Simian Joy

Jonas Nordwall performs the “Superman March” by composer John Williams on the Mary L. Collins Organ, First United Methodist Church, Portland. (4 manuals, 111 ranks.) As part of the Organ Grinder Documentary Project, Jonas sat for an extended interview this week. At the end, he gave us a demonstration of the Mary L. Collins organ,…

It’s important for a documentary to reveal the the truth about its subject. Sometimes, that truth involves subterfuge – such as when the Organ Grinder was featured on a nationwide TV game show! Will the real “World’s Only” female Organ Grinder please stand up? Frame from a 1970’s episode of “To Tell the Truth” featuring…

As part of the documentary project, Don Feely demonstrated some of the rhythm unit percussions and sound effects (“traps”) that he purchased after the Organ Grinder’s Portland location closed and the organ was being parted out. The Organ Grinder was innovative in many ways, one such way being that co-founder Dennis Hedberg upgraded the traditional…

There is a connection between the Organ Grinder restaurants and the legendary Earthquake Ethel’s Roadhouse nightclub in Beaverton. Several of the same people were involved, and Ethel’s will have a chapter in the documentary. And here, we are happy to present to you, an original painting of the mythical Ethel herself, loaned to the production…

Early in the planning stages for the first Organ Grinder, the founders used an architecture firm which specialized in restaurants and hotels. The design was very conventional – a rectangular building, with the entrance and kitchen at the front, and the organ at the back. No towering windows showing off the pipes to the street,…