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 clapped its symbols, and as the monkey drifted in rhythm, the organist would pretend to become irritated with the monkey and scold it, famously bopping the monkey on the head with a plastic baseball bat. The monkey would screech for a few seconds, then resume clapping. (In later years, the baseball bat bit was removed, and the monkey found a permanent home on a perch next to the console, operated remotely.)
This is an excerpt from video tapes which were recently provided to the documentary project.
Around 1977, representatives from Sony visited the Organ Grinder to test an improved pro video camera for its low-light and dynamic range capabilities.
(The format was 3/4″ U-Matic, a workhorse industrial video standard.)
These tapes had sat unwatched for over 40 years until now, and are the best quality video shot at the Organ Grinder from that era found so far.
The audio was recorded in true stereo, which is rare for the time.
We will soon post the full contents of the tapes, after restoration work is completed.
You can help support the project by purchasing from the Crowdfunding Shop.
