Yesterday we interviewed Mark Reed at his farm in the forested countryside near the foothills of Mt. hood.
Mark was the one of the technicians responsible for the maintenance of the Organ Grinder instrument in Portland. Mark provided a great a mount of technical detail, and told the history of the development of the theatre pipe organ and how Wurlitzer came to be the dominant player.
Mark has fond memories of his time at the Organ Grinder, and remembers the opening night well, as well as the heartbreaking final weeks leading to its closure.
In addition to maintaining pipe organs, Mark has a business fixing up street organs, carousel organs, and mechanical instruments of all kinds like a reproducing grand piano (seen above) that once graced the lobby of the Paramount Portland theatre (now the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall). Mark purchased the piano at auction at the same time as the Paramount’s pipe organ was up for grabs. The organ was purchased by the Organ Grinder company and became the basis of the instrument in Denver.
Mark also had a career on the technical side of the motion picture industry, working at Portland’s pioneering Teknifilm lab, and has a large collection of vintage media. Mark has provided multiple film reels with great footage for use in the documentary project.
The tag line shown on the poster for the documentary, “Who in their right mind would go to such efforts?”, comes from a statement made by Mark, and succinctly captures many people’s reactions to the Organ Grinder!
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