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This week, we interviewed Bob MacNeur at his home near Oregon City. Bob was the co-founder of the Paramount Music Palace, a gigantic pizza and pipes restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana. Opened in 1978, it was one of the few establishments that rivaled the Organ Grinder in terms of size and customer traffic! Bob spoke of…
Who knew that you couldn’t buy the exact font used on the Organ Grinder sign? There are a lot of “Old West” fonts out there with a “spurred” style on the letters – you see them a lot on taverns/saloons and country music albums alike. But, as it turns out, the lettering on the original…
I’m pleased to announce that all CD preorders, direct orders, and Indiegogo orders as of this morning have shipped! Depending on how you placed your order, you should have already received a tracking notification email from Indiegogo or PayPal. If you did not, please contact me here and I will look up your order and…
On Tuesday, as part of our island-hopping Hawaii Trip, we interviewed Jerry Forchuk at a location in Waikiki near his home. Jerry and his brother Paul were among the original co-founders of the Organ Grinder. Jerry spoke on many topics, from growing up working closely with his mother and brother in the family’s restaurant business,…
On Saturday, as the first major stop on our whirlwind Hawaii Trip, we interviewed Stan Cadwallader. Stan lives on Maui, along the famous, twisty and mountainous Hana Highway, on a ranch that he and his husband, the late, beloved actor and singer Jim Nabors, purchased in the 1970s. Nestled in the hills of northeastern Maui,…
We’re proud to announce our new Gold Sponsor, KXRW Independent Radio! KXRW is an independent, volunteer-based, values-driven, community-supported organization that supports radio station KXRW-LP on 99.9FM. They are dedicated to delivering quality programming with an emphasis on local voices. They are committed to sharing knowledge and information to build a stronger community, based on inclusion,…
Mark Reed demonstrates his reproducing grand piano. This piano was originally installed at the Portland Publix Theatre (later the Paramount theatre, now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall) in Portland, Oregon. The piano was manufactured by Wm. Knabe & Co. and used an Ampico “Re-Enacting” (reproducing) mechanism, which not only recorded the notes of a performance,…
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…
Today we had the privilege of interviewing Sam Battle, who has two very popular YouTube channels, “Look Mum No Computer” and “This Museum is Not Obsolete“. Sam participated in a remote interview conducted in his museum in Ramsgate, Kent, UK, which he describes as “the museum home for experimental and obsolete scientific and musical technology.”…
Portland’s Willamette Week newspaper has just posted an article about the project, which should also be coming out in their print edition today. The Organ Grinder, once found on Southeast 82nd Avenue between Foster Road and Holgate Boulevard, was made immediately notable by the spectacle of its 32-foot diaphone pipes visible from the street, a…
“Documentary brings back great Portland memories of the Organ Grinder Pizza” The Organ Grinder Restaurant on Southeast 82nd Avenue was a popular attraction from 1973 to 1996. Jason VondersmithAugust 26th, 2024 Born and raised in Portland, Bob Richardson remembers many fun and happy days at the old Organ Grinder Pizza Restaurant on Southeast 82nd Avenue….
Today I was invited onto KPTV-12’s streaming show by reporter Greg Nibler, to talk about the history of the Organ Grinder and about the next steps for the documentary project.
On Friday, we again visited the home of Organ Grinder co-founder Dennis Hedberg, where he demonstrated his incredible audio system. The system can recreate a number of listening environments, including simulating the experience of being in a large movie palace while listening to a gigantic pipe organ. There are transducers under the floor that really…
Launching the “At the Organ Grinder 3 1/2 Volume Collection” After months of research & preparation, we are enthusiastically delighted to announce the release of “3 1/2 Volumes” of Organ Grinder performances on CD as a means of crowdfunding for the documentary. You can order these CDs today! Please read on for details. Big Update!…
Last week, we filmed multiple events at the American Theatre Organ Society’s annual Summer Youth Adventure: “The Summer Youth Adventure (SYA) is a week-long event designed for young theatre organ enthusiasts who are interested in learning, developing, or refining their skills with the theatre organ. During the week, students will attend a variety of instructional…
A whimsical, musical re-creation of a 30-year-old poster from the Organ Grinder restaurant. (Details about the poster at the end of the video.) Presented in 5.1 Channel Surround on Supported Devices. Audio Warning: Turn your volume down at the end of the video! As of 2024 when this was uploaded, YouTube plays 5.1 content at…
Working on this project, I’ve learned that you never expect where a lead might take you or who you might bump into. Case in point: After seeing an article about the Organ Grinder documentary project in Willamette Week, Tres Shannon, probably most famous for co-founding Voodoo Doughnut, reached out to us. Tres loved going to…
As part of the documentary project, Don Feely demonstrated some of the rhythm unit percussions and sound effects (“traps”) that he purchased after the Organ Grinder’s Portland location closed and the organ was being parted out. The Organ Grinder was innovative in many ways, one such way being that co-founder Dennis Hedberg upgraded the traditional…
It was Sunday evening, February 4, 1996. The last time the Organ Grinder would be open to the public. People had heard the news, and were showing up to experience it one last time. Ironically, like the early days, there were once again people queued up on the ramp behind the console, waiting their turn…
Early in the planning stages for the first Organ Grinder, the founders used an architecture firm which specialized in restaurants and hotels. The design was very conventional – a rectangular building, with the entrance and kitchen at the front, and the organ at the back. No towering windows showing off the pipes to the street,…
