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This is a big update about everything that has happened with the Organ Grinder documentary over the past 22 months, plus what’s coming next, and how people can help me complete principal photography. Correction: In the video I refer to Howard Vollum as the “founder of Tektronix”. There were in fact four original co-founders of…
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…
Jeff Baas is a man on a mission. A mission to save one particular movie palace, and a broader mission to preserve the history of all of them – and the legacy of one of their greatest proponents. You can’t tell the story of the Organ Grinder and all the other “pizza and pipe organ”…
Inside a warehouse in Franklin, Wisconsin, belonging to Carma Labs, Inc. (the makers of Carmex), is the world’s largest theatre pipe organ. As part of the Organ Grinder documentary project, and our return to the Midwest in September, we visited Carma Labs to see what weird and wonderful things people are doing with theatre pipe…
Last Wednesday, during our revisit to the Midwest, we spent the whole day with Fred Hermes, Jr. at the “Basement Bijou” – a private home in Racine, WI, which notably features a movie palace, complete with balcony, in the basement – it really is a sight to behold, and as you walk down the stars…
Now Available for Preorder! When we surveyed the members of our Facebook Group as to their preference for the next crowdfunding perk, T-Shirts were the top choice! Through a special arrangement with the beloved restaurant’s owners, and hours of work by a volunteer graphic artist who accurately reconstituted the Organ Grinder logo from source materials,…
(*Or, “Nerding Out about Credits” Part II) It takes a lot of people to make a movie – including a documentary. This film may be very lean on the crew side (often it’s just me doing the shoots), but it’s especially heavy on the participant side, whether its the long list of interviewees, or people…
Sometimes little things help a lot… Our YouTube channel has hit 400 subscribers with 1,366 “watch hours” in the past year, which is great – but, if we reach 500 subscribers and 3,000 watch hours, the channel becomes eligible to raise money and take contributions via YouTube. You can help us simply by subscribing to…
What do you do when you’re interviewing folks in Denver about the Organ Grinder, but one person you’d really like to talk with doesn’t live there anymore? Well – if you’re lucky – you just wait a bit and then they come to you! In June, we interviewed Los Angeles-based performing artist John West while…
DeLoy Goeglein was about ten years old when his musical journey began, learning to play both piano and organ. He would play in church and go on to play at venues all around the Denver area. During our Denver Road Trip, we sat down with DeLoy at his daughter’s home in a Denver suburb, to…
(*Editor’s note: The title of this piece is a poorly-constructed pipe organ joke. Explanation at end.) You wouldn’t guess from his tough, tattooed, motorcycle-riding aesthetic today, but Frank Perko III holds the distinction of having been the youngest-ever staff performer at the Organ Grinder, hired to play at the Denver location at the age of…
Justin Adams had an early and indelible introduction to the Organ Grinder restaurant in Denver: “My earliest memory of being at the organ grinder was when I was five years old. This was around 1977, 1978, the same years as Star Wars came out. My whole world exploded with wonder and awe, and the mighty…
(Post updated 2025-07-13 with technical info.) In this newly-acquired footage from the 1970s, organist Jonas Nordwall performs a full set at the Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon. This compilation is from vintage video tapes which were recently provided to the documentary project. Sometime around 1977, representatives from Sony visited the Organ Grinder to test…
During our Denver Road Trip, we interviewed organist Jim Calm about his experiences at the Organ Grinder. Jim comes from a musical family. He started taking piano lessons as a child – his parents bought a piano from a neighbor down the street, and rolled it up the road to Jim’s home. “I was playing…
Happy Fourth of July! In this newly-acquired footage from the 1970s, organist Jonas Nordwall performs John Philip Sousa’s “Washington Post” March at the Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon. The Organ Grinder’s performers would work various bits into each 45-50min set, including interacting with the mechanical monkey. The organist would play along as the monkey…
Westword is Denver’s weekly news and entertainment publication, with a print circulation over 270,000 and an online readership of 1.5 million. During the Denver Road Trip, it was an honor to be invited to sit with reporter Gil Asakawa for a couple of hours, discussing the documentary project and the history of the Organ Grinder….
During our Denver Road Trip, Colorado’s CW2 kindly invited director Bob Richardson to appear on their “Daybreak” morning program to talk about the Organ Grinder and the documentary project. Footage provided by Colorado’s CW2 – Copyright © KWGN-TV
Steve Spangler literally grew up in a magical household. Steve’s parents were both professional magicians, running a magic school in Denver. Steve opened our conversation with this classic joke about magicians: “What’s the difference between a professional magician and a pizza? And the answer is a pizza can feed a family of five.” The same…
Helene and John McGuire are an unlikely pairing – John’s a major Star Trek fan, and Helene is really into Star Wars. And yet, through their love of music and pipe organs, they have somehow managed to endure! When asked “Which is Better”, Helene jumped right in: “Star Wars is Better!”, to which John replied…
Andrew Novick is an eclectic character. An electrical engineer and metrologist, one could argue that he controls time itself, as a manager at station WWV, which is the time signal broadcast from the National Time Standards Lab in Boulder, Colorado. Andrew is also a documentary filmmaker, having produced the autobiographical film, JonBenet’s Tricycle, a reflection…
