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The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ welcomes you!
We are hoping to have information on our Spring concerts soon. Plans hinge on confirming dates with Macy's, and Macy's has a three month window in planning its own events before ours can be fit in. Please watch this space for further details or, better yet, join the Friends and receive information with our newsletter in the mail. The Spring newsletter will be published in March.
Are you interested in a Guided Tour on the last Saturday of each Month? Click Here!
 Peter Richard Conte welcomed Golden Globe Award-winning actress Kim Cattrall to the loft in late January. It was something of a homecoming for Ms. Cattrall had her first big break in the movie "Mannequin," which was filmed at John Wanamaker in 1987. She sang along to Mr. Conte's performance of songs from "The Wizard of Oz" and also confirmed that it was not her, but a stunt double, who did the hang-gliding feat in the Grand Court for the movie. Ms. Cattrall, who was in town to see a friend perform in a play at the Wilma Theatre, said she wanted to see the organ again that was prominently featured in the film, about a mannequin that suddenly comes to life.
We are delighted to announce that the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, in conjunction with Macy's, begins weekly live store-hours broadcasts of the Wanamaker Organ each Wednesday at 7PM Eastern on the Yesterday USA Internet Radio service. Be sure to tune in at that time. Listen to Yesterday USA by clicking the icon at left! Click on the icon at right to get a free Yesterday USA ap for your I-pad or I-phone and start listening today!
Saturday October 1, 2011 was the date for a spectacular concert with Peter Richard Conte, conductor Rossen Milanov and the Symphony in C orchestra. Thank you all for your patronage! Special thanks to Rich Young for drawing our attention to this review in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hear the Wanamaker Organ at 100 on Minnesota Public Radio's Pipedreams, hosted by Michael Barone, by clicking here! Includes a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and recent interviews with Peter Richard Conte, Curt Mangel and others.
We are sorry to report Hubert "Bert" Medland, who built the original Magic Christmas Tree and Light Show, died in mid-July. You can read a tribute to him here.
A review of the recent Wanamaker Organ Centennial festivities with pictures is at this site. Searching for Wanamaker Organ on YouTube will also turn up highlights of recent concerts, including an excerpt from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir appearance on Friday June 24.
Friends Executive Director Ray Biswanger was interviewed on YESTERDAY USA Internet Radio by host Bill Bragg on the Friends, on Wanamaker Organ broadcasts, on the Titanic disaster and Store history. Listen here! Bill Bragg will be making a personal appearance at the Store for Wanamaker Organ June festivities.
Read about Philadelphia's Wanamaker Organ in USA Today! Read how Philadelphia is the Nation's No. 1 Holiday Destination in US Airways Magazine.
You can listen to the Wanamaker Organ using an archive of past radio-broadcast shows here! See a PBS mini-feature on the Wanamaker Organ here!
 The Friends has launched an ambitious Century II Music Endowment drive to mark the 100th anniversary of the Wanamaker Organ in the Store. Among the uses of the fund is revenue to buy much needed chairs for our concerts. Please consider making a contribution here. A prospectus on the fund is available here. We are counting on this fund to create quality presentations for many years to comeas we mark the Wanamaker Organ's 100th anniversary in the Store.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS
 With the opening of the expanded Convention Center, Philadelphia hotels have been filling up more frequently. Rooms are available, but at higher prices. For the budget minded, we suggest checking online resources such as Orbitz or Hotels.com or Priceline.com for rooms. One option that can save a lot of money is to stay at the Philadelphia airport. A commuter train from the terminals stops right at the Market Street East station near Macy's, and shuttles from the airport hotels connect directly with the commuter train stops at the airport terminals. Reportedly, a taxi ride to Center City is a flat $25. Often booking a hotel or motel room just a short car ride outside of town can save significantly on city hotel taxes, overnight parking and other expenses, leaving a bigger vacation budget for amusements and recreation. Among the local hotels are the Alexander Inn, Holiday Inn Express Midtown, Mariott Hotels, Loews Hotel, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn and several other hostelries. The Radnor Hotel near Wayne, Pa., is about an eighth of a mile from the Radnor train station, which services the R5 Paoli Local line going into the city.
MEAL SUGGESTIONS
A number of restaurants are in the vicinity of the Store. Within a block or two is Chili's, The Olive Garden, McGillin's Olde Ale House, IHOP (Walnut Street) and a grocery store and buffet/salad bar (Chestnut and Juniper). Numerous fancy and some less formal restaurants are on South Broad Street. There are limitless breakfast and lunch opportunities at the Reading Terminal Market and perhaps 100 Asian restaurants in Philadelphia's Chinatown in the blocks North and East of the Store. There are some restaurants of all  descriptions on Chestnut and Walnut Streets headed East. Also most hotels, including the Marriott across the street from the Store, have dining options and/or bars. Macy's no longer maintains a restaurant, although it does house a Starbuck's on Chestnut Street and 13th. A number of celebrated Italian restaurants are in South Philadelphia. An internet guide is located here. Let us know what your favorites are and we will include them. A church directory is here.
SPEND SOME TIME WITH US! Attractions near the Store include the Masonic Temple, the Pennsylvania  Academy of the Fine Arts, City Hall Tower, the  Franklin Institute, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Reading Terminal Market, Independence Hall, Society Hill Colonial homes, the Rodin Museum, the Fairmount Park houses, Penn's Landing, Laurel Hill Cemetery, the Rosenbach Museum and Library, the Mutter medical museum, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Eastern State Penitentiary museum, theatres and nightclubs, and numerous other attractions
Hearing Philadelphia's Wanamaker Organ is a life-changing experience. Our society is sponsored by people around the world who are helping protect the world's largest playing pipe organ. We invite you to join the Friends and receive four issues of our 16-page newsletterand member-access to all Friends activities.
The Wanamaker Organ is undergoing a multi-year restoration. Divisions that have been patched together are getting a thorough restoration. Members help sustain this crucial work and our music, education and hospitality programs. Members receive all the details on the restoration and Friends concerts, as well as news of private concerts, tours, and fund-raisers.
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