Episode Transcription: 

foreign
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everybody JW Wilson my co-host brinton Payne brought to you by cap ticks Bank
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our friends Mike Thomas You’re Gonna Love This one Brinton when I mentioned the name Emmett Smith to you what comes
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to mind well I’ve actually brought uh something that comes to mind and I was
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wondering when we got at this house I didn’t realize that the Emmitt Smith lives here in Fort Worth we are in the
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home of the legendary Emmett Smith not the guy you’re holding the jersey of but the the more important for enough
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regards to what we’re doing today Emmett Smith welcome to the show Emmett thank you very much I’m happy to
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be a part of this this man brinton has lived a life uh he’s still living obviously 95 years young but he has
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lived a life we’re about to dig into today because it’s fascinating so forget the other Amendment this guy is worth
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our time today so let’s get started what do you say all right Emmett’s uh 95 like I said you
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grew up in a town called Arkansas City Kansas correct correct tell us about
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life in our Kansas City please our Kansas City was founded around 1840
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almost completely by new englanders who had read ads about the fertile soil
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and the wonderful weather and they moved
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we’re actually Lock Stock and Barrel and settled this town they made the streets beautiful with
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huge American Elms made tunnels of the streets red brick streets nicely done a
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marvelous public school system with orchestras in the junior high school the
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high school the junior college and this was back in the days when women
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could not be married and teach and they could be widows and teach but they
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couldn’t teach if they were married makes sense right and no it does I know it doesn’t and uh anyway they were
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dedicated to what they were doing and it was marvelous I had the best French teacher in Arkansas City Kansas than I
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had in Paris France um anyway uh my father was an accountant
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and he was very crazy about violin music
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he had five children with my mother of course and all five at
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the age of five were started with violin lessons border size half size full size as you
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grew he made a terrible mistake uh when I was five years old that was 90
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years ago he took me the three oldest boys took us to an organ recital in the
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Presbyterian Church which had a beautiful Kimball Oregon pipe organ they were all
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pipe orchids in those days and we
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were all settling this beautiful Church which is just a big pink Dome over us
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and I remember the name of the organism his name was Homer Dodge Kane Jr and he began to play our church didn’t
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yet have a pipe organ it did in 1939.
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I heard this sound and it was hypnotic it was really as though I were
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in a different place I wasn’t on Earth and from that minute on my mother called
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it organ fever every time I had a chance to go here in Oregon I would go
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and my piano teacher I took violin for 10 years and then I sneaked piano in there
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because my father would not have a piano in the house and I had learned to play the piano
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fairly well uh before my mother and I
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got a piano free delivered and tuned no cost because
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one of the music stores was overloaded with a warehouse full of pianos
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and so they just delivered it and tuned it and it was ours uh my father was Furious
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when he found the piano and my mother was prepared and she said well you know when you and
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the boys want to practice with your accompanist you have to walk 16 blocks because we
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didn’t have a car we were poor 16 blocks to practice with her
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and her name was Dora Mae Weber and she was a marvelous pianist and she
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became the organist of our church in 1939 when we got the new organ
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she had a car and my mother said when you want to rehearse when the boys are
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going to have to play somewhere rehearse with her she can drive here 16 blocks
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and you don’t have to make that long walk and have more time just to practice
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well that’s not a bad idea so he didn’t know I could play the piano
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and one day he came home and I was ripping through a Chopin
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Etude or something that was lots of notes and he just stared at me
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and said what’s this and I said well I want to learn to play the organ
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and he said well from now on you can accompany the other two boys okay
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and uh the best organist in town was my piano teacher
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and she said she wouldn’t teach me Oregon until I could play two Beethoven sonatas from memory and two-part
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inventions of Bach so I practiced four hours a day no matter what came up four hours practice
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and on the piano and when I could play those she started me
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and I was 14 years old and two weeks later after my two lessons
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I substituted in a hurry at the Methodist Church who had to have an organist quick
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and uh that was the beginning and then when I was uh almost 16 I was
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right at the end of 15. the choir director at my church our church had a big congregation
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biggest one in town five choirs three Sunday Services excellent music
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the choir director who was also my geometry teacher in high school called me on the phone and said
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doramay Weber came down with polio on Monday and she died today Friday you’re
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going to play the three services on Sunday oh it was
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what’d you feel like when you got that like I’ve been hit by a ton of bricks
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because I had to learn the anthem accompaniments all the hymns were going to be used
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and at the night service which was very informal anyone in the congregation
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could call out a hymn number and we would sing it so I immediately started on page one and
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I learned all the hymns in the hymnal so that I could play him on an instance
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notice and uh I’m so grateful that that I had that
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chance I’m sorry for adorable aweber but uh because when I went to college
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I had such a big Repertory behind me having to prepare music for three services every Sunday
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that I was loaded down with pieces I could play
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how’d you go about doing the prac the practicing you know four hours a day and then to learn those would you take it
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one him at a time or how do you have a method I would probably play that game
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over and over and over until it was practically memorized I knew what was going to happen on it and uh
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I never I never quit practicing hymns because there’s a real art to him
