Tom Jenkins Plaza Swansea Christie Organ BBC

Описание: Tom Jenkins Plaza Swansea Christie Organ BBC.An organist and Christie organ I had never heard before. Sadly very poor quality! As another 5 minutes from the paper-backed tape, the rest had delaminated all too far sadly and this little section took some detailed bodging to get it to play! But thought it was another historic few minutes of a cinema and Christie cinema organ and organist long gone.

The Plaza Cinema was a grand imposing building on Swansea’s Kingsway. It was the largest cinema to be erected in Wales and it opened on 14th February 1931 with Paul Whiteman in “King of Jazz”. The cinema was equipped with a Christie 3Manual/10 Rank cinema organ which was opened by Tom Jenkins.

Tom Jenkins, a native of Neath, began his musical studies on the piano at the age of seven. Between the ages of twelve and seventeen ne was mainly engaged in piano competitions and Eisteddfodau where he won 185 prizes. His piano teacher, who was also an organist in a large church at Neath, began to give him lessons on the organ, but in less than a year the teacher died and Tom Jenkins took his place as the organist at the age of seventeen.
Eighteen months later he became organist and choirmaster and assisted Dr. Hopkin Evans in forming the Neath Choral Society.
The war broke out, and he joined the Glamorganshire Yeomanry, where he played the clarinet in the regimental band. After the war, he became an assistant organist to
Frederick Dalrymple at Tredegarville Baptist Church. Cardiff, and also served as organist in two other Cardiff churches.
He left Cardiff to take up a cinema job, and for four years worked as an organist for silent pictures. When the Cardiff Plaza opened, Tom Jenkins was appointed musical director of the orchestra from 1926 to 1931, since when he has been the organist and manager of the Swansea Plaza. He gave his first broadcast from there in 1932, and subsequently broadcast every week for years.