It all began about 35 years ago. My father, Ernst Schlieter, was a hi-fi nut. As with many others, he chose to demonstrate the capabilities of his equipment using pipe organ recordings. In this case, his favorites were the recordings of the late George Wright. As a very young child, I spent many hours listening to "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" and "Quiet Village". I was hooked on Pipe Organs in general, and Theatre Organs in particular. Fast forward to my teenage years. I took up musical instruments, and maintained an interest in pipe organs. We started gathering parts, and eventually installed a 2/6 Maxey Barton in our basement. I found employment working on pipe organs, which I thought was the greatest deal of all time. ( I get to work on them AND get paid!?). While working for the Verlinden pipe organ company (Successors to the Wangerin -Weickhart company) I found an old Wangerin roll player, which we connected to the Maxey/Barton. After just a short time. however, my parents bought an Historic Mansion, and the Barton was sold to a nearby church. The "new" house had no room for a pipe organ, and , as it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, alterations were out of the question. This was during the late seventies, all the pipe organs were getting priced out of reach, I went to college, got married, and eventually lost interest. But Wait! I failed to mention that my future wife and I had our first date at Organ Piper Pizza, where I had worked at one time maintaining the organ. Almost 20 years later, I took my young son to see where Mom and Dad had their first date. He fell in love with Theatre Organs, and so did Dad

On to Episode 2, The story Continues

There's No Place Like Home