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playing and very few now I don’t mean to make organists angry but there are a few even
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really good organists around who don’t do a good job in my opinion why would
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they get mad about that I mean I don’t know they think him playing is not important maybe you just drag drag the
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congregation through it that’s it and I was taught you the music has to
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interpret the meaning of the text so if the hymn talks about the
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the trumpets of Jericho you don’t want to be playing along on soft string stops you want the trumpets
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of Jericho and you make the the organ just magnify
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the strength of the poetry and uh
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it takes a lot of practice and uh I don’t play for churches anymore my last
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public playing was in when I was 92 that was three years ago
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and I decided it’s time to quit and I quit um where was the last place I played for
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a funeral at arborlawn Methodist Church here in Fort Worth don’t skip ahead too
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far we’ve missed over a whole bunch of good stuff let’s go back to our Kansas City if you don’t mind all right uh
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you’re doing this you’re you’re practicing you’re playing all these Services you’re thrust into the world of the organ yeah and you’re loving it I
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know but you’re obviously under a lot of stress but in 1950 something happened that brought you here to Fort Worth what
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happened there are journals like uh the American organist magazine and one
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called the diet patient which is a hundred years old in public publishing and the Etude used to be published for
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all musicians and other journals that keep you up what’s hap on on what’s
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happening in the world of music and um I began to read in these journals
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about Fort Worth Texas the university there called Texas
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Christian University was building a new building which would have in it a a
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beautiful new Auditorium with a magnificent new pipe organ custom built
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of force as all pipe organs are to match that room and sound wonderful
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and that was 1949. and I was getting my first degree at
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Southwestern College in Winfield Kansas which I chose because they had an excellent organ teacher
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um and so I had a i commuted from Arkansas City to
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Winfield which was 14 miles who I didn’t live on campus but I had a 1937
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Dodge Coupe very reliable car and I drove
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and so I just decided to get to my little Dodge and drive to Fort Worth the
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building was finished the dedicatory recitals had been played and uh had gotten glowing
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criticism from musicians all over the country
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so I drove down here and of course it was before the days of interstate highways
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so Highway 77 just put me right in the middle of downtown
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Fort Worth and I stopped someone said how do I get to TCU and he said that
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next street is seventh just go that way on Seventh until you get to University Drive
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so I did and I turned off of 7th Street
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and within three or four blocks I was in a dense
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forest there were no buildings uh not even a filling station
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uh there was a beer joint just as I got to the bottom of the
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hill on University Drive before I went up the hill to uh
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uh TCU campus well I thought I hit God had told me
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wrong because I had driven for a couple of miles in a dense forest on a little
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two-lane ragged Street and suddenly I burst out all the TCU
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campus and what had changed from what it is today that the president of the University’s
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wife had insisted and won the battle to plant hundreds of Live Oak and and
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deciduous Oaks all over the campus and this the trunks of the Big Trees you see
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now were the size of broomsticks and the cameras were just Barren and uh Ed
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Landreth was the biggest the newest building and so I parked that was not a problem went
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inside outside it was about 103 degrees went in where Dean McCorkle kept his
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building at 65 during hot weather he freezed to death and so I went into the
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lobby and I could hear the organ being played so I looked through the little window in the door at the back of the
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auditorium and there was a cluster of students around the organ console that means the
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keyboards the pedal board call that and so I slipped in quietly and sat down in the back row
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and a student whose name was Marion Armstrong still living she lives in Waco
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um turned around said hi you back there are you an organist
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and I said yes I said well come on up so I went up there and she said
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do you want to play something and I said am I allowed to I’m not registered here
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and she said of course of course and they were all organ Majors clustered
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around the console so I sat down because I had played my graduation recital just a few weeks
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before it was all memorized uh I played the Prelude and fugit a
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minor a Bach and that totally takes about seven or eight minutes
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and at the end of they were very quiet they didn’t make any disturbance while I
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played and I was just shocked I had never heard of an organ like that
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and when I was trying it out I said oh that’s the most sound I have ever heard
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come out of an organ and Marianne said you don’t even have the
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shutters open and what makes the sound of the organ on a certain keyboards
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are opening and closing very thick wooden shutters and it just closes in the sound or you let the sound out then
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when I open the shutters and the main trumpet stops and trombone stops in the
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organ were behind the shutters I was speechless it was magnificent
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and then I Heard a Voice across Footlights I didn’t know I never met him it was
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Dean McCorkle and he said uh young man are you looking for our
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graduate school to study Oregon and I said well yes I am and he said well when you’re finished
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here stop by my office it’s in the lobby so I do
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and he said I heard you play and I came in
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to listen and he said if you want to come here for a master’s degree I will give you total tuition free
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you will have to work six hours a week grading papers for either
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music theory or musicology and I said fine that’s wonderful
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and so that’s how I came to TCU
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at the same time the dean hired the Mueller pipe organ
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company salesman for Texas and the states around it
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he was a Salesman for this area and he convinced Dean McCorkle to buy the
