An anonymous OCThen reader asks if anyone remembers the Shakey's Pizza Parlor near Disneyland that had a pipe organ and a "nickelodeon guy"...
I'd sure like to find out anything pertaining to shakey" pizza parlor, particullarly the one near disneyland.. they had an amazing pipe organ and a nickelodeon guy, who I think was referred to as "mr nicelodeon" who played it all from the same console..If you know anything, don't be shy to post a comment...
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I dont remember the Shakeys by Disneyland having a Pipe Organ, though I know it was THE hang-out for Anaheim High Schoolers like myself. However there WAS a place called "Pipe Organ Pizza" that I remember and they had sound effects and stuff. They would play I believe it was "Misty" and they would have lightening and thiunder and the Organ would play. It was pretty neat and scary for a kid. I cant remember if it was on the little island at Tustin and 17th St or if it was in Costa Mesa
ReplyDelete17th and Tustin Ave is right. I lived within a mile of the place. It was the 1st Pizza place in the area (as I recall) to have pineapple as a topping
DeleteOh, my gosh! I laughed when I read this. Back in the early 70's, my dad used to take our family to the Shakey's in Tustin and record us singing along with the player piano. I know he was hoping that one day we'd all make it big. We were the Mexican Jackson 5! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI remember the Shakey's Pizza in HB I think it was Shakey's. My Dad and I would walk up to a very high bar/counter made of dark wood and he would hand me a sugar cube! I loved it.
ReplyDeleteDonna
I use to go to Shakeys in the 1970's on Lincolin and Dale in Anaheim. One whole wall was filled with metal, brass pipe organ and a fish tank! There was a guy who played very loud and entertained as you ate pizza.
ReplyDeleteI remember he left that Shakeys to go to play at another one! The Anaheim Shakeys is long gone.
This post really takes me back!
I remember that Shakeys by Disneyland and the pipe organ player..I also remember in the 60's as a teenage going in the wrong bathroom..as they didn't have them marked Men and Women..they had something like "Ye Olde this" and "Ye olde That" and was I ever embarrassed when I came out to laughter..fun times.
ReplyDeleteI remember that Shakey's Pizza. That was the first place I ever had pizza, and my ideas of what pizza was and should be were formed by Shakey's Pizza. It was always exciting to go there and hear the music. I loved it. After moving away from Orange County to Indianapolis in late 1973 I didn't have pizza again for a few years.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle managed the Shakey's on Harbor by Disneyland while he was in college in the 70s, and I too remember that crazy organ thing as a little kid. The guy actually released an album with that music on red vinyl, and the cover had a pic of the very organ that in Shakey's...The same Shakey's had a pre-video skeet shooting game that you could play while you were sitting on the wooden tables.
ReplyDeleteI do remember Shakeys! Their pizza was the bomb!! I used to go there at least once a week after school. I forgot what street it was on but I think it was on the way to the South Coast Plaza mall. I loved that mall lol!
ReplyDeleteThere was a Pipe Organ Pizza on Tustin between 17th and Santa Clara. It had everything but the kitchen sink.
ReplyDeleteThere is still a Shakey's on Fairview in Santa Ana.
ReplyDeleteThis is too much. I happen to be listening to Prof. Nick O'Lodeon's red vinyl album at this very moment. I ran across it going thru old stuff. Then I Googled and found this site. The Shakey's was at 2815 Lincoln in Buena Park. 1971. Nick's real name was Earl Cornwell, Jr. He built his 22 ft long Kaleidocosmicorgrig himself. See pics at:
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Ahhh Shakey's Pizza palor, I grew up going there my whole childhood. My grandfather would take me there on Friday nites when I was 5 and 6 years old, then we went to the Shakey's on Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa, he would tell me we where going nite clubing. The windows where made of all different colored pop bottles. The men that where making the pizza would have you stand in front at the counter and watch them toss the pizza in the air. The long picnic tables and the player paino, and the wonderful smell of that pizza, what great memories. Of course our root beer was served in the big glass pither, sure takes you back to a simpler time of days gone by. So very long ago.
