Pipe organ keeps a dying art form alive

Sixty years ago, when Lawrence Bray booted the hens out of his aunt's chicken coop to make room for a theater pipe organ, few people thought anything would come of the venture.

The building was little more than a tumble-down shack with a concrete floor and bits of feathers floating everywhere. But Lawrence was determined to give his mighty Wurlitzer a proper stage. He scrubbed the coop from top to bottom, put in a new black-and-white tile floor and raised the roof to accommodate the 16-foot bass pipes of the prized theater organ he'd purchased from the Utah Theater when "talkies" took over.

Today, after numerous renovations, there is little that is recognizable about Lawrence's Organ Loft, opened to the public 60 years ago at 3331 Edison St., just off State Street in South Salt Lake.

Lawrence died 24 years ago and his nephew, Larry Bray, now runs the unique theater and reception center — one of the few places in the country where Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy still rule the silver screen.

Several times a year, Larry holds a silent film festival so that old movie fans and children never exposed to silent slapstick can experience the thundering awe of his 2,400-pipe theater organ. Next Thursday and Friday he'll show the "Kid Brother," starring Harold Lloyd, one of the most popular comic stars of the early 1900s.

"This is a dying art form," says Larry, "so it's fun to keep a bit of history going. But you have to have a passion and a love for it. An organ like this requires a lot of upkeep."

In celebration of six decades in business, Larry recently joined me for a Free Lunch chat at the Organ Loft, where he'd just finished serving 60 friendship club members stuffed pork chops and green beans. Banquets and wedding receptions make up the majority of his business these days, but Larry still delights in opening his doors to the public for $5 a seat.

He was 13 years old when his uncle first put him to work, after school, polishing the dance floor and repairing worn-out parts on the organ. Lawrence Bray collected theater organ pipes for years, purchasing spare parts wherever he could find them.

"I'll never forget when he bought an organ from the Paramount Theater in New York," recalls Larry. "It was delivered in two huge Mayflower vans. It just looked like a big old pile of junk to me. But my uncle knew better."