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smaller organ animal or practice organ up on the second floor and a small one
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and I knew him he went to Southwestern College in Winfield Kansas where I went
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but I was 12 years old I heard Gordon Young play his Junior recital at
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Southwestern and he got his degree there and made a name for himself as a
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composer mainly of organ pieces and Anthems for churches
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um he could really play a brilliant recitalist
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and uh he was to play one of the dedics horror recitals on this new organ
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well there was not an organ like the one in Atlanta anywhere within miles and
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miles States practically it was a new sound to
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people in this area and The e-power Bigs from uh
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Harvard played Dean Doty from University of Texas uh
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Alexander McCurdy from Curtis Institute in Philadelphia
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and Gordon young or the dedication dedicatory recitalists
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Sunday afternoon of Gordon’s recital in Atlanta it was packed with people standing
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around the wall to hear him play the dean was pacing the lobby he
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couldn’t find Gordon Young he kept hearing his phone ring he finally went into his office it was
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Gordon Young now Dean McCorkle told me all this himself
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Gordon sat on the phone to the dean tell all those people to go home while
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uh I’ll play this recital for them some other time but I’m about to get a contract signed here for a nice big
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three manual molar for Central Christian Church and I just can’t pass up that that uh paycheck or selling that organ
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tell them to come back some other time that was Sunday he drove driving from
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uh El Paso is a long drive
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well Tuesday he was fired and Dean McCorkle hired
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newly retired organ Professor from Northwestern University whose name was White House
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he came down I finished the second semester for Gordon the next semester was the first of all
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semester I appeared and DCU had hired a new uh organ teacher
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um I won’t mention his name but he was hired quickly
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and the in those days the Deans and the and the and the chairman of departments
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made the decisions and they had made a decision maybe a little too quick and
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the one they hired did not play well and uh
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about Thanksgiving time Dean McCorkle called me in to his office he never mentioned words and he said
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I want to know are you learning anything from uh professional so-and-so
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I said why do you ask and he said oh no do you
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and I said he said I have Mutiny on my hands he said a whole bunch of organ Majors came
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in here and said if they have to take organ from him the spring semester they will change
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Majors or schools I said we can’t have that would you be
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willing to teach the the malcontents and let the other guy teach the ones who
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don’t know the difference and I said well no I would enjoy that he said have
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you ever talked before and I said yes in Arkansas City I taught a couple of students how to play the organ
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so he said all right now I want you to be full-time
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so you will work 40 hours a week for me as an administrative assistant for the
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School of Fine Arts and teach the organ students you want to study
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with you and I was tickled to death to have some money coming in
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and what were they paying you in it my full-time salary was three thousand five
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hundred dollars a year and that was adequate
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um I mean I could live on that uh that’s what I was getting when I got married it
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our apartment was 50 a month uh we didn’t have a car
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so that’s the way it was and uh
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in those days anybody who was taking applied music that uh uh that means uh
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where you perform when it was exam time at the end of the semester he played for
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the entire music faculty not just organ people or keyboard people for
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organ and piano and Brass people for trumpets and trombones and so on and and
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you had to listen to everybody that took a week and but you knew who your students were no matter what whether
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they sang or or played the violin you knew good or bad for the whole
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Department and so uh the uh the difference of course between
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organ Majors who wanted to really amount to something
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and those who just wanted a credit you had a TC you have to have three
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hours of uh cultural credit for any degree uh
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the comparison was like night and day black and white uh
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the dean told me I was the Oregon teacher from then on so I just stayed for 45 years
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and uh until 1996 correct 1996 I started teaching it January the 1st 1951
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so I taught 45 years and I never asked for a raise
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I never asked to be promoted but it just happened and by the time I had talked there
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four years I had my first student with a Fulbright scholarship
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to go study in uh Denmark with a famous
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organist and he’s still living my student he lives in Dallas
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and uh I had a wife and three children
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there’s a wonderful musician turned out to be a Catholic priest even with a wife
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and children amazing I’ve had that happen to
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three different students from TCU in those years well anyway
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other things happened I began to get nice attention for TCU because I take my
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students to play recitals in Austin and Houston and Oklahoma City
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Shreveport uh uh New Mexico and of course Texas uh
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Fort Worth and Dallas and I played a recital every year and so you have to keep
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your program ahead of the in front of the public in order to attract students
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well pretty soon I was teaching 33 Oregon students and working 40 hours a
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week I was having about a 70 hour workload
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of course my salary increased nicely but uh
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in the 80s the university gave me the honor of the
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northern chair for the professorship of music
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all the music school and they only have one and so I had that until I retired
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and the northern family in San Antonio endowed that chair
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and so when I retired that went to piano
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teacher John Owings and uh so things like that made my life
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terribly busy because I always had a church job at the same time uh terribly
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busy but what I like to do and I wouldn’t trade it with anybody I