ReplyDeleteI too remember a Shakey's Pizza Parlour with a pipe organ . It was located on Auburn Blvd. in Sacramento in the 1960s thru the 1980s . In addition to the organ, they had a lot of other automatic instuments like drums, bells and whistles that where controlled by the Mr. Nickelodean Guy playing on the organ . They also had small rides for the kids . You would stick a dime or a quarter in and could enjoy a ride on the plasic pony, little Model T car or the UFO Saucer . Wooo Woo !
ReplyDeleteI used to go to the Shakey's in Los Alamitos in the Late 60's early 70's with all my Buds after football and Basketball games! It was the ONLY place to be! Sitting there with that big pitcher of Root Beer and a nice hot pizza... ah... the good ole days!
ReplyDeleteI have the red vinyl album. I remember that it came with a strawberry scented incense stick and for years the album smelled like strawberries. I still have it. It is scratched all to hell and no longer smells of strawberries but I pull it out and listen to it every so often. I am a professional musician today and I owe Prof. Nick O'Lodean a huge thank you for making music such a fun and magical experience. I hope he is still entertaining and inspiring folks to this day!
ReplyDeleteThe Shakey's on Harbor was THE place to go after a shift at The Park - I have been going there on and off for 25+ years now...in the early 90's the owner was unhappy with Shakey's franchise agreement (or some such)and changed his 4 or so Shakey's to Big's...Last year, he decided to retire; Shakey's is ramping up a stateside expansion, and voila'! It's a Shakey's again!
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa would take my mom and me to Shakey's. We would eat pizza and the horse ride only costed 1 penny. I would ride that thing alnight, compliments of my grandpa's penny jar....
ReplyDeleteon or about 1967 thou 1973 there was a guy who played a pipe organ and rag time and honky tonk his name was nick he went by the name of nick nickelodeon a one man band at shakey's on harbor & ball by d-land last i heard he packed it up and moved to an amusement park in Georgia i will always remember this guy please comment on this i am on Face book as bob boyd this would be great to go over this!!
ReplyDeleteI just now googled the word Kaleidocosmicorgrig from the back of the Nick O'loden record that I've had for 40 years. I got it in 1970 at Shakey's pizza near Disneyland. My family lived on W. Hill right of of Ball road across from the Market Basket. We would go to Shakeys on Saturday to see Nick and his musical...thing. Thank you for the memory rush, Awesome..
ReplyDeletepipe organ pizza was located in santa ana on tustin. i remember as a kid you could walk behind the organ and see all the pipes that were making all the sounds from the player. after they closed down they had to remove a wall just to remove the organ. last i heard the organ was in washington dc and used at a cathedral there. not sure if it was the national cathedral or not.
ReplyDeleteYup I too remember Pipe Organ Pizza. The Ferrells of Pizza parlours!
ReplyDeleteI liked near Pipe Organ Pizza there on 17th street in Santa Ana, near Tustin Ave. Also, Godfathers a little further down 17th before Grand Ave. And then at Grand Ave, remember Gemco and Zody's on opposite corners?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely an interesting album to listen to. If anyone's interested I just listed a copy of his LP on ebay today. Wish I could have seen the Kaleidocosmicorgrig! :-)
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a good friend of the man who played the pipe organ at the Shakeys near Disneyland. He called himself "Nick O'Lodeon" but his real name was Earl Cornwell, but everyone knew him as Nick. The organ was made up of a rack of bottles all filled with different amounts of water, organ pipes, tambourines, and all sorts of things - all played from a set of keyboards. There was also a fish tank and a rear-projection screen on which he would show slides.
ReplyDeleteNick died in 1987 and I don't know what became of his "rig", as he called it.
Oh, and one of my firsy jobs was making pizzas at the Shakeys in La Habra.
I went to the Anaheim Shakey's a few times in 1973-1974, when my family's friend, Captain Jack something (I'll have to look up his last name someone, started with an "M") would get to play the organ just because he loved music, loved organs, and was a pretty good musician. I was young, but I remember the Styrofoam Shakey's hats with a paper name plate, and our friend playing requests from the customers.
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