The Phantom of Redondo Union
Redondo Union High School’s Old Auditorium, circa 1916. The then newly-installed pipe organ can be seen above the stage, rising toward the ceiling. Photo courtesy RUHS Archives Redondo Union High School’s 101-year-old pipe organ was among the first of its kind when installed. But as years pass, the instrument gathers dust in the auditorium’s walls. The first time Walter “Skip” Kennon played the Redondo Union High School pipe organ in the 19, it was as if magic was flowing through his fingertips. “I remember turning it on, and hearing the sound of the blowers, the compressors,” Kennon said. He played a few notes, and then a few more, and gradually the sound grew and grew. “The pipe organ felt powerful — to be able to make that much sound without that much effort…I felt like a wizard.” The then-50-year-old organ’s three-manual keyboard console sat to the right of the stage in the school’s old auditorium. The pipes rose above the stage to the old, wood building’s arched ceiling, supported by joists of Californian sequoia. And on that day, the console had been left unlocked. Kennon was a promising musical talent, but he didn’t have permission to play the organ. Before long, a school…
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