It was the organ that made me skate.

The marvelous Wurlitzer organ.
Some of the older and larger downtown movie theaters had a mighty Wurlitzer organ. Put into service back when movies were silent and needed some underlying musical theme to carry the action. The bigger and older ones were huge as they are today. About the size of a Volkswagen beetle.
A Wurlitzer had Multiple tears of piano-like keys and dozens and dozens of buttons. It also had about A Dozen foot pedals. However, as far as I can remember, the Wurlitzer had no pipes. Yes, it was not a pipe organ but a standalone instrument. In today’s parlance they must had cost an arm and a leg.
Many ballparks and sports arenas today have Wurlitzers. Played to engage the audience with the momentum of the game. A few larger and long-time established churches also had Wurlitzers. Especially those congregations who could not afford or have the room for a mammoth pipe organ.
The Wurlitzers organ could produce a sound like a flute or piccolo. Or make a low frequency sound such as an upright double base fiddle. Played with any combination of brass and wind instruments. All creating a reverential religious orchestral sound.
But anyway, when listening on the radio to a Dodger baseball game, you could hear in the background the organ player playing “The Mexican Hat Dance.” Or the bugle-like Charge sound. And the fans would either clap with the Hat Dance tune or in unison say, “Charge” after the familiar bugle charge.
None the less, my favorite Wurlitzer organ and it’s player was enclosed behind a wall of glass inside the Moonlight Roller drome in Pasadena, California. A roller-skating rink we kids frequented during our public-school years.
The gentleman behind the glass spoke over a public address system. He had a tenor like voice such like the Muppet character, Miss Piggy. He would announce the tempo of the tune and possibly meant for either men or women or all couples skate.
When it was time for couples to skate only, the lights would dim and the revolving mirrored ball high in the ceiling would start turning creating sparkles of light dancingd all over the skating rink. The music he played would be some slow romantic tune such as “Old Cape Cod” or the “Tennessee Waltz.” Each couple had this forearm and back of the waist arm and hand hold while skating the rink oval. Then the pace would pick up quite a bit when it was time for men and boys only. Resulting in a roller-derby like pace. Sometimes a bit frenetic. Then when the women and girls only skate was announced, the tempo slowed a bit and them guys left the floor.
There was an older woman we kids rode with to the skating event. Well, she was in her mid-twenties. She obviously was a true amateur skater. She owned her own shoe skates and had a cute short skating outfit. So, what scared me to death was when she asked me, a 12-year-old knucklehead skating beginner, to skate with her during the next couple’s skate. Me? Me skate with You? A couple skate? I can’t do that. But she insisted. So off we went, skating with proper hand and arm holds. It was so embarrassing. It took all her balance and strength to hold me upright. But we went round and round seemingly a hundred times. As soon as the couple skate was over, I headed straight for the boys room and stayed in there for a good while. While in the boys room I would stay in until others out on the rink would forget I was even here.
Has anyone seen Butch? He’s in the restroom and hasn’t come out for half an hour. Well, it’s almost time to leave. Tell him to get out here.