Update: The Midwest Tour is complete – check out the updates!
A whirlwind of activity commences later this week!
Have you heard of the book (and films) titled “Around the World in Eighty Days“ ?
How about “Around the Lakes in 18 Days” ?
Well, that’s the less-than sane, destination-packed trip that is coming up shortly for the documentary – we’re in the air and on the road from March 27th through April 15th.
There’s all kinds of shoots planned (see below), but we’re also looking for Organ Grinder fans who may now reside in the Midwest who have stories to share, photos, news clippings, or home videos – please get in touch if you’d like to be included.
Confirmed Shoots:
Detroit, MI
- Interview with Lance Luce – Lance is a theatre organist who has performed in many venues, including pizza restaurants. In particular, Lance was a performer at the Organ Grinder in Toronto. The Canadian Organ Grinder restaurants were not related to the ones in the US, yet there are many fans of those establishments, some not knowing that the operations were not related. It will be great to include this part of “pizza & pipe organ” history in the documentary. Our interview will be conducted at the historic Senate Theater in Detroit.
Columbus Area, OH
- An interview at an undisclosed location. (Sorry for being coy, but this one should prove to be quite interesting.)
Lansing, IL
- Beggar’s Pizza – This location of the regional Pizza chain used to be a pipe organ-format restaurant. The organ is still in the building, and we’ll be interviewing locals who are helping restore it and put on weekly organ night events. If successful, this would mark the first return of a classic pizza & pipe venue to regular operation.
Franklin, WI
- Carma Labs – The Carmex Factory. Did you know that one of the largest Wurlitzer installations in the world is inside an operating factory/warehouse setting? This shoot will illustrate the weird & wonderful ways in which people are preserving and expanding these instruments. We’ll be interviewing Carmex president Paul Woelbing about his passion for pipes (and lip balm).
Racine, WI
- Fred Hermes, Jr. Interview – Fred’s late father rescued the largest 5-manual Wurlitzer ever made at the factory, and built a 30ft x 60ft movie palace in his basement with 17ft ceilings and a balcony, known as the “Basement Bijou”.
Greenfield, WI
- We’ll be visiting Organ Piper Pizza for multiple days. Organ Piper is a long-established pizza & pipe organ restaurant. We’ll be interviewing owner Derek Paikowski about how he runs a successful restaurant in this format, as well as staff organist Zach Frame, about the workaday life of performing for diners multiple times per week.
But Wait, There’s More!
As you can tell from the map, there are several additional shoots planned which either can’t be announced at this time, or are still being scheduled.
The final schedule may take the production to five different states!
You can Help!
This trip is made possible entirely by the generous contributions of our backers. Please consider supporting the documentary by making a purchase from our Crowdfunding Shop. You can make a direct contribution, or purchase CDs, postcards, and posters!
There’s many more places we need to go to get the complete Organ Grinder story, including the upcoming Denver Road Trip in May. In particular, we need to get to California to cover the origins of the pizza & pipe idea, which started in the Bay Area, and to Arizona, to visit Organ Stop Pizza, the largest of the remaining pizza & pipe restaurants. Organ Stop features some well-known pipes and percussions that were once part of the Organ Grinder.
We’re in the home stretch – and with your help, we can get it done!
You can help support the project by purchasing from the Crowdfunding Shop.
