Cicero’s was a chain of restaurants equipped with huge pipe organs.  There were three outlets that I’ve found, thanks to the folks on Facebook.

ROSEVILLE

The original Ciceros was located at 2100 N. Snelling in HarMar Mall in Roseville, owned by Mike and Karyl Belknap.  The organist was a blind-since-birth singer and organist named George Sumner, who also controlled the instruments around the room from the organ and you never knew if something on the wall near you might be employed as the music played.  George would put out records occasionally.

On Worthpoint.com, the record below was uncharitably described:

I guess you’d vaguely call it “country” or “country lounge,” but it won’t sound like any country record you’ve ever heard. Here, Sumner and his organ wail and chug their way through Johnny Horton’s Battle of New Orleans, Hank Williams’ Kawliga, Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes, Shel Silverstein’s Cover Of the Rolling Stone (maybe the album’s highlight) with admirable gusto. A very strange record. Other tracks include: Alabamy Bound, Yellow Ribbon, A Queen on the Kitchen Stool, MacNamara’s Band, others.

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EDINA

The Edina Ciceros was located at 7101 France Ave., inside the Leisure Lane shopping mall.  It was owned by Dick and Bonnie Shelley.   The restaurant probably opened in 1974, since a flier says that “Beulah,” the “Mighty Pizza Organ,” had been installed there at that time.

Beulah was built in 1930 by the Barton Organ Company of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to accompany silent films and provide solo entertainment between film performances.  Beulah was originally installed in the Paramount Theater in Hamilton, Ohio.  She was equipped with special effects, 6 tuned percussion instruments, and 1,100 pipes to simulate orchestral sound and produce pure, physical, unamplified sounds which range from bluegrass fiddles to marching bands.  As talking pictures came on the scene in 1930 (just as Beulah was built), many of these pipe organs were discarded and only a handful survived.

Mike Grandchamp was the organist.  Here is a video of stills from that location, featuring Grandchamp.  Mike’s CV includes working at prestigious clubs, backing strippers on Hennepin Ave., TV gues appearances, concerts, and teaching high school history for ten years.  He even installed a theater pipe organ in his own home.  He was said to have 2,000 songs in his repertoire.

 

An ad from 1974 indicates that Wally Brown was the organist.

This location closed in 1982.

 

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BROOKLYN CENTER

There was a third Cicero’s located in Westbrook Mall in Brooklyn Center. It was a similar size instrument to the one in Edina, also a Barton, but a big RED console with oriental decor. The organist was Tony Tahlman, who prior to playing at Cicero’s was the organist at the Elm Roller Rink in Chicago.  Someone else remembered that the organists were two older gentleman who were brothers.