MARIETTA - An organ transplant has taken place at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta.

A 1989 Allen digital organ had been in place at the Strand since the historic theater reopened in December 2008. But this week, that organ was trucked to the new home of an organ enthusiast in Ohio, who in turn sent a newer, more advanced Allen digital organ to be put in the Strand.

"We're just tickled to death," said Ron Carter, the Strand's resident organist. "It's beautiful. We call it a virtual theater organ. It's got all the latest software upgrades, and 16 channels of audio. It's in excellent condition, and it's state-of-the-art."

The 1989 organ that was sent up to Ohio is worth about $18,000, said Carter, who serves on the boards of the Strand and the Atlanta chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. The organ that arrived at the Strand on Thursday afternoon is worth about $100,000, Carter said.

The unusual trade came courtesy of Tom Hamilton, 82, of Columbus, Ohio. Hamilton, a retired electrical engineer, has moved into a retirement-center apartment, and his Allen GW 4 organ, which he bought in 2000, would not fit through the door, he said.

"I was talking to Ron Carter on another matter, and he said the Atlanta chapter would love to have that organ. And I told him I would like a three-manual organ for my apartment and that's what was in the Strand. So I said 'let's trade,'" Hamilton said in a telephone interview Friday.

"I've had it 10 years, and I've enjoyed it. It's the fourth organ that I have owned or built," Hamilton said. "Now they can use it, and they will be extremely happy."

Carter hasn't gotten a chance to play the new organ - which is more than twice the size of the previous organ, and installation will require about 2,000 feet of cable and take about two weeks - but he will be playing it on Aug. 29 when the silent-film feature "Wings" is screened at the Strand at 3 p.m. The 1927 classic, which was the first film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, tells the story of two men, played by Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen, in love with the same woman, played by Clara Bow. After the U.S. enters World War I, both join the Air Corps to fight in France and their rivalry grows into a wary friendship as they become fellow fighter pilots.

The organ is the property of the Atlanta chapter of the organ society, which has placed it at the Strand, Carter said. The previous organ was also the property of the organ society, which strives to keep organ music alive, he said. The trade, including the move and installation, is not costing the theater at all, he said. Jim Ingram, of Columbia, S.C., who is the former president of Allen Organ Studios in Atlanta, donated his services transporting the organs back and forth, Carter said. And the Atlanta chapter of the organ society is covering other costs, such as the installation and electrical upgrades to the theatre that are now necessary.

Twenty-four speaker cabinets, each weighing 90 pounds, accompany the new organ.

"We feel like, and the Strand agrees, that this makes us a more unique facility," Carter said. "This is not just your typical movie theater. I call us the Fox (Theatre) of Cobb County. It's just another attraction for the patrons to experience when they come to the Strand."

Incidentally, Carter and other members of the Atlanta chapter have been working on a large pipe organ, which they hope to one day finish and install at the Strand. But that project, in which a new organ is being created by combining two separate pipe organs, has been seriously stalled by the economy, Carter said.

"The pipe organ project is not completely dead, but the economy has killed us," he said.

And at any rate, Earl Reece, the executive director of the Strand, said the new virtual theatre organ "is a dream come true for the Strand."

"The sound will be so rich," Reece said. "It will be of a quality no one has ever heard in the Strand."