page_title: Alabama Theatre
section_title: Organ
hierarchical_section_title: Alabama Theatre / Organ
caption_attribution_description: English: Alabama Theatre, 1811 Third Avenue North, Birmingham, Jefferson, AL.
context_page_description: The Alabama Theatre is a movie palace in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built in 1927 by Paramount's Publix Theatre chain as its flagship theater for the southeastern region of the United States. Seating 2,500 people at the time, it was the largest in the Birmingham Theatre district. The district was once home to a myriad of large theaters that featured vaudeville, performing arts, nickelodeons, and large first-run movie palaces. The Alabama is the only district theater still operating today. Built to show silent films, the Alabama still features its original Wurlitzer theater organ. Other than the Alabama, the Lyric Theatre is the only theater still standing in the district.
  The Alabama and its historic organ were added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on February 15, 1977, and to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1979. The theater has been surveyed by the Historic American Buildings Survey on several occasions, the last time being in 1996. It was designated as the state's historic theater in 1993.
context_section_description: When the Alabama was built in 1927, films were silent and required a musical accompaniment. This was typically provided by an orchestra or theater pipe organ. The Alabama's organ is a Crawford Special-Publix One Mighty Wurlitzer. Only seventeen examples of this model were built, and the Alabama's is one of only three still installed at their original sites.
  Nicknamed Big Bertha, the Alabama's organ is a four-manual (keyboard) organ. It was originally installed with 20 ranks (sets of pipes), but has been expanded to 32. It also features numerous percussion instruments and sound effects to accompany silent movies.
caption: The Wurlitzer theatre organ
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