The Genius of George Wright

George Wright was a musician's musician who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. He was recruited to play Hammond and Wurlitzer organs at Grant Union High School in Sacramento, where he also broadcast on radio. He moved on to San Francisco, where he played on the Blue Network and was featured organist at the Mighty Wurlitzer in the San Francisco Fox Theatre. Transferred to New York by NBC, he played numerous radio broadcasts, sometimes as a member of the Charles Magnante Trio, and was also hired as featured organist at the New York Times Square Paramount Theatre, where he rubbed shoulders with many of the all-time great musicians of the time, including a stint accompanying the newly-discovered Eddie Fisher. George was heard as organist for "The Adventures of Archie Andrews", "Nick Carter, Master Detective", "Songs by Morton Downey", "Jack Berch Show", "The Robert Q. Lewis Show", and many others. His return to California in 1951 was prophetic in his being signed as the lead artist on the HIFI record label, selling millions of theatre organ albums due to the instrument's perfect representation of the new high fidelity recording technology, and the subsequent stereo releases. George also spent 13 years as musical director for the television soap opera "General Hospital." In addition, he had a very successful concert career, touring the country performing on theatre pipe organs. During his lifetime, he also represented a number of electronic organ manufacturers, most notably Conn, for whom he conducted a 12-city nationwide concert tour in 1971, and Allen Organs, who designed a series of digital instruments sampled from the theatre pipe organ installed in George's Hollywood home. This book chronicles George's wildly interesting life, and should be of interest to musician and non-musician alike.

William L. Coale, Ph.D. has a lifelong love affair with the theatre organ, its music, and its performers. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music (with a concentration in conducting), as well as a Ph.D. in educational leadership. Bill had a long career in education, starting out as an elected school board member just days after his high school graduation; decades as a public school band/choir director; professional musician, playing in concert bands, wind ensembles, and orchestras; musical theatre pit musician and conductor; school principal; school technology director; school superintendent; and university professor. Bill also works as an educational consultant and leadership/personal coach. He also enjoys voice-over work and public announcing. He both plays and restores theatre pipe organs. George Wright became his idol after seeing GW in performance at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus. Little did Bill know that decades later he would spend four years researching the life of this incredible musician, resulting in this definitive biography. The book is full of memorabilia and artifacts of George's life, thanks to the acquisition of a great deal of George's personal artifacts. It provides a fascinating view of this musician's life in its many facets.