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wouldn’t trade TCU with any school I have taught master classes at other
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universities there’s no comparison because I know
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other teachers for 45 years I knew teachers who were as as dedicated to
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helping the students as anybody could be and I’ve had student after student with
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a degree from TCU in Oregon come back decades later and said I
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didn’t realize what I was getting at TCU and he said at
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most schools it’s if you flunk out I don’t care it’s just one less problem to deal with I never
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ran into that at GCU and that made me feel good
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my family has seven TCU degrees in my immediate family
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I had two children I have two children one is now 59 and
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the other is 61. that makes me feel old to think that
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uh but my first wife had three degrees from
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TCU and my present wife has a degree uh it was uh
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our blood is purple and uh tell us if you don’t mind tell us some of the some
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of your students over the years you’ve had numerous people go on to illustrious careers with the organ all over the
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world you’ve told us before yes I had to tell us about these people I had a brilliant student from Beaumont Texas
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his name was Wayne Khan c-o-h-n who ended up as the organist choir
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master of Saint George’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan New York City
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which was a very prominent Church lots of music where e Power Beats
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from Harvard made a lot of his organ recordings on the organ in that
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church and New York is not a good place
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ordinarily to be the organist in a church because there are so many organists and so many schools there
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teaching organ that they won’t pay them very much
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and after Wayne had been there for a decade
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he just analyzed the situation had no savings account uh instead of a salary of any
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comp consequence he was given a big apartment as part of the church building so he didn’t have to pay rent
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so he left went back to Houston immediately found a church job
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uh was hired by a hotel big Hotel chain to do a computer
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work for them where he stayed until he retired and uh so he didn’t give up playing
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until he came back to instead of Fort Worth he
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he inherited a house in Dallas and that’s where he lives but I also have the uh
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personally in charge of all the music and particularly the choral and
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orchestral music at the Naval Academy in Annapolis his name is Marty Maxwell and he is from
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San Angelo Texas and he had come
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here and had taught himself to play the organ by listening to records of
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Virgil Fox e-power Biggs and other organists who had made good discs and
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he went his parents took him to San Antonio from San Angelo to hear Virgil Fox he
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was the famous organist from Riverside Church in New York where his talent salary was ten thousand dollars a year
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but he made his living playing concerts everywhere
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and so they went there to hear him play his recital and very timidly afterwards
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his father told me this Monty went up after the recital went backstage and met
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Virgil and said he was interested in Oregon
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would he advise him where to go study because he had never had a teacher
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and he said Virgil we became very good friends with Virgil and he’s eaten at
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this table a good many times and he said well you live in Texas don’t you and
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Marty said well yes I do and he said go to TCU that’s all
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so he did he was so brilliant after he got his degree at TCU he was taken by as a
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student before graduate work at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia which is the most
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distinguished music school in the nation they only take they take no more than
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four organ students and the students who will make a full-fledged Orchestra
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in addition they will take voice students up to a certain limit and piano students but all the other students are
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to make this Orchestra and Curtis was the the owner of the Curtis candy company
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made Millions hundreds of millions of dollars and at this school is so endowed
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all the students go totally free they come from all over the world to try to get in
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well I’ve had two students I had three three three former students
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who got in uh but Monty
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got his uh postgraduate degree plus an artist diploma
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from there then he went the same teacher taught at Juilliard uh so he went to Juilliard and got a
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regular masters with John Weber at Juilliard and then there was a competition for a
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new organist choir master for the Naval Academy so he entered the competition which was
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for organists from all over the country and one and he’s been there now 20
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about 22 years and every Halloween he puts on the best
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Broadway musical show in that magnificent huge Chapel
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at the naval cat at Annapolis it seats 2500
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people and they sell it out three times in two days performances
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and twenty dollars a seat and he was given a budget of eighty
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eight thousand dollars to put on the show that is worth going to it is he plays a
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whole thing with his five keyboard organ with Orchestra choir violinists dancers
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uh singers of all kinds uh and this tickets are sold never more
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time you selling tickets than three hours that’s impressive yes yeah and he
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puts on these shows well anyway um so Marty Maxwell and then uh I’ve had
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I have two former students who live in Europe one teachers in Germany and one
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teaches in Sweden um
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I have a lot of my students that that had
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distinguished positions are retired now and uh
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because I’ve been retired now 26 years and uh
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well let’s talk about that then for a sec okay you retired from TCU in 96 yes but then you continue to play several
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churches in the Metroplex until the year 2008. yes correct no the 2008 was car
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Champion yes uh Mr Carr from uh
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West Texas he was in San Angelo um
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gave the money for that gorgeous Chapel Robert Carr Chapel
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it was finished in two in 1953 and
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we remember that very well because my wife Sue and I wanted to get married in
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it and it was supposed to be finished in time for us to get married in May of 1953.
