Walk, Friday, Dec. 4. You’re at the State Office Building “concert hall” in the atrium nibbling tasty treats and absorbing the “cathedral-like acoustics” of the one-man orchestra sounds J. Allan MacKinnon creates using the Kimball theatre pipe organ, the last in the state. Brought to Juneau in 1928 by W. D. Gross, the organ has eight sets of pipes, 548 in all, ranging from pencil-size to eight-foot lengths. Now 87, the organ needs maintenance.
The Friends of the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum will host an Organ Fest at the SOB atrium Friday, Dec. 4, from 4-6 p.m. The event, organized to help save this important piece of Juneau history, will kick off Gallery Walk with holiday music played by J.A. MacKinnon and T.J. Duffy. The Fest is sponsored by the Friends of the AK State Library, Archives and Museum.
