FORMER
2/6 Robert Morton Hybrid |
Johnson Residence
Dilworth, Minnesota

History of the Johnson Residence Robert Morton Hybrid Organ

A short biography on organ builder and theatre organist Lance E. Johnson may be found elsewhere on this website. After founding Johnson Organ Company, Inc. and moving to Dilworth in the early 1960s, Lance built a 6-rank hybrid theatre organ for his home using a 2-manual Robert Morton console.

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Located in the house's large living room, the console was cleverly inset into space underneath the stairwell leading up to the second story of the house, so just the music rack, keydesk and pedalboard/bench protruded from the wall. A screened-in porch adjacent to the living room was filled in and finished so it could serve as the sole pipe chamber of the instrument.

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As the first president and founding member of the Red River Theatre Organ Society in 1965, Lance and his wife Judy hosted countless RRTOS meetings at their home, the organ of course, being the main attraction at these meetings as there was always open console time. For several years the Johnsons made a point to have a joint-meeting between the Red River Theatre Organ Society and the Red River Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists so the AGO members who did not belong to ATOS could see, hear, and play a genuine theatre pipe organ.

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Over the years, when guest artists like Donna Parker, Walt Strony, Lance Luce, Rob Richards, etc. would perform at the Fargo Theatre, a trip was always made to the Johnson home so they could play the 2/6 hybrid theatre organ.

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Lance removed and sold the organ around 2014.

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No instrument specification information is known about this instrument except that it had a Post Horn (and presumably a Tibia).