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the time came and it wasn’t finished so instead we got married in the small Chapel of the Good Shepherd at
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University Christian Church which is very nice but it obviously it’s about 80 people
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and uh so we had a small wedding with people standing out in the lobby
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you couldn’t all get in because some people came to weren’t invited and uh uh
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we didn’t really mind that but the doors opened at car Chapel
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uh in June uh no no we got married in April the doors opened in may we got married April
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the 10th uh we got uh the door I played the first service in Robert Carr Chapel
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in May of 1953 and I played there for 55 years did you
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help with the design of the organ when those places are built yes do they are
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they built um with the organ and how does that work yes Mr uh
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car would not give more than ten thousand dollars for the organ
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he had lots of money for the chapel which is absolutely one of the most beautiful buildings you can see anywhere
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uh where’s that on an organ price scale at
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that time you could buy it or a pipe organ for about eight hundred dollars for each set of
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pipes I mean 61 pipes for the keyboard
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um so with a 10 000 gift and finagling and talking with the
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reuter Organ Company in Lawrence Kansas uh and I knew some of the people there
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because Kansas had a lot of reuter organs in them uh in it uh we got 14
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sets of pipes in the car Chapel Oregon and it was that organ sold other organs
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like hot cakes the sales would bring people to hear it and it was a nice acoustic beautifully
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voiced organ very nice but it was small same size as this organ
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right here oh really yes this is 14. and uh
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so in 1979 I went to the money
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razors at TCU and said could you approach
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a family I know that I think might buy a bigger and a new organ for the chapel
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well who is it and I told him I said they’ve already given a couple of million this year they’re not going to
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give you any more and I said well may I have permission to talk to him and
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see if they’ll give any more and you know sure go ahead you’re not going to get it
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so um Sue and I invited
38:42
the parents of the family to have dinner with us here and we were about ready for the dessert
38:49
and I began to tell them about what we would like to have that the organ was
38:55
barely adequate but didn’t have enough variety in different sounds different kinds of
39:01
pipes that we would like to have but up brought up to a level it could play
39:08
any kind of music that you were with was French or German or uh English American
39:16
that it would have the right sound to do that and so
39:22
they looked at each other and the man answered first he had stared at
39:30
her his wife’s eyes and she sent me a message she said he said
39:36
we’re going to talk to our accountant tomorrow and I’ll call and let you know
39:41
so the next day he called and said you go ahead and get that organ we’ll pay for it
39:47
and so in 1979 we got a 36 rank organ
39:55
and they paid for it and uh it’s still going full blast and everybody who plays
40:02
it says this is a Jew and we have the Ed Landreth magnificent organ that’s the
40:09
same one you know a different Builder okay but the original one know that you had
40:15
spoken of yes that when you first came here it’s still there it’s still there and out here to tell you why it’s so
40:20
outstanding Gordon Young not only sold it to the dean and his
40:27
ability to play it and to teach he wanted it to sound the way he knew an
40:32
organ ought to sound the best and the head voice man for an organ I
40:38
mean figures out the sound had died in 1945 or six his name was uh
40:47
uh Richard uh uh we’ll come to a minute uh
40:53
white leg Richard Whiteley he was English and he had died but he had figured out
41:00
what he knew would make the warmest richest sound out of pipes and Mueller
41:07
had done that when he died they got in the clutches of another
41:12
trend man who was all convinced that we ought
41:18
to go back to organs like they were in North Germany
41:24
in the 1700s and 1600s and 1700s and suddenly the organs
41:31
became very shrill and they don’t sound like the organs over there at all I’ve played them and uh it was just
41:40
an exaggeration of what they thought they heard
41:45
and it ended up molar which was the biggest organ builder in the world at
41:50
that time they finished a new pipe organ every day of the year
41:55
and uh they went broke well they hadn’t gone broke yet and
42:04
Gordon would send the pipes back to the factory if he didn’t like them
42:09
and made them the white legs scale for this Auditorium
42:16
well when he got finished e-power Biggs from from Harvard came
42:23
into places oh a molar oh I said you know
42:30
it’s just a broom closet and I said well we think it’s pretty
42:35
good yeah that’s a molar just a broom closet
42:40
and I noticed that he practiced five straight hours
42:46
it had been a broom closet he wouldn’t have done that he loved it everybody who’s ever played that organ whether
42:52
it’s from Europe the east anywhere in the world
42:57
they can’t believe it it is so unusually good because it
43:03
Bach the great musician said
43:09
the most important stop in the organ is the room
43:15
and we have marvelous Acoustics in Atlanta
