As mentioned before, Theo Strunk had started out on his own. He was a good voicer and had also taken a few other good emplyees with him from Standaart (such as Julius Gaal and Ernst Leeflang). This must have been a great loss for Standaart. Not only did he experience increased competition for new commissions but Strunk also attempted to take over various maintenance contracts as well. This obviously led to occasional conflicts between Standaart and Strunk.

In 1929 the first VARA organ was built. 

This was a relatively small, simple organ with six units, including a flue clarinet. There is not really very much to note about this instrument. It was placed in a small studio, actually more of a large livingroom. For Standaart this VARA organ was significant because it hugely increased his firm’s exposure. Standaart was very confident of his product — not less than 20 years guarantee was given!
The instrument was later re-voiced by Theo Strunk, which must have been a slap in Standaart’s face. By this time, in addition to the church instruments, Standaart had built and installed more than 25 theatre organs in the Netherlands.

England
Standaart was well aware at that time that publicity was paramount and sought (and received) plenty of attention in the press. Advertisements were full of glowing endorsements from organists and theatre managements. In the advertisements mention was made of the fact that Standaart’s instruments compared very favourably to foreign organs.
In fact, there was much interest from abroad for Standaart organs. In 1927 Belgium had Standaart organs and in 1928 and 1929 mention is made of various instruments supplied to France and Germany (six, to be precise).
Six orders were obtained from England, among which a 3/10 for the Commodore, Hammersmith and a 3/13 for the Metropole, Victoria.

The fact that Standaart was doing business with England at this time is interesting, considering that England had its own theatre organ manufacturers, certainly not the least: Compton; Christie (Hill, Norman & Beard) and Conacher. Of course, England also had its fair share of Wurlitzers.
As has already been said, six Standaarts were installed in England. I would like to mention the largest of these here. This was a 3/13 in the Metropole cinema in Victoria, London.
The organ had a beautiful console in the familiar Standaart style. On this console the small circular markings can be seen which show in which chamber a stop is located, an idea taken from Wurlitzer. Talking of chambers, this instrument once again had an extra chamber: the echo chamber. Unfortunately the organ suffered from a bad acoustic: the volume in the hall was disappointing. It was replaced in 1935 by a 3/10 Wurlitzer, which had the same problems. The Standaart came to a bad end: the organ was stored in the annex of another theatre which was bombed during the war. The fire brigade concentrated their efforts on the main building and not the annex, and so the Standaart went up in flames.

In those days there was much belittling of Standaart as an imitator, and indeed there were plenty of similarities with Wurlitzers. The little round chamber indicators are a good example. The (pneumatic) relay system also bore a marked resemblance to that of Wurlitzer, consisting of two parts: a key relay and a stop relay. The transmission of the stop relay was however different from Wurlitzer’s — the valves with 61 contacts were directly operated by pneumatic motors in Standaart’s organ. The accusations of copying were partly true though, and this would increase in the years to come. They could however, have chosen a better example......

.

 Pierre Palla at the Kurhaus.

Kurhaus
In 1931 a large instrument was commissioned in the Netherlands: an organ for the Kurhaus in Scheveningen. This organ had 3 manuals and probably 13 or 14 ranks. Cor Doesburg, in his book about Dutch broadcasting organs, states that only the first two manuals had a unit system, and the third manual had separate ranks contained in a solo chamber. It can thus be seen that Standaart started to adopt the unit system more and more as time progressed. The number of reeds is surprising: only three.
This organ also had the typical Standaart console with its completely round stoprail and lower case that protruded outwards. Those familiar with the Kurhaus can imagine that the organ must have sounded splendid there. In Cor Standaart’s archive (now the town hall of Schiedam) is a letter from Reginald Foort who was very enthusiastic about the organ. Foort and Standaart got along very well at that time. Unfortunately, the organ was removed from the Kurhaus during the war and was destroyed by a bombing raid whilst beging transported by rail to Austria.
_{Source: NOFiteiten 2006 nr.1}

>> To part 4