In Franklin, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, there exists an ordinary distribution warehouse in a large office park.
To the average passer-by, this is just one of several buildings in the community owned by Carma Laboratories, the makers of the famous yellow tins of Carmex lip balm and other products.
But listen closely, and over the sounds of passing trucks and chirping birds, you may hear the deep rumble of an organ pipe, or the sparkling tine of a glockenspiel.
Because hidden within the warehouse’s 20,000 square-foot main hall, and consuming a large portion of the 7,000 square-foot office area, is one of the world’s largest pipe organs.
How did this come to be? As part of the Organ Grinder documentary, we wanted to find out what other audacious things people are doing with pipe organs today. So, as part of our five-state Midwest Tour, we interviewed Carma Labs co-owner Paul Woelbing to ask what’s up with his organ.
Paul is the grandson of Carma Labs founder Alfred Woelbing. Paul had an early interest in mechanical things, and became a collector of antique motorcycles and automated musical instruments.
At a very young age, Paul restored a player piano with a friend, making it operable again.
When he went off to college as an art major, he chose a school in Philadelphia, in part to be near one of his favorite instruments, the Wanamaker “Grand Court Organ”, a behemoth installed throughout multiple floors of the department store of the same name.
In the 1990’s, Paul moved back to Wisconsin and joined the family business, which was entering a period of rapid growth. When a new warehouse building was constructed, Paul noted that it had a 3-second reverb, and might just be the perfect spot for a pipe organ.
Since Carma Labs was a family owned & run business, and not a typical large corporation, it was only necessary to convince Paul’s dad that this was indeed the spot to construct Paul’s dream instrument.
Starting with the core of an organ that originally came out of the Nortown Theater in Chicago and changed hands a few times, an 18-year project began, adding pipes from other theater organs as well as newly-constructed ranks. Today, the organ has a custom four-manual console with 90-ranks (a rank is a set of pipes with a distinct tone, such as flutes or trumpets), 6,500 pipes, and 12 miles of wiring.
Tonally, the instrument is both a theatre organ (like at the Organ Grinder) and also a symphonic organ in the style of the Wanamaker, including over 30 ranks of lush strings.
It is quite the sight and sound experience to observe the organ playing (it can be played live by an organist, or play back past performances perfectly from a computer control system or traditional paper rolls) while forklifts move 50-gallon drums around the building.
While there, we also interviewed Toby Washburn, a young theater organist and organ technician.
Toby moved from California to the Midwest to learn from world-renowned performer Jelani Eddington, who also had a hand in the tonal design and development of the Carma Labs instrument.
Toby gave a lively demonstration of the organ, which can be seen here. In addition to performing, Toby is one of the people who helps maintain this large and complex instrument.
As Carma Labs continues to expand into a new combined headquarters and production facility, the pipe organ will remain in its current setting – with new plans in the works to make the building more accessible to the community for events and live performances.
You can help support the project by purchasing from the Crowdfunding Shop.