43:20
absolutely marvelous you can be sitting in the back row and someone stands on the stage and
43:27
talks the way I’m talking you can hear it yeah and when the orchestra plays you
43:33
hear the treble instruments equal to the bass and not many auditoriums
43:40
Bass Hall is very very good but those in my opinion are the two best acoustic
43:48
concert Halls all these years Emmett have playing the organ yeah and and churches and chapels and TCU
43:55
we I know this stat because this is what first clued me into the the the Brilliance of you but how many weddings
44:03
have you played in your career well at the University Chapel the Robert
44:09
Carr Chapel I have paid played 2 600 weddings but I had played several weddings in my
44:17
hometown from the time I was 16. and I’ve played weddings in in various
44:23
churches where I’ve been the organists of Arlington Heights Methodist uh
44:28
University Christian uh I belong when it used to be Overton Park
44:33
Methodist um so did they call and they say can you come
44:39
play and then do you say what am I playing or it’s just how does that work they have to revert reserve the time at
44:47
the University Chapel or at a church a church with a pipe organ would be big
44:53
enough to have to have reservations but it was uh
44:59
a wedding in car Chapel always occupied five hours of my time
45:05
because I would always meet the bride and her groom if he wants to come her
45:11
mother if she wants to come her father if he wants to come and so many are using the chapel because
45:18
of its unbelievable low price and it’s Beauty
45:24
and they go to religions that don’t use the organ and they come and the bride has been to
45:32
weddings where there’s organ music in it she wants it so it takes an hour of very diplomatic
45:42
approach to sell them on the music that has to be used in the
45:48
chapel it has it cannot be popular cannot be from a movie cannot be from an opera
45:55
and of course we break that all the time with uh handles uh a wonderful piece
46:01
that everybody wants to hear Largo from an opera but uh anyway
46:07
sometimes I have to be very very uh
46:13
not such a nice guy yeah stubborn I remember one time this uh
46:21
the mother kept saying we’re not going to have that peace it
46:26
sounds like a carnival anything that I’d play that was fast was a carnival so almost like a funeral parlor and
46:34
so then I would say what church do you go to and then she would tell me and I would already have
46:41
guessed and I said well you’re just not used to organ music and I can’t play anything for you that you would know so
46:48
just take my word for it if this is what is used in this high class and you’ll
46:55
not be sorry decades from now and no we’re not going to have that
47:01
stuff but I said well where is she buying her tennis shoes no
47:07
well I said where where is she buying her wedding dress well at Neiman’s of course
47:12
and I said and where are you buying the tennis shoes to go with it she said what do you mean tennis shoes she’s not gonna
47:17
wear tennis shoes oh I said well you’re going to heaven a fortune spent in flowers
47:24
and clothing for this fancy wedding and then you want music that’s going to
47:31
fit a Saloon or a restaurant or a club but not a church
47:39
oh I hadn’t thought of that and eventually convince them but it was
47:46
a nightmare then I have to practice with the soul of the singers singer that’s a separate time then I have to practice at
47:52
the wedding rehearsal then I have to practice with all the music I’m going to play the next day and it takes about five hours for each
48:01
wedding you ever get tired of playing The Wedding March we didn’t allow that at the chapel except in very rare
48:09
occasions okay and what made it rare was that bride is the daughter of a family
48:19
that just paid for a building on this campus and we can stretch at least it’s
48:26
good music it’s not written for a junk place and uh we would rarely use it but
48:34
uh it was any other memorable weddings good and or bad oh I remember my my
48:41
children keep saying why don’t you write a book because they’re literally hundreds
48:48
things weddings wedding practices change during the
48:54
years besidedly and I remember remember distinctly the
48:59
first time the unity candle appeared in Robert Carr Chapel you know what that is I think so
49:07
okay the bride and groom had not planned to have the unity candle
49:13
but they went to the dinner after rehearsal and somebody coached them into having the unity candle at the wedding
49:21
and so the next night I was told there would be a Unity candle and
49:26
so that was my first one but I had seen him at other weddings
49:32
and there they were on the uh communion table the altar whatever you
49:38
want to call it the big candle in the middle and the skinny ones the one on each
49:44
outside uh and so they wanted me to be playing
49:49
yeshi Joy of men’s Desiring win by Bach when the candles were being
49:56
the side candles were being built you know and then the bride and groom were going to after the wedding ceremony they
50:01
were gonna touch their burning Wicks yeah like the other one oh it didn’t light it was not a very
50:08
good omen um anyway and that often happened but here coming down the aisle
50:15
was the groove’s mother carrying one of these things that at the lights in the
50:21
church carry with us burning witch and a a bell-shaped
50:26
Snuffer on the other side of it and you could see its Shake she was so nervous
50:32
she hadn’t practiced it and the uh one of the groomsmen was was
50:37
ushering her down the aisle and he stopped at the steps at the bottom of
50:44
the chancel and she went up alone and headed for the table where the
50:51
candle was she didn’t know and didn’t see and didn’t notice at all there was one step
50:57
up just about this far in front of the table and so that part of the chancel was
51:05
built up sturdy wood and interpreted with a red carpet
51:10
and all sudden he is your joy is a quiet piece and everybody was watching
51:18
boom her foot hit that step up was like hitting a drum and
51:24
she fell down and as she fell she took that thing and
51:29
she whacked it on top of the table put big gash in the wood mahogany and fell on her face
51:37
uh she was sort of at the end of a kneeling bench I was in front of the table
51:43
and the Usher ran up the steps and helped her get up on her feet again
51:48
and people went wasn’t that awful oh the poor thing you could hear the
51:55
congregation the place was full I went ahead playing and I thought well
52:01
I hope the bride’s mother was standing back in the open door to the north X and
52:06
