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In April, as part of our Midwest Tour, we visited Organ Piper Pizza in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Organ Piper is one of three remaining establishments where you can enjoy live theatre pipe organ music with your pizza. Organist Zach Frame kindly allowed us to film a complete 45-minute set, in order to portray what it’s like…
In Franklin, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, there exists an ordinary distribution warehouse in a large office park. To the average passer-by, this is just one of several buildings in the community owned by Carma Laboratories, the makers of the famous yellow tins of Carmex lip balm and other products. But listen closely, and over…
On April 8, Toby Washburn stopped by Carma Labs in Franklin, Wisconsin to demonstrate the unusual pipe organ constructed in the warehouse. As part of our Midwest Tour, The Organ Grinder Documentary project visited Carma Labs (which you may recognize as the manufacturers of Carmex lip balm) to explore the wild and over-the-top things people…
After visiting Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, the next stop on our Midwest Tour was Beggars Pizza in Lansing, IL. Beggars Pizza is a regional franchise chain in Illinois and Indiana, with about two dozen restaurants. The Lansing location is unique because it was originally a cinema – the Lans Theater, which first opened in 1947….
There’s a lot that drives this project: A passion for an amazing story, a sense of nostalgia, and the desire to deliver a complete, compelling feature-length documentary. But there’s also the literal drives. Hard drives are the modern equivalent of film canisters – but more fragile. That’s why for this project, there’s four sets of…
While we were recording interviews at Shawn Kenney’s residence as part of the Midwest Tour, a visitor dropped by – organist Richard Gregory. As is becoming an emerging theme in this documentary, Richard became hooked on theatre organs as a toddler – in this case, at just one year of age – after visiting Roaring…
After wrapping up the Ohio leg of our Midwest Tour, our travels took us through Indiana. There, at a freeway interchange just outside of Indianapolis, is an unassuming small cemetery. A fitting symbol, as just around the bend lie the remains of the once grand and much beloved Paramount Music Palace. Much like the Organ…
Last Monday, kicking off the Ohio leg of our Midwest Tour, we interviewed Shawn Kenney at his home. In addition to his duties directing a museum in Columbus, and his position as Vice Chair of the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS), Shawn, with the help of many friends, has managed to put together an amazing…
On Sunday, we traveled to Detroit, Michigan for the first shoot of our Midwest Tour and interviewed organist Lance Luce at the historic Senate Theater. Lance is a man of many talents – and of many duties. He’s currently the organist at Little Caesar’s Arena for the Detroit Red Wings, and was once the organist…
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…
Update: The Denver Road Trip is complete – check out the updates! That’s right, we’re going to Denver! A recent uptick in contributions is allowing us to plan our next “road trip” phase of production. Denver is very important to the Organ Grinder story. The second Organ Grinder restaurant – bigger and louder than the…
This week, we interviewed Mike DeSart. Mike has many interests, including flying model aircraft, and raising parrots – for many years he and his wife ran a parrot breeding and related supplies business, “The Bird Barn”, out of their home in Portland. But for Organ Grinder fans, Mike was the often-unseen hand that kept the…
Is paperwork your passion? Do you enjoy spending long hours performing tedious tasks with recordings and documents? Do you like working in a situation where you legally cannot tell people about the contents of said documents? All without pay? Well, have I got the position for you! I need help proofreading and formatting interview transcripts….
Last week was the anniversary of the start of the documentary project! In January, 2024, after pestering Organ Grinder co-founder Dennis Hedberg for months about doing an interview, I met with him at his home, and convinced him to share his story with the world. Our initial schedule was thwarted by January’s big ice storm,…
Pipe Dreams and Pizza Crusts is a new documentary about the weird and wonderful (and loud!) Organ Grinder restaurants in Portland and Denver. I’ve been working full time all year to cover every angle of this amazing story, and I’ve invested a significant amount of my own money in this project. But now, it’s time…
This month, we interviewed Ed Zollman at his home in Port Orchard, Washington, as part of our first Washington State Road Trip. Ed told us about his career as an organ technician, and what led him to become associated with the Organ Grinder, and his work with others to combine multiple Wurlitzer organs to create…
When you tally everything up, it’s pretty frightening! But there is much more to do! I simply MUST get to Denver for up to 2 weeks to conduct interviews and do library and TV station research. Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated and greatly needed. If you haven’t already, please consider contributing or purchasing…
This week, I traveled to Port Orchard, Washington, to the home of Patti and Ed Zollman, as part of the first Washington State Road Trip for the film (there will likely be more). First, I interviewed Patti, who performed regularly at the Denver Organ Grinder (as Patti Simon), as well as in Portland and at…
Rich Greenland, that’s who! Rich lives near the Wurlitzer Building in North Tonawanda, New York. In 2023, Rich took extensive drone videos of the site, and posted excerpts of the footage to YouTube: Rich has graciously licensed his footage for use in the Organ Grinder documentary. A bit of history: Already an established company making…
Indiegogo, gone… Our 30-day Indiegogo campaign ended on September 17th. To put things frankly, it didn’t do so well. Here’s the cold truth: The advice I followed said it was best to fully budget your film, and ask for the whole amount, so as not to annoy people by going back again and again for…
