being restored at the cost of £500,000, Dixon resumed his schedule in the Empress Ballroom, where in 1935, a 3/13 Wurlitzer had been installed. In 1958, he returned to the Tower Ballroom Wurlitzer, and things proceeded as normal, in the newly restored ballroom. On 3 July 1958, The Bulletin newspaper reported that Dixon was to have an operation that Sunday, quoting him as saying "A nerve in my right elbow is affecting the hand". It was "the result of an injury received in a motorcycle smash when I was a youth." The Bulletin reported that "He wanted to postpone the operation until the end of the season, but doctors have warned him that delay might mean losing the use of the hand". He returned to the ballroom and its Wurlitzer later in the same month, having made over 2,000 broadcasts. 1960s In July 1966, the Reading Eagle newspaper of Reading, Pennsylvania, US, reported "There are many places in the U.S where people go to dance to the music of big orchestras, such as the Hollywood Palladium or New York's Roseland Ballroom, but in England, as many as 2,500 dancers and 4,000 spectators on a single evening patronise the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool to hear Reginald Dixon play the organ". In the same year, Dixon was awarded an MBE for his services in entertaining the public and radio listeners the world over. At the ceremony in Buckingham Palace, while pinning on his medal, Queen Elizabeth II said to him, "I have often listened to you, you must have been there [at the Tower Ballroom] for a long time now". Dixon replied, "Yes ma'am. I have been there since March 1930, but it does not seem as long as that". In 1969, he was also awarded by the BBC for the years of pleasure he had given to millions. The same year, Dixon announced his retirement from his Tower Ballroom post in order to spend more time with his family. At the end of the season, Dixon retired from playing for dancing at the Ballroom, but continued to play for Sunday concerts as normal. It was on 29 March (Easter Sunday) 1970 that he gave his final concert on the Tower Ballroom Wurlitzer, an event which was recorded and broadcast by the BBC, and he was also interviewed by Robin Richmond for the BBC's The Organist Entertains. Retirement Dixon's retirement from the