saw that so she’d be more careful no she came down by this time everyone
52:12
was dead silent she was on the left
52:17
end of the table the North End when she hit it with her foot bang it
52:24
went and she threw the thing and it hit the wall under the organ pipes on the
52:31
North side and fell down in a in a queue for the choir pew and it put out the
52:39
flame well the funny thing was
52:44
she fell on her back with her legs pointed straight out at the congregation and they burst into laughter they
52:53
couldn’t stop it was so funny for that and uh
52:58
anyway that was are you watching all that you have a rear view mirror right I
53:03
mean is that the way the bed front of my eyes oh you’re good you’re doing it from oh you facing the console is on the
53:09
South Side in a pit okay and uh you can see from me from here and the pipes are
53:16
behind you and what the pipes are behind you both sides okay okay so I’m just
53:21
looking here here’s the preacher bride and groom Unity candle one down next to
53:27
them every bride’s worst nightmare came true what about funerals how many of those oh
53:32
more than weddings no no not nearly as many as weddings but uh uh
53:40
well funerals I guess the funniest one was
53:49
at least to me I knew the dead person and so I went to
53:54
the cemetery afterwards and The Undertaker
54:01
very prominent I had hired a high school boy
54:07
to work with him at the grave you know they put the casket on webbing and they
54:13
after the family has left for most funerals they lower it into the ground
54:18
well while the preacher was giving a prayer toward the end of the ceremony
54:25
the high school boy Evan Lee didn’t know exactly what he should be
54:30
doing he did something and it dumped the coffin and wise down into the hole
54:37
and you could hear glass break when it when it hit the bottom and it’s bad
54:43
we’re laughing again one end was sticking up and one was down
54:48
what was the glass there’s glass in the casket yeah a lot of them would have uh
54:53
oh yeah like the cover yeah uh that would not be there when usually the
54:59
neighbor used to have viewing but anyway the Undertaker was had a reputation for being very
55:07
sour face anyway here the preacher was trying to give a closing prayer and The
55:15
Undertaker approaches at this poor high school boy
55:20
who was terrified he said he screamed it out
55:25
sort of ruined into that funeral do you remember the music you played at that I mean does the music kind of stay with
55:33
you like that or it just kind of It kind of blurs together you know at a funeral a funeral is not a time to try to
55:40
educate no people’s taste and I would always try my very best to play what they wanted me
55:47
to play like who Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie uh and it was a Rancher why not
55:53
sure and uh things like that didn’t bother me so much
55:58
but I was I got an emergency Call at TCU
56:04
one day that there was a the Hampton Presbyterian Church was packed full of
56:10
people for a very important person’s funeral and they realized they didn’t have an
56:17
organist to play could I Dash over there quick in place with this funeral so I did it’s a nice reuter pipe organ in
56:24
that church and uh I had played it before so I knew I just walked in did it and uh
56:32
it was packed with people all the men all in blue suits and uh there were
56:39
three ministers in the three chairs right behind I could reach back and touch one of them my back was to the
56:46
congregation and I was playing and I heard feet coming down the wooden floor of the one of the aisles
56:54
had two aisles I thought what could that be what was the Undertaker
56:59
and he was waving a five dollar bill I didn’t know it found out later
57:05
he he climbed the steps came up to where the preachers were sitting and reached between the two of
57:11
the preachers and stuck a five dollar bill right here where I could see it and obviously I
57:17
said knock down I’m busy and you know what this is for you come on now you
57:23
take it for me so finally I got a hand free and took it five dollars it was
57:29
what he was paying for that funeral and for funerals it was very very rare
57:36
people would remember to pay the organist sure sure as as we get to the end of this
57:42
interview please tell us about this beautiful organization behind you because it’s got a story of its own if you don’t mind all right
57:50
whenever my students at GCU played their graduate graduating recital my wife
57:57
and I would give a reception here more like a supper
58:03
and the student was allowed to invite 40 guests to the reception
58:09
and we needed more room for that so we decided to double the size of the house
58:15
and I had always wanted to have a real organ in my house
58:21
and so I drew up the plans took them to several contractors the prices were just way
58:28
more than we had paid for the house and the land when we first bought it in 1958
58:34
and uh so I bought some books and I had good manual training up in
58:41
Arkansas City and I built it myself I had a younger brother who helped me
58:46
for 30 days and you’re sitting in it and so we doubled the size of the house and
58:54
made a room for a pipe organ and so we now have a pipe organ in the
58:59
house which has a thousand pipes and you can play any kind of music unit you want
59:06
and we’ve had recitals here for uh Prep students who start organ when they’re
59:11
still in high school uh Jack White who was used to be the
59:17
director of the Texas Boy Choir uh started ordinary when he was 11. uh
59:23
terribly gifted marvelous musician still living and uh
59:31
so I want to know how am I going to get an organ because by 19
59:37
uh let’s see I began to collect the pipes
59:44
in 1980 and I found a couple of organs one in
59:50
Missouri and one in Nebraska that were being tossed out of churches
59:57
because the churches had closed up and uh one of them telephone me and said
1:00:04
would you want any part of this organ we’re just going to Chuck it and I said
1:00:09
I’ll be right there is it is it okay and he said oh yeah it’s in good shape well it wasn’t so anyway
1:00:16
I got pipes some pipes like these big zinc pipes from there
1:00:21
for nothing and uh uh a school teacher in Schuyler
1:00:29
Nebraska knew that the Methodist Church was closing up and they had a bark off that
1:00:38
was the name of the Builder organ which was a very good Builder that he bought at auction from the
1:00:46
closed church for 300 dollars and he carton it out to his father’s
1:00:54
Farm just on the state the West State border of Nebraska
1:01:02
and it had been the barn for several years and he realized it had some pipes that were 21 feet Hawks tall and he
