As mentioned in our post about the Kenosha Theatre, the story of the Organ Grinder is also the story of the movie palace and the theatre pipe organ.
We’ve previously been lucky to obtain and restore rare footage of the Oriental Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The Oriental’s Wurlitzer was the basis of the instrument in the first Organ Grinder restaurant. That footage would not exist were it not for the passion of local filmmakers who wanted to document the theatre’s grandeur for future generations.
And it wasn’t just here in Portland where people felt compelled to record the demise of these once-great and ubiquitous palaces.
During our revisit to the Midwest, we met with Douglas Wick in Racine, Wisconsin. Back in 1977, Douglas heard that his local movie palace, the 1900-seat Venetian Theatre was to be demolished – to make way for a parking lot (much like what happened to the Oriental Theatre in Portland).
Douglas felt compelled to do something about it. After first considering, and rejecting, the idea of suspending himself from the balcony to stave off the wrecking ball (much like tree-sitters did as environmental activism), he decided to photograph the process of destruction. But, he quickly realized, still photography wasn’t quite fitting enough for an establishment that was built to showcase moving pictures.
Douglas rushed out and bought a Super-8 movie camera and recorded the demolition in living color, along with taking many color slide photographs. He integrated those materials into a multimedia presentation, setting the slides and film clips to music, and switching back-and-forth live in front of an audience. Douglas has given this presentation over 60 times, and recently it was captured by another filmmaker, Logan Poelman of Hippy Van Films, which you can watch on YouTube:
Douglas has graciously allowed the Organ Grinder documentary to use his footage of the Venetian to illustrate the movie palace chapter in the film. The footage will also support the segment about Fred Hermes (Sr. and Jr.) and the Basement Bijou – which features decor rescued from the Venetian and two dozen other movie palaces.
Special thanks to Logan Poelman for connecting the Organ Grinder project with Douglas, as well as introducing us to Jeff Baas at the Kenosha Theatre.
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