Reviving Hollywood glamor of the silent movie era, experts piece together a century-old pipe organ

Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — A pipe organ that provided the live music for silent movies in an ornate Detroit theater nearly a century ago is set to become the centerpiece of a performing arts center on a New York college campus. The Barton Opus, built in 1927, spent four decades stored in a garage, attic and basement in suburban Detroit, split into thousands of pieces. But the towering musical curiosity is being lovingly restored in Indianapolis and eventually will be trucked, piece by piece, to the Rochester Institute of Technology. There, the organ will be reassembled and rehoused in a theater specifically designed to accommodate it. In its heyday, one person would play the Barton Opus, which included a piano, xylophone and drums and could produce sound effects such as a steamboat whistle.