On Thursday we interviewed Donna Parker.
Donna was one of the original performers at the Paramount Music Palace in Indiana.
She later moved to Portland to work at the Rodgers Organ Company in Hillsboro, and later began playing regularly at Organ Grinder Portland, up until it’s closing in 1996.
Donna recalled a story of inviting a young girl up to the console at the Paramount Music Palace to assist with the sound effects for the “train song”, a common crowd interaction there, and chatting with the girl in front of the audience, only to later learn from the child’s astonished parents that she hadn’t spoken in months due to a tragedy in the family!
Donna also spoke of what it’s like to be a performer, often playing the same fan-favorite song hundreds or thousands of times, and how to keep things fresh.
The setting for the interview was Bob MacNeur’s workshop, where he is building his dream Wurlitzer pipe organ, using pipework from the Pizza & Pipes restaurant in Tacoma, which was destroyed by fire in 1999. (The console is from elsewhere.)
We hope to hear Donna and others perform on this instrument once it is operational, which Bob aims to accomplish in the coming months.
You can help support the project by purchasing from the Crowdfunding Shop.
