This 1957 color promotional film, one of several created by Dallas Jones Productions for Chicago’s Hammond organ company, uses the characters of a church organist (Porter Heaps), a young protégé, and his layman father to dramatise the practical benefits of an electronic, console-style Hammond organ, highlighting the ability of its drawbar design to produce a diversity of tones and effects for any occasion (26:37).

Opening titles: “The Hammond Organ Company presents, The Kind of Music You Want” (0:28). Exterior: A Christian church with a cornice and pillars. Congregants enter. Inside the chapel, organ music is heard as men and women in their sunday best file into pews. A narrator identifies himself as the organist and choirmaster (0:38). A choir practice. Boys sing in closeup. The choirmaster dismisses them. Most leave with excitement, but one boy, “Tommy” lingers, interested by the organ as multiple voices are demonstrated (1:35). Tommy takes a seat at the Hammond C-3 organ bench and plays (2:50). A man in a suit and hat arrives at home, carrying a briefcase. “Helen, I’m home!” He finds an empty living room. No Tommy, despite a pair of baseball game tickets. Tom Sr. kisses his wife on the cheek and telephones a neighbor (3:48). The father goes out looking for Tommy in suburbia. After passing an empty baseball diamond, he heads to the church, and is startled to find Tommy at an organ: “What’s the big idea?” Tommy hangs his head in shame (5:06). Father suggests getting Tommy a “more practical,” more secular instrument. The organist makes a case for the practicality of his instrument (6:45). A ¾ view of the keyboard reveals two 61-note manuals and drawbars, which are adjusted to change the instrument’s harmonic voicing between bass and treble clef (7:47). Father approves, but only for Sundays. Drawbars are pushed in for a full demonstration. One drawbar provides a fundamental tone. Harmonics are added to produce a warm, reedy, clarinet-like sound. With another adjustment, the tone shifts to a shrill, vibrato-laden, “string” effect (8:26). Father remembers “stops or buttons” from pump organs of old. “Wouldn’t it be better just to push a button for the tone you want?” (9:50). 18 reverse-colored preset keys are introduced. The organist drives a hard bargain for the “tone typewriter,” explaining the customization afforded by drawbars (10:10). Tommy is sold. A percussive, staccato xylophone effect and smooth french horn voices are demonstrated, then combined for an orchestral style “Blue Danube” waltz (11:35). A “ballgame” setting. Flashback to a ballpark box office, bleachers, Toms Jr. and Sr. at a baseball game. Tommy remembers the tickets and his dad produces them (13:31). Mr. Heaps demonstrates a setting for accompanying a barbershop quartet at the local Elks Lodge. Men singing in four-part harmony (14:24). Tommy recalls seeing a Hammond organ at a local restaurant. Crossfade to a tossed salad. Diners are served by a waiter in epaulets, who passes a written request to a B-3 organist (15:16). A drowsy man returns home to his wife playing “Beautiful Dreamer” (17:07). A single man plays a more compact model (18:19). A teenage girl plays a bouncy number while wholesome teenagers drink cola and dance in a living room (18:59). A school organ accompanies a phys ed class of girls doing jumping jacks. Teens sing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” A punchbowl at a gymnasium dance (19:54). A girl and her organ teacher wear earphones for silent practice (21:12). A school band. A vacant tuba. Tommy rushes from his locker to a Model E organ. Bass pedals are tapped with his feet in closeup (22:13). Back at church, Heaps reveals a hand injury, Tommy at the keys of a Hammond C-2 (25:18).

The Hammond organ was invented American engineer Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert. It was first manufactured in 1935. The original version generated sound using a metal tonewheel and then, starting in 1975, using integrated circuits. The company went out of business in 1985.

Organist Porter W. Heaps (1906-1999) was an Illinois native and organ teacher at Northwestern University. In the 1930s, he began a 40-year association with the Hammond organ company, aiding in the development of their unique drawbar design. Heaps toured the U.S. as a representative of Hammond, recording demonstration records and giving concert performances.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com