Reginald Dixon

Reginald Dixon ranked among England’s most cherished polymaths, earning renown for astonishing displays of keyboard agility on some of the largest and most intricate pipe organs ever built. For many years he served as the resident organist at Blackpool Tower Ballroom, presiding over its enormous 3m/14r “Wonder Wurlitzer” during innumerable live programs and widely followed Sunday-afternoon radio transmissions, establishing himself internationally as one of the most celebrated and accomplished theater organists in history. Born in Sheffield, England, in 1904, he refined his technique on the Wurlitzers installed at the West End Birmingham, the Regent Dudley, and the Preston before securing his ideal post at Blackpool. An inventive pioneer in the field, Dixon cultivated a distinctive sonic approach marked by heavily tremulated tibias and a rapid, galloping right-hand technique; this singular method earned him the enduring sobriquet “Mr. Blackpool,” while the resulting style became known as the “Blackpool Sound,” immediately familiar to any British listener with a wireless between 1930 and 1976. In 1966 he received the M.B.E., and he maintained his weekly Sunday performances at the Tower until stepping away from the role in the ’70s. Even then, he remained active, performing throughout the U.K. and overseas while continuing to produce recordings on a regular basis. He died peacefully during sleep on Thursday May 9, 1985.