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Who was Gordon Horlick? The unsung designer of Williams Pinball?


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Wow great read James cheers for the update.

Now i'm curious as to what this "Magnus Organ" is.

 

LOL, the imagination ponders :D

 

thanks james, what an interesting career. not sure about sterns running pinball companies though. i watch mad men and find that it helps give a pespective on the 50's which adds a lot of colour when i think about the early days of williams. i will follow your unvealing of the williams files on PGJ with much interest. would love to see a web site dedicated to it down the track. good on you. :)

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Wow great read James cheers for the update.

Now i'm curious as to what this "Magnus Organ" is.

 

I can see where the mind may wonder on this one. :D

 

Here's the info that I found in the files topped with a little research.

 

Magnus Harmonica Corporation was founded in 1944 and was located in Livingston NJ. They later changed to Magnus Organ Corp when they started manufacturing chord organs. I found a Billboard article which speaks of Magnus Organ Corp. contracting Williams to manufacture organs for them in 1959-1960 just prior to the Consolidated Sun Ray Co. purchase of Williams.

 

In the files that I have I found a folder marked "Organ Model". In it is the BOM (Bill of Material) for three different series of organs they were working on for the Magnus Organ Corp. The first one is the Models 500 & 600 Series 2 Chord Organ. The second is the Models 700 & 800 Grand Organs. And the last is the Models 1100 & 1200 Serenade Spinet Organs.

 

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae37/pinballace/Magnus%20Organ/Magnusorgan2.jpg

BOM page for Models 500-600

 

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae37/pinballace/Magnus%20Organ/Magnusorgan3.jpg

BOM page for Models 700-800

 

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae37/pinballace/Magnus%20Organ/Magnusorgan4.jpg

BOM page for Models 1100-1200

 

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae37/pinballace/Magnus%20Organ/Magnusorgan.jpg

Note from Gordon Horlick to change BOM for the Model 100-1200 organ which confirms that Gordon did indeed work on this project which his son mentioned.

 

Doing a little more research it appears that shortly after Sun Ray Co. took over Williams the deal between Williams and Magnus was ended. It also appears that Magnus Organ Company stopped manufacturing organs in the early to mid 1970's and some of the Magnus organs are now somewhat collectable.

Edited by pinballace
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When is the next installment of the early williams pinball history?

 

Sorry mate, we've been real busy getting ready and attending the Chicago Expo. Now that we're back I do have a few more bits to add about Gordon as I talked to Roger Sharpe and it seems he knew Gordon as Roger inverviewed him extensively when he was writing his book. Greg from RTBB is visiting for a few so when we get done with all our traveling about the countryside I'll make sure to fill in the rest of the story.

 

Cheers.

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