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John Ledwon is a music educator, theatre organ enthusiast, and experienced performer. We caught up with John (no easy feat, as he often commutes between Henderson, NV and Los Angeles) in November during our Southwest Road Trip. The interview took place at Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, CA. (Special thanks to the board…
Dave Moreno describes himself as an organ technician, organist, designer, and builder. Top photo: Dave working on the console of the Fair Oaks Community Clubhouse’s Wurlitzer-Morton organ in Fair Oaks, California. When you’re one of the few people around for miles that knows the ins-and-outs of a theatre pipe organ, your skills are sought after…
During our Southwest Road Trip, we passed through Palm Springs, stopping in to interview Rik DeRose. Rik shared some amazing stories from his musical career, ranging from a stint as a “pipe organ & pizza” performer, to Las Vegas glitz. Rik’s musical development and early interest in playing the organ started, like it often did…
While visiting the Phoenix area during our Southwest Road Trip in November, we interviewed Martin Meier, who has a fascinating story about how he came to acquire the Denver Organ Grinder instrument, and then sadly had to let it go. Martin and his partner Tim Stoddard owned a bed and breakfast, the Pikes Peak Paradise…
(Updated December 22nd with additional information, more photos, and clarifications/typo corrections.) During the 20th century, over 100 restaurants with theatre pipe organs were established, most of them pizza restaurants. But where was the very first pizza restaurant to have a pipe organ? How did this all get started? As part of our Southwest Road Trip,…
In the early years of the Organ Grinder, the restaurant was an undeniable success. This allowed two of the original founders, brothers Paul and Jerry Forchuk – already from an entrepreneurial family – to enjoy a lifestyle in keeping with a high-income earner in the 1970s & 80s. Fortunately for the staff at the Organ…
Last week, the documentary’s Southwest Road Trip commenced. The first stop on that journey was a somewhat solemn affair, despite being a visit to what is normally a location created to be beautiful and joyful: A pilgrimage of sorts to the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay, Oregon, where organist Paul Quarino performed on, maintained, and…
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…
