Roaring Twenties was a Pizza Parlor in Grand Rapids, Michigan that operated from 1977 to 1991. There were other locations but none lasted as long as the original.

What attracted people to Roaring Twenties was "The Mighty Wurlitzer," a theater pipe organ that featured 3 manuals and 33 ranks of pipes.

The Mighty Wurlitzer

The organ (Mighty Wurlitzer Opus 1836) was one of three identical instruments specifically designed and built for the Stanley-Warner Theatres in Pittsburgh, Jersey City and Atlantic City. Opus 1836 was installed February 9, 1928 in the Stanely Theater in Jersey City, New Jersey.

After nearly three decades of service, the theater closed and both it and the organ fell into a state of disrepair. The organ was rescued in the late 1960s when a New York area organ enthusiast purchased the organ and placed into storage.

When obtained by the Roaring Twenties organization in the mid 1970s, the instrument was completely rebuilt by skilled technicians to obtain the best in the golden sounds of the Mighty Wurlitzer.

In the late 1980's the restaurant changed names twice. First to Noodles to emphasize an Italian menu and later to Good Time Charley's as a reflection of it's new owner, Charley Balogh, who was also one of the staff organists during the Roaring Twenties era of the restaurant.

When it was announced that Good Time Charley's would be closing in 1991, news reports stated that the organ was slated to be sold to a group in Australia who would relocate the then sixty-three year old instrument to the Southern Hemisphere.

Rather than lose a piece of Grand Rapids history, a committee lobbied to keep this unique instrument in the city and found a home for it in a new facility for the Public Museum of Grand Rapids that was under construction at the time.