Wurlitzer dusted off as Melbourne's two major musical organs join for recital The space: Julien Arnold among the pipes in the sound compartment behind the stage of the Regent Theatre, Melbourne. It was a sight that 74-year-old mechanical engineer Julien Arnold has never forgotten. As a kid, he watched the mighty Wurlitzer organ at the Capitol theatre in Melbourne's Swanston Street rise dramatically from the floor, shimmering in the spotlight as the organist filled the building with the rolling sound of those magic pipes. "I was gobsmacked and I've been infected ever since," says Mr Arnold who, all these years later, finds himself the keeper, tuner and repairer of another Wurlitzer, the 1921-vintage organ at the Marriner group's Regent Theatre. This dazzling 93-year-old red veteran - the world's largest theatre organ when built - last rattled the rafters in King Kong and is about to do so again in a unique cross-Collins Street recital that will see up to 2000 people listen to half a concert on the grand organ at the town hall then walk across to the Regent to hear the other half. The show includes choirs and soloists and an old Movietone newsreel showing the Regent organ being transported by 10-car freight train and a cavalcade of trucks in 1921 from the Wurlitzer factory in Tonawanda, New York, to its first home, the Granada theatre in San Francisco. "After the Granada shut in 1965," says Mr Arnold, "it was purchased by the wife of an Oregon millionaire for his birthday. It was in a studio next to their house. It was an impressive plaything - during the organ's road journey from San Francisco to Portland, a weighbridge measured the 2500 pipes, keyboard console and fittings at 25 tonnes. At the town hall, the grand "romantic" organ sucks through 90,000 cubic feet of air a minute and the 10,000 pipes - unlike the Regent's, which are hidden each side of the stage - form a magnificent forest of gleaming metal chimneys over the stage. There are twin consoles, allowing two organists to play simultaneously. The town hall organ was installed in 1929 and was given a $4.5 million restoration in 1999. It replaced the original organ destroyed by the town hall fire of 1925. Similarly the original Regent organ was destroyed in a fire in 1945. The replacement organ was sold to a private buyer when Hoyts closed the theatre in 1971. "That is now stored in a shed in Bentleigh," says Mr Arnold who, as editor of the Theatre Organ Society newsletter, campaigned to restore the theatre and campaigned for years to save the Regent. The Marriners sought his help when they restored the derelict Regent in 1996. "I located the organ in Portland, the owner agreed to sell and it was shipped out," says Mr Arnold. At its height, the Rudolph Wurlitzer company produced an organ a day for theatres, halls and churches around the world. The Regent organ, one of only six of its type, was top of the range and a company showpiece. With four keyboards and dozens of buttons, pedals and switches it was made to accompany silent movies and thus has an array of sound effects - horse hooves, fire gong, bird whistles, even the noise of the ocean surf. Proceeds from the Tale of Two Organs concert on Sunday, November 30, will go towards the Royal Children's Hospital.