Bing Theater - Spokane, WA - Official Local Tourism Attractions on Waymarking.com

The Theater
In the spirit of the movie palace movement, Paulsen spared no expense. Reviewing the theater at its opening, the Spokesman-Review commented "an atmosphere of richness is over everything.' The theater glowed with 1,600 lights. Murals on the walls were painted by Ivar Petersen, the muralist who had a year earlier painted murals is the Davenport Hotel. The acoustical shell over the stage, though built for function as a concentrator of the organ sounds, gave 'an elaborate architectural effect' and 'is the first of such design to be installed in any theater." (Indeed, 90 years later architectural historians surveying the building as a part of statewide survey of old theaters said they had never seen another one like it). A ventilation system continuously pumped stale air out and fresh air in. In the summer the air ran over cakes of ice to cool the building.

The pipe organ "an integral part of pre-talkie movie theaters" was installed by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago. It was a four-manual organ, 'the only one of the kind in a moving picture theater in the Pacific Northwest,' according to the Spokesman-Review article. With hundreds of individual tones issuing from 3,000 pipes filling a space that measured 18 by 40 feet, the newspaper article said, the organ could produce a sound as large as a 40-piece orchestra.

One of the first people to play this organ was Jesse Crawford, later to become the most renowned theater organist of the silent movie era. Crawford, a roaming piano player, "had never played organ before," says an article in the American Theater Organ Society journal, "but when he got a job playing for the Clemmer Theater. . . . which had both piano and seven-rank Estey organ, the die was cast." Crawford was later a feature performer at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles and the Paramount in New York City.
From the Bing Crosby Theater