1:01:09
never could get that in the house so I was able to buy it from him
1:01:15
for the 300 plus the 15 of gasoline that he had spent in hauling it
1:01:22
and I brought it all back on trailer truck no in a big truck big
1:01:27
truck and uh the parts of it I didn’t use the only thing I used out of work
1:01:34
are the pipes uh and a beginning the Winchester the pipe stand on where
1:01:40
the mechanism is but it was a Tracker mechanical action
1:01:46
I worked on it for three years I hated it I I realized I’m going to
1:01:52
have a very stiff key action you would wear your fingers out in no time and
1:01:57
eventually cause all kinds of trouble physically so
1:02:04
I happened to go down the center aisle of Carr Chapel
1:02:10
in 79 when the new organ was being put in this console you see right here
1:02:17
was being on a dolly taking taken out of the building down the aisle and I said
1:02:24
to the organ Builder I said Ross what are you going to do with that you were pulling it out to the city dump and I
1:02:30
said I’ll give you fifty dollars for it and it was the best decision I made on the whole shebang because
1:02:38
uh I took out all the mechanical wind chests and traded them to other organ
1:02:45
builders for things I needed and then I built myself the whole mechanism for the new electoral electric
1:02:53
action and uh so we have pipes from uh three different
1:03:01
sources a pipe maker in Holland the Netherlands uh from an old pipe uh
1:03:09
1904 in uh Schuyler Nebraska
1:03:16
and a Christian Church organ in Richmond Missouri
1:03:21
and the pipes are 118 uh years old uh
1:03:29
all the others are 80 years old and the new organs organ pipes are 34 years
1:03:37
and so I I use the console
1:03:42
to manage the pipes for the new organ and
1:03:47
it it serves very well I finished in 1988 and would you like to hear just some of
1:03:54
the pipes as soon as I finish with this interview we’d love to get a little bit of you playing if that works for you I
1:04:00
can show you let us let us finish two couple more questions we’ll let you take to think of the keys okay uh so you your
1:04:06
name Smith obviously you’re not the only Smith in the Metroplex what is it what does it feel like to be named Emmett
1:04:13
Smith after uh certain other Urban Smith and the Metroplex have made nicknames for themselves you’ve shared a few
1:04:18
stories what what is that like well I always admired the football player
1:04:23
Emmett Smith who spells his name e-m-m-i-t-t uh he’s a good fellow he’s a nice man
1:04:32
he’s an honorable man a wonderful football player so I was not
1:04:37
at all unhappy to have the same spoken name that he had
1:04:43
um but he had so many followers it made some of mine sleeps at night uh unbelievable or man
1:04:52
sometimes sober sometimes drunk would call us I’ve got a bat down of going on
1:04:58
here how many yards are you going to make on that game tomorrow and so I said
1:05:03
you’ve got the wrong one and there’d be all kinds of response but uh yes it was that doesn’t
1:05:11
happen anymore since he’s not on television all the time but I’ve never met him and there was a time several
1:05:18
years ago when they rounded up everybody they could find the name of Emmett Smith but they never could come here and I
1:05:25
guess they didn’t expect to find someone and the music world yes sir with that name
1:05:30
but I have great admiration for number 22 on the Dallas Cowboys yeah well
1:05:37
you’re about to play the organ for us but we want to thank him and for the time your wife Judy of 42 years thank
1:05:42
you for inviting us into your home Judy lovely lady and then our friend David rasco introduced me to you originally so
1:05:49
thank you David rasco I want to throw a shout out to David A friend of mine a long time TCU fan Hall of Fame member of
1:05:56
the football team great great guy but he introduced us so thank you David and Brent you want to you want to ask him
1:06:02
his final question sure before we get up and play um best day of your life
1:06:08
without family you know no not marriage and things like that but I gotta be
1:06:15
playing the recital in 1987 at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris
1:06:22
because I had the cathedral all to myself from seven o’clock at night until seven o’clock the next morning
1:06:28
nobody else except uh what they call uh
1:06:35
an assistant who helps with pulling the stops on the
1:06:41
console which didn’t work very well not it’s fine now it’s a new organ
1:06:48
that was in the fire it was not damaged uh how many keyboards
1:06:54
five it’s a pretty good story how many stops
1:07:00
not as many as Broadway Baptist has Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth has the biggest French style organ in
1:07:07
the world 191. oh this is Oregon City
1:07:12
191 Broadway Baptist 161st Methodist 133 First Presbyterian 107 arborlawn
1:07:20
uh but who’s County I am and uh it’s
1:07:28
it’s wonderful to live well Mr Emma Smith thank you thank you so much thank you thank you very much
1:07:35
we’re not going to stop you if you want to keep going one thing I listened to baseball football
1:07:43
basketball read it hear it on TV and
1:07:49
the TCU horn frogs pulled out all the stops and beat SMU
1:07:55
pulling out all the stops is strictly organ talk and I’m going to show you stops of what
1:08:03
happens when you pull one excellent excellent thank you knobs are called stops
1:08:10
but they do the reverse you pull it out it doesn’t stop it starts so these
1:08:16
silver pipes across the front nothing happens
1:08:22
no sound all I have to do is pull out a stop [Music]
1:08:31
same Keys a different style same Keys a different stop
1:08:43
the softest sound in the organ is this [Music]
1:08:54
there’s another set of pipes very much like that now what it doesn’t matter I’m opening
1:09:01
the shutters letting the sound out [Music] that’s in tune
1:09:07
the first one I showed you is tuned Out Of Tune on purpose and it’s called a Celeste because it makes a Heavenly
1:09:13
sound there’s the in tune here’s the celestial [Music]
1:09:28
this is the lowest sound in the organ
1:09:33
you feel it more than you hear it but if an octave is lower than this one which is the one next to the window
1:09:40
[Laughter] if you’re playing something quiet
1:09:45
[Music]
1:09:58
that’s why you have different keyboards so you can have it’s the different sounds and you have
1:10:05
Pistons that will work a lot of stops for you
1:10:11
now suppose I’m playing on this I want a little more
1:10:20
[Music] a little more
1:10:31
and all the stops foreign
1:10:40
foreign [Music]
1:10:57
[Music]
1:11:28
and that’s how you do it