- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRoderick Hallowell MacPherson
- Sandy Macpherson was born on March 3, 1897 in Paris, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Common Touch (1941), I'll Turn to You (1946) and This Is Your Life (1955). He died on March 3, 1975 in Ealing, London, England, UK.
- As the second official BBC Theatre Organist, in succession to Reginald Foort, he achieved considerable broadcasting time during and after World War II.
- In the dark days of late 1939 - early 1940, MacPherson's original signature tune, "Happy Days Are Here Again" was decidedly inappropriate to the times and he replaced it with his own composition, "I'll Play To You", a slow waltz which he used throughout the rest of his career (written with Harry S Pepper, a BBC producer).
- He played the opening music to the radio programme called London After Dark, on the theatre organ in St. George's Hall, London, broadcast 24 August 1940.
- After retirement, MacPherson continued to broadcast from time to time, usually on the 4-manual 16-rank Wurlitzer in the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn, North London.
- Initially during the war MacPherson regularly broadcast on the BBC from the original BBC Theatre Organ (a 4-manual 23-rank Compton) in St. George's Hall until that instrument was destroyed in the blitz on 10 May 1941. MacPherson himself was then evacuated and continued to broadcast on a Hammond organ until Reginald Foort lent the BBC his travelling Moller pipe-organ, which was installed in Bangor, Wales, close to Macpherson's then home of Llandudno. At the end of the war, the BBC purchased the Moller from Foort and moved it to the Jubilee Chapel, Hoxton, East London, where it remained until 1963.
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