Ronald Baugh heard the Tabernacle Organ for the first time a few years ago while taking in a live performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
The Englishman was smitten."When I saw (the organ), I knew I had to play it," recalled Baugh, a professional theater organist whose longtime wish to play the historic instrument was fulfilled Friday.
Several months ago, Baugh entered a make-a-wish contest being sponsored by the Express, a London newspaper.
To celebrate the approaching millennium, the Express asked readers to write down their dreams for the newspaper. Staffers sifted through thousands of responses and selected one contestant for each week of 1999. Each winner is flown, at the newspaper's expense, to remote climes of the globe to satisfy their lifelong, often quirky wishes.
Baugh spotted the contest advertisement in the paper just before Christmas. He remembered his trip to Salt Lake City -- and his infatuation with "that wonderful Tabernacle organ."
The 71-year-old began his career as an organist with ABC Cinemas before recording on the BBC Theater Organ. Later, he was a musician at the Odeon Theater in Manchester, presiding over the "Queen Wurlitzer," Europe's largest organ.
Baugh wondered if his wish to tickle the Tabernacle Organ's venerable keys might actually be realized via the contest. His wife, Pat, typed the contest entry at their Lancashire home and mailed it to the Express. The couple dismissed their chances.
"It was the sort of thing you enter, then forget about," admitted Pat Baugh.
Several weeks later, a phone call from the Express brought happy news. Ronald Baugh's dream would come true -- and the paper's 1.2 million subscribers would be witnesses.
Tom Rawstorne, an Express reporter who tagged along with the Baughs to Salt Lake City, said Ronald Baugh's contest entry had a uniqueness the paper was searching for.
"We were keen to (dreams) that were unusual," Rawstorne said.
One contest entrant, for example, wrote his long-time girlfriend would only marry him if he could find a penguin for a best man. The Express called her bluff, flying the couple to Greenland where they were wed amid a line of penguins.
After Ronald Baugh's selection, the newspaper contacted the Utah Travel Council, which made arrangements with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The couple arrived late Wednesday and spent Thursday touring the city and taking in another Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance. Afterward, Ronald Baugh sat down with choir organist John Longhurst to familiarize himself with the historic instrument.
Dressed Friday in a smart, double-breasted suit, Baugh eased into the organ bench, smiled at his hosts and opened his mini-recital Friday with an apt selection:
"When You Wish Upon A Star."