David’s personal files are filled with some heart-rending correspondence with his designer/publisher, Preston Kaufmann.

David had been in declining health, and implored his publisher to work with dispatch so that he could see his Wurlitzer book in print before he died. Such was not to be. Junchen would not live to see the completion of his two greatest achievements; his definitive history of the Wurlitzer pipe organ, and his magnum opus, the largest theatre pipe organ ever assembled. While others ultimately completed the pipe organ, the Wurlitzer book faced grave challenges and at one point, total destruction.

The Junchen estate left publication rights to Preston Kaufmann and Showcase Publications, but it soon became quite clear that Mr. Kaufmann had his own ideas as to how the Wurlitzer story might best be told. At first, the plan was simply to divide the hefty Wurlitzer volume into two parts. But Kaufmann expanded the scope of the original book beyond David’s plan, encompassing not only pipe organs, but including all aspects of the Wurlitzer product line and history. The byline was changed from David Junchen, to David Junchen and Preston Kaufmann. Then it became Preston Kaufmann with David Junchen. Finally, David’s name was removed from the book entirely and apparently Kaufmann felt disposed to claim the complete work as his own. Likewise, what began as one volume later became two, and notes found in Kaufmann’s papers indicate that he eventually had planned a series of five books, all devoted to the history, products and operations of the Wurlitzer company.

Mr. Kaufmann would publish only the first of these five volumes prior to his own death in 1998. Upon reading the Kaufmann volume, many of David’s friends and professional associates were saddened to find that large portions of the Junchen typescript had been copied verbatim. David was no longer receiving credit for the words that he had authored.

Like David, Preston Kaufmann knowing that his own days were growing short, made careful plans for what would become of his property after his death. Very specific legacies were bequeathed: The famous collection of theatre photos, documents and blueprints first collected by Tom B’hend, and later with Kaufmann’s assistance, went to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Certain other holdings and personal property, not having to do with theatres or pipe organs, went to appropriately designated recipients. The pipe organ files, which had consumed and absorbed the original Junchen Wurlitzer material, ended up divided among the archives of the Organ Historical Society, the American Theatre Organ Society and several individuals.

I am grateful to have known and worked with David Junchen. Our friendship provided me with a first look at many of the photos and documents he had assembled, a first read of sections of his text, and numerous discussions of Wurlitzer pipe organs and the book. The opportunity to have seen documents and images that David had collected, and learn something of his plans would later become very important. Shortly after Junchen’s death, and unknown to many, Stephen L. Adams, longtime friend, colleague and executor of the Junchen estate, entrusted me with a copy of David’s Wurlitzer typescript prior to dutifully dispersing all papers and property, as directed by Junchen’s will.

What started as a simple act of kindness resulted in me having been given a virtual treasure map for later use when I began my work to reassemble all the photos, documents and text that had been scattered across the country. As I mentioned earlier, David— ever the keen intellectual, had maintained extraordinarily organized files. His typescript included photocopies of many of the images and documents he planned to include, all carefully and systematically numbered according to chapter. Often, these images were of very poor quality, in reversed or negative form. They were, after all, only to function as placeholders and identifiers for use in laying out the book. This was all part of the Junchen system of book writing. But Kaufmann had completely dismantled these files and had assigned different numbers and positions according to his own plan and system. Although many of the photocopies were almost too dark and blurred to recognize, they nonetheless made it possible to detect the images that needed to be located and how captions were to be matched up. The photocopies ultimately helped solve puzzles in reestablishing the original numbering system and knowing the order in which David had wanted illustrations to appear.

Dozens of file boxes from the Kaufmann estate had been received at the office of the Organ Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia. During the summer of 1999, I spent a week going through everything that had been sent there. With the cooperation of William Van Pelt, OHS Executive Director, and Stephen Pinel, OHS Archivist, a goodly number of important documents and photos were identified, but the search was far from over. Due to the daunting size of the B’hend-Kaufmann holdings, I postulated that some of the organ files might have ended up mixed in with the theatre files. Armed with a letter of introduction from the Organ Historical Society, I was admitted to the closed stacks of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With the assistance of Howard Prouty, Archivist, I was granted permission to go into archival storage areas of the Library, open only to staff members, and spent a week in the summer of 2002 carefully examining all the files they had received from the Kaufmann estate. My premise proved to be correct; many organ-related materials were found intermixed with the theatre documents and photos. Since pipe organs are clearly beyond of scope of the Academy’s collection, I was allowed to extract organ materials with the pledge that the Academy would receive a copy of the completed book, and the materials would be transferred to more appropriate archives after publication. After matching up the images now on hand with the photocopied Junchen placeholders, I was able to reassemble about 90% of the images for the book.

Several days of additional research at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and in private collections yielded all but four of the original images. Luckily, the photos that remain missing are not of particularly great consequence. Geoffrey Paterson of Toronto took on the illimitable task of converting the typescript into the digital domain working from David’s text written on an IBM Selectric typewriter. Paula Smith of Pittsburgh transcribed a number of stoplists and other documents. Carlton B. Smith generated drawings. In the spring of this year, the book materials went to Pamela Gurman of Fatcat Graphics, Inc., in New York for design and layout. The release of the book with sixteen chapters and 800 pages, is expected in early 2005. A prerelease announcement appears elsewhere in this magazine. (Editor's Note: the book has since been published and is available for ordering.)

In order to avoid any confusion between Preston Kaufmann’s first volume on the Wurlitzer history, and Junchen’s original work it was decided to let the Encyclopedia series stand incomplete. Instead, the Junchen book has been retitled The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ: An Illustrated History. The format is also distinctly different from the Encyclopedia series both to avoid confusion, and in tribute to the work of the author, David L. Junchen.

The real heroes of this story are Stephen L. Adams who, by honoring a friendship, gave me the primary resource needed to restore the Junchen Wurlitzer book, and Vern Bickle, who as President, threw the support of the American Theatre Organ Society behind my efforts to reassemble scattered materials, fragmented documentation and bring David Junchen’s work—as he intended— to publication. The release of The Wurlitzer Pipe Organ: An Illustrated History, has been called the crowning achievement of the American Theatre Organ Society. I am honored to have played a small role in helping to bring this about, and thank my friends and ATOS Board colleagues who have supported this effort. I hope that you will find it worthy.