Among many theatre organs described on the Internet you will have difficult time if you want to find anything about this one. Theatre organ is not the most popular instrument and in Poland this statement is particularly true. From what is known only two cinemas had pipe organs installed before the war and half of them survived to this day. Warsaw Wurlitzer has been described in a book "Niezwykkłe Dzieje Warszawskich Organów Wurlitzera" (pl: The Dramatic History Of The Warsaw Wurlitzer Organ) by Maria and Andrzej Szypkowski. Which was released in 2003 after the organ was restored. I can certainly recommend the book since it describes the history of this mighty instrument in much more detail, this site is here just to scratch the surface and relay some information to people aboard.
The organ is a Wurlitzer style 190 with two manuals and 8 ranks. Disposition includes the following ranks:
The tuned percussion includes: Harp, Cathedral chimes, xylophone
The untuned percussion includes: castanets, tambourine, snare drum, triangle, drum
It is worth to note that this specification seems not to be complete and does not match the original ranks of style 190. Check out this website which lists all known opus numbers of Wurlitzer organs, on this site you can also read about the disposition of style 190. If you have seen a Wurlitzer organ before you might have noticed that tabs are different color than original Wurlitzers have and that on the front plate tremulant, percussion and second touches tabs are missing. Book does not mention those but from the photos I deduce that they were replaced somewhere in the 1950s and because organ was enlisted as a monument after it was acquired in the 80s. This means that whole restoration was under strict observation of special commission which had final say if something could be replaced. According to book, restoration crew knew that some elements (like blower) were not original anyway but it was decided that those elements were part of the organ for the last few decades and it was decided that they cannot be replaced with new ones. In my opinion it is a shame since team put a lot of work into restoring the organ and yet it does not resemble state of the organ from 1929.
I am no an expert on pipework, read site that I have listed before for an analysis whether it is manufactured by Wurlitzer or not.
The organ was installed in 1928 in a polish cinema "Coloseum" in Warsaw which tried to introduce polish movie goers to an American style of a movie palaces. The magnificent movie palaces were also mentioned from time to time in a magazines such as "Kino nr.37" from 1930 which presented New York Paramount and Roxy theatre.
Magazine "Kino dla wszystkich" (Cinema for everyone) from 1928 informs their readers that in Coloseum the Wurlitzer organ will play for the first time during christmas.
The same page informs that this Wurlitzer is one of the 3500 already installed around the world. Footnote of the page also states "Owners of the Theatres! Don t trust our competitors who have only two years of experience in organ installation, import Wurlitzer organ to your theatre and you will be happy." Interesting advertisement indeed, sadly it was the last Wurlitzer organ installed in Poland.
There was also a cinema in city of Poznań which also tried to be more of a movie palace. Beside the amount of light bulbs installed in the building, the fact that theatre had its own power generator, name and location, there is little known about the "Słońce" (Sun) theatre. We know that the Słońce had a pipe organ installed, although news paper states that it is a Wurlitzer, one photo clearly shows something that looks like a classical organ. Some sources also state that organ had 200 voices and silver wires. In fact in January 2020 university of Poznań have published an article on the organ of this cinema and it's possible disposition revealing more details. It is not known what happen to the organ after the war.
Coming back to Wurlitzer, which is much better documented. The organ was moved to a "Roma" cinema somewhere around 1936, which was a big hall apparently could fit 6000 person, a figure which seems sketchy if you consider the fact that Roxy theatre had the same amount of seats (5920 in 1927 according to Wikipedia). The hall of Roma belonged to a catholic organization which shared the hall as a cinema and auditorium.
Warsaw was dramatically damaged during the World War two, not only by the military operations from 1939 and 1945 when the front moved but also by 1944 uprising and following planned destruction by the Nazis.
Surprisingly the Roma cinema where the organ was at that time survived while the church which was located very close was completely leveled with the ground. War did leave some damage, like deep scratch on one of the shutter, most likely caused by shrapnel. However the organ did survive the war and according to some sources it was playable.
Much more difficult time for the organ came after the 1945. The hall in which the organ was installed belonged to a church and in 1946 some repairs were made but in 1947 church lost rights to a building and a Warsaw philharmonic took over. This was followed by a many restorations to the building itself which were not in favor of the organ. The philharmonic was not interested in bringing the organ back to a regular use, at that time most decisions were made by the regime government and restoration of a instrument that was once a symbol of American lifestyle was against the communist party (flawed) ideology.
Somewhere in the early 1950s the organ was hastily removed sustaining additional damage by improper handling. Next there was an attempt to repair it so that it could be installed in cathedral of st. John's. From what is known the organ was moved but did not met the expectation as a church organ, probably due to its unification system which does not provide the best polyphony for classical music. In the 1960s the organ found itself in institution that was teaching organists, the instrument was installed in a basement with one chamber. To this point organ still had its percussion. However recent restorations are visible. in contrast to most Wurlitzer the organ does not have tremulant, second touch and pedal percussion tabs at the front flat rail. Instead of those tabs a plate with the name of company that have resorted the organ is visible. Above this plate a white Wurlitzer logo is still visible. The organ was mostly complete until 1978, some press was published around 1972 calling for the organ to be brought back to the cinema but inevitably more and more parts were stolen to repair other instruments slowly bringing the Wurlitzer to its inevitable demise. Organ was definitely silent after 1981.
In 1985 a movement to restore the organ started to form and in 1989 Wurlitzer changed the ownership. Maria Szypkowska and Andrzej Szypkowski have become the new owners of the organ and together with Professor Jerzy Gołos they started tedious process of restoration with the help of Kamiński (organ builder company) and group of volunteers.
The book goes into much more detail, and I cannot recommend enough to read it for your own (if you know polish language). Sadly it is not that available, but from time to time it pops out on the auctions. Last page also mentions work on English version but from one I have searched it was never released.
Over the span of almost ten years the organ was completely restored by team of enthusiasts of pipe organs and organ builder company from Warsaw. Instrument was also put on a list of a historical monuments objects, meaning that restoration was monitored so that every detail was to be restored to a state as it was when it was last installed or at least to the state that was known. Pipe work was split once again into two chambers. Initially restored instrument was installed in the attic of the owner's house but in early 2000s it was supposed to be moved to a museum of technology in Warsaw. Last article that I was able to dig up is from 2009 and mentions upcoming inauguration in Warsaw museum of technology however trace ends here.
I have tried to reach the heroes of this restoration but both the Szypkowcy couple and the Prof. Gołos have passed away years ago. The museum which was supposed to receive the organ is reopening after years of being close, so there is chance that mighty Wurlitzer will play once again before its 100th birthday.
sp6gk 'at' protonmail.com
Here is demonstration of restored radio from 1938.