Hilo Palace Theatre,
Pipe Organ Project,
Page 5,
April 2005
Moving the Waikiki Theatre 4/16 Robert-Morton to the Hilo Palace Theatre:
The work to remove and transplant the Waikiki Theatre organ began in January 2004.  HTOS members Don Baker, Duane Dodgson and Bob Alder flew to Honolulu to join volunteers Bill Petty, Hideo Yoshida, Lowell Angell, Suchon Lee and ATTCO Inc's Paul "PT" Tremaine in the gutted shell of the Waikiki Theatre building
Left: The Solo chamber lights can be seen through the swell opening above the left side of the remains of the stage rainbow arch.

Below:  The Waikiki Theatre soon after it opened in 1936.
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The photo above shows the Waikiki before the pipe organ was moved from the Downtown Honolulu Hawaii Theatre.   The Waikiki was opened with an early Hammond Model A electric organ.  The 4/16 Robert-Morton organ was moved, rebuilt and reinstalled in added pipe chambers by Leo Schoenstein in 1937.  Leo Schoenstein was a member of the legendary San Francisco pipe organ building family.  He worked in Hawaii for many years installing and maintaining most of the well known organs in the Islands.  Below is a large note he left on the wall of the Waikiki's solo chamber..............
Left: Duane Dodgson, Don Baker and Bill Petty take a break from their labors.  The area they are standing in is the remains of the Waikiki's stage and "pit" below the footlights. 
Right: Duane Dodgson is about to rig the Solo chamber ventil chest for lowering to the stage floor of the Waikiki.  A portion of this ventil chest will be unified in the Palace Theatre installation to hold three ranks.
Above: The 10 HP blower, seen on the stage, was pulled out of its offstage blower/generator room by P.T. on the ATTCO INC forklift.
Left: Don Baker and Lowell Angell clean up the rubble from the demolished wall of the blower room.
Right: Bob Alder climbs down from the Waikiki's solo chamber for the last time.  During his 17 years as organist for the Waikiki he also did most of the routine maintenance on the organ.
Left: Hard working volunteer Hideo Yoshida stands by the turbine blower after it was pulled out onto the stage.  From there it was picked up by the forklift and carried out to the shipping container in the side alley.
Left: Bill Petty removes regulator weights in one of the chambers.  Thanks to Bill, most of the preparatory work had already been done before the other volunteers arrived for three days of removal and packing.  The project could not have been done without his incredible efforts.
ORGAN TRANSPLANT IN PARADISE