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Here’s another newly-restored and upscaled vintage commercial from the famous Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon. This ad was produced in the early 1980s. (Date determined by presence of Zaxxon arcade game, which was released in late December, 1981, and Donkey Kong, released in the summer of 1981, which means this commercial was likely produced…
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, we visited Carma Labs during our Midwest Road Trip to see what weird and wonderful things people are doing with theatre pipe organs today. The…
The Barr-Fox Wurlitzer began as “THE” Wurlitzer at Fox Studios, and can be heard on many famous movie and TV soundtracks, including Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Sound of Music. John Williams used it in Empire of the Sun, Witches of Eastwick, The Fury, and…
Tucked away in a modest light-industrial district in Tarzana, California, just off the Orange Line Busway, sits a warehouse with a special secret inside. (OK, it’s not a big secret – but most people in the area don’t know it’s there.) The building is the home of Bandrika Studios, custom-built by composer Nathan Barr, to…
In February of 1996, shortly before Organ Grinder Portland closed, fans turned out to visit the restaurant one last time. Fortunately, several brought their camcorders with them, and have provided their footage to the documentary project. In this video, patron Ted Welty recorded organist Don Feely’s medley of themes from Disney’s animated hit “Aladdin” (1992)….
Sam Battle is a popular YouTuber in the vintage tech and music spaces. He’s best known for his channel “Look Mum No Computer”, and related channels “This Museum is Not Obsolete” and “Look Mum No Engine”. Among Sam’s many projects, he created a series of videos where he restored a residential pipe organ that was…
Here’s a newly-restored and upscaled vintage commercial from the famous Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon. This ad was produced in the late 1980s, and features cameos of brother-and-sister Jay and Stephe, children of Organ Grinder co-founder Dennis Hedberg. The Organ Grinder Documentary Project has digitized and restored dozens of hours of vintage footage which…
Featuring Jonas Nordwall and Sawyer Best. The Cleveland High School Theatre Pipe Organ began in the late 1920s as a nine-rank Kimball from the Columbia Theatre in Longview, Washington. In the 1930s, it was installed in Portland’s Simon Benson High School, as a gift from the graduating class, and enlarged by Seattle’s Balcom & Vaughn…
(And Switches and Knobs) Playing a theatre pipe organ inherently requires keeping track of a lot of things simultaneously – with many controls such as: And of course, powering up the blower and relay (the organ’s brain) that make everything possible. But for the organists who performed regularly in pizza parlors, that was just the…
Portland, Oregon’s Fox affiliate, KPTV, has just aired a feature piece about the Kimball pipe organ at Cleveland high school, which is being removed due to a project to replace the school building. The new school, unfortunately, will not have room for the organ. Footage from the Organ Grinder documentary was provided to KPTV to…
In February of 1996, shortly before Organ Grinder Portland closed, fans turned out to visit the restaurant one last time. Fortunately, several brought their camcorders with them, and have provided their footage to the documentary project. In this video, patron Ted Welty recorded organist Don Feely’s rendition of “Powerhouse”, which you may recognize as the…
An Organ Grinder Documentary Project Special Feature As part of our return to the Midwest in September, 2025, one of our stops was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a visit with Jeff Baas, owner of the Kenosha Theatre. Jeff and his brother purchased the derelict theatre in the 1980s, with plans to restore it and reopen…
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…
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…
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. [Update 2026-06-07 – We are now at 699…
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…
(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…
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…
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
