Meet Jerry Nagano, One of the Bay Area’s Last Great Theater Organists

Jerry Nagano is a walking, talking, breathing slice of nostalgia.

The organist has spent years as a popular pre- and post-show staple in the lobbies of the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto and the California Theatre in San Jose. But where Nagano still gets his biