Reginald Moore

Pleasure Gardens Theatre

Opened: 1949 in Folkestone

Manufacturer: Compton (A322)

Size: 2 Manuals, 5 Ranks

Ranks: Tuba, Trumpet, Tibia, Violin, Flute

History

This organ was second-hand to Folkestone.

1935: The Compton was opened in the Rendezvous Cinema, Cambridge by Reginald Dixon (Tower Ballroom Blackpool Organist) on 21st October.

1947: The cinema was sold at auction. At this time D. Oswald David was appointed manager of the Pleasure Gardens Folkestone and wanted a cinema organ

1949: The organ was opened in Folkestone but was little used.

c1963/4: The building was demolished. Most of the organ was saved by Ricky.

Personalities

Cambridge

Reginald Dixon – Opening

Harold Ramsay – November 1935

Florence De Jong – December 1935

Stanley Miller – October 1935 – February 1936

Leo Rae – February 1936 – July 1937

Derek Taverner – April 1943

Folkestone

Reginald Moore – 1947

Leo Rae at the console while the organ was in Cambridge (Photo: Wayne Ivany)
The last show at the theatre in 1963
Exterior

Technical

This was a maximum “bangs for your bucks” Compton, designed to be diverse but loud.

Ricky saved most of the pipework, chests, relays, console parts & bench.

Specification

This was taken from the relays boxes, so only shows the the stop list for the pipe-work and tuned percussions.