With the change in ownership, the restaurant continued to gain in popularity. Over the course of the ensuing years, careful acquisition of rare pipework and percussions were made, culminating in what is now the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the world. Under the new ownership, improvement of the pipe organ became a high priority. Incidentally, that instrument was sold to a couple in Downers Grove, Illinois, for installation in their home! The Mesa Organ Stop was sold to longtime employee and manager Mike Everitt and his business partner Brad Bishop. The Phoenix Organ Stop was sold to a real estate developer, who sold the pipe organ and demolished the building in favor of an office complex. In 1984, Bill Brown decided to retire from the restaurant business. The success and popularity of the new Organ Stop Pizza mirrored that of the Phoenix location. The instrument was totally rebuilt, and the decision was made to enlarge the organ to 23 ranks for its debut in the new Mesa Organ Stop.
In the theater, the Denver instrument had 15 ranks, or sets of pipes. It opened in 1975 near the corner of Dobson and Southern Avenue with a Wurlitzer organ from the Denver Theater in Denver, Colorado. The phenomenal success of the Phoenix restaurant prompted plans to open another Organ Stop in Mesa. Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer whose enthusiasm for the theater pipe organ and its music led to the creation of this landmark attraction. This unique concept of a pizza parlor with a pipe organ was envisioned by William P. In 1972, the original Organ Stop Pizza restaurant premiered in Phoenix, Arizona at the corner of 7th Street and Missouri Avenue with a Wurlitzer pipe organ which was originally built for Grauman’s Hollywood Egyptian Theater.
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