BURBANK MAN BIDS ADIEU TO PEACE PIPES.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
With his hearing going and his eyes not that great anymore, it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to set her free, 66-year-old Joe Hunziker says. Time for the phantom of Burbank to open his garage door and let this great passion in his life for the past 36 years - a historic, 1923 vintage pipe organ - go to a new home. ``She needs someone with good hearing and eyesight eye·sight n. 1. The faculty of sight; vision. 2. Range of vision; view. ,'' Joe says with a sigh. ``It's time I let somebody else enjoy playing her for a while.'' So Joe's pipe organ is being carefully dismantled and crated up this weekend for a trip to the Baltics - to a Lithuanian Catholic Church that is in the process of rising from the ashes of an old prisoner-of-war barrack BARRACK. By this term, as used in Pennsylvania, is understood an erection of upright posts supporting a sliding roof, usually of thatch. 5 Whart. R. 429. in the town of Sventoji, 40 miles inland from the Baltic Sea Baltic Sea, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.163,000 sq mi (422,170 sq km), including the Kattegat strait, its northwestern extension. The Øresund, Store Bælt, and Lille Bælt connect the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits, which lead to the . Seems only fitting this would be its next destination. Another unique stop along the way for a majestic pipe organ that dispensed its deep, moving music in a Van Nuys mortuary, the old Grauman's Chinese Theater Grauman’s Chinese Theater famous for the imprints of movie stars’ footprints in its forecourt. [Am. Cinema: Payton, 284.] See : Fame in Hollywood during the silent film era and a Burbank church before winding up in Joe Hunziker's garage. The tiny ad in the Daily News ran two lines. Pipe organ for free to a legitimate charity, it read. Kest Karsokas, the handyman over at St. Casimir Lithuanian Catholic Church in the Los Feliz area saw the ad and called Mary Sepikas of the Knights of Lithuania. A priest from Lithuania was in town trying to raise funds from American Lithuanian supporters to complete a church being built from the ruins of war. A tremendous period of restoration and renovation of old churches and museums has been going on in his country, the Rev. Vidmantas Gricius told supporters. His people were tired of war and death. They wanted peace and prayer. They wanted to hear music, not bombs. Joe Hunziker had music. ``Look at him, he's so excited,'' Sepikas said Friday, watching Gricius help dismantle Joe's pipe organ. ``His people have no idea what he is bringing home to them,'' she said. ``They are going to be ecstatic.'' For his poor congregation - which has spent decades praying in secret as religion in Lithuania Catholicism is the predominant religion in Lithuania, with 79% of the population of the country belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. [1] The other significant denominations include Eastern Orthodoxy (4. was unceremoniously shoved underground by men who reveled in violence not prayer - Gricius was returning home with more than just financial support from his American brethren. He was returning with a majestic centerpiece that would be the envy of any church or house of worship Noun 1. house of worship - any building where congregations gather for prayer house of God, house of prayer, place of worship bethel - a house of worship (especially one for sailors) in the world. ``She was built by the American Photoplayer Co. in Van Nuys in 1923 for a local mortuary,'' Joe says. ``The late Justin Kramer, a renowned organ builder, took her in on trade years later when the mortuary wanted a bigger one. It was in pieces when I finally bought it in 1963. ``My wife almost went into cardiac arrest cardiac arrest n. Abbr. CA A sudden cessation of cardiac function, resulting in loss of effective circulation. Cardiac arrest A condition in which the heart stops functioning. when I brought it home, but she knew I had this deep, passionate love for pipe organ music,'' he said. Bit by bit with the help of friends, Joe began adding more pipes and power to his garage organ - scoring a big coup when he landed the bellows from the original Wurlitzer organ that was played at Grauman's Chinese Theater during the silent film era. In lay terms, the bellows supplies the air that makes the pipes speak, Joe says, and with 275 pipes on his organ, he's got plenty of speaking going on in his garage. ``When the talkies came in, movie theater organs went silent,'' Joe says. ``This one fell into a state of disrepair and was finally donated to the Archdiocese arch·di·o·cese n. The district under an archbishop's jurisdiction. arch  di·oc of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , which had it reassembled and put into St. Finbar's church'' in Burbank. But the church didn't need all the power that made these pipes speak so grandly in the much bigger Grauman's theater, so Joe wound up with a lot of its parts to add to his mortuary organ. ``I've just been out here in my garage adding to it and playing it for joy these past 36 years,'' the phantom of Burbank said Friday as he helped the Knights of Lithuania dismantle his passion. Helped them crate it` up and send it on to its next unique destination 75 years after coming to life in a Van Nuys mortuary. A war-torn town in Lithuanian ready for music, not bombs. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Joe Hunziker accepts Mary Sepikas' hug after giving away his pipe organ. Tom Mendoza/Daily News |
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