We’re working on an exciting documentary film project about the history of the Organ Grinder restaurants in Portland and Denver. Take a look at our Blog to see our progress, sign up to receive news and updates via email, or check out our Facebook Group which has a lively community. We want your stories – especially if you were a fan/patron or staff!
Many Thanks to Our Sponsors
Watch the Teaser Trailer!
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Welcome and Introduction
“Guess What’s Coming” – Those were the words on the new sign outside the first Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland as it was nearing completion in 1973. It’s a very appropriate phrase, as something new is coming – a documentary film project which seeks to tell the whole story behind the rise and fall of…
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Welcome to our New Sponsor: RMCATOS
We’re proud to announce our new Silver Sponsor, RMCATOS – Rocky Mountain Chapter American Theatre Organ Society. The Rocky Mountain Chapter American Theatre Organ Society was founded in 1964 as a local chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society, covering Denver Colorado and the surrounding areas with a focus on promoting and preserving theatre organs…
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The Barr-Fox Wurlitzer Demo – Mark Herman’s improvisation on That’s a Plenty – Bandrika Studios
The Barr-Fox Wurlitzer began as “THE” Wurlitzer at Fox Studios, and can be heard on many famous movie and TV soundtracks, including Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Sound of Music. John Williams used it in Empire of the Sun, Witches of Eastwick, The Fury, and…
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The Studio with a Wurlitzer in its Walls
Tucked away in a modest light-industrial district in Tarzana, California, just off the Orange Line Busway, sits a warehouse with a special secret inside. (OK, it’s not a big secret – but most people in the area don’t know it’s there.) The building is the home of Bandrika Studios, custom-built by composer Nathan Barr, to…
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Don Feely performs “Aladdin” at Organ Grinder Portland
In February of 1996, shortly before Organ Grinder Portland closed, fans turned out to visit the restaurant one last time. Fortunately, several brought their camcorders with them, and have provided their footage to the documentary project. In this video, patron Ted Welty recorded organist Don Feely’s medley of themes from Disney’s animated hit “Aladdin” (1992)….
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Bijou, Adieu – We Hardly Knew You!
Back in September, we visited the Basement Bijou, otherwise known as the house that Fred Hermes, Sr. built in the 1950s in Racine WI. Inside this unassuming three-bedroom home on the shore of Lake Michigan, is a 18ft-deep basement, built to house a very rare 5-manual Wurlitzer pipe organ – Wurlitzer only built three organs…
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Portland Mercury: “Pipe Dreams and Pizza Crusts” Will Dive into the Wacky World of Organ Grinder Pizza
As part of their annual “Pizza Week” coverage, the Portland Mercury has posted an online article about the Organ Grinder and the documentary project. Excerpt: Amid the strip malls and used car lots along SE 82nd, one big building, now home to Super King Buffet, looks out of place: glass walls stretching tens of feet…
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Sam Battle on Fiddling with Organs (“Look Mum No Computer”)
Sam Battle is a popular YouTuber in the vintage tech and music spaces. He’s best known for his channel “Look Mum No Computer”, and related channels “This Museum is Not Obsolete” and “Look Mum No Engine”. Among Sam’s many projects, he created a series of videos where he restored a residential pipe organ that was…
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The Organ Grinder Goes to Camp
After a whirlwind trip filming in Wisconsin, I returned home and jumped right in to attending Doc Camp, an intensive workshop for documentary filmmakers to share their works-in-progress and meet with industry veterans, organized by Oregon Media Lab. It was a highly rewarding experience. (There is more about the latest Wisconsin trip in this post.)…
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Vintage Organ Grinder TV Commercial – Late 1980s – Portland Nostalgia
Here’s a newly-restored and upscaled vintage commercial from the famous Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon. This ad was produced in the late 1980s, and features cameos of brother-and-sister Jay and Stephe, children of Organ Grinder co-founder Dennis Hedberg. The Organ Grinder Documentary Project has digitized and restored dozens of hours of vintage footage which…
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The Cleveland High School Theatre Pipe Organ Farewell Concert
Featuring Jonas Nordwall and Sawyer Best. The Cleveland High School Theatre Pipe Organ began in the late 1920s as a nine-rank Kimball from the Columbia Theatre in Longview, Washington. In the 1930s, it was installed in Portland’s Simon Benson High School, as a gift from the graduating class, and enlarged by Seattle’s Balcom & Vaughn…
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Buttons… So Many Buttons!
(And Switches and Knobs) Playing a theatre pipe organ inherently requires keeping track of a lot of things simultaneously – with many controls such as: And of course, powering up the blower and relay (the organ’s brain) that make everything possible. But for the organists who performed regularly in pizza parlors, that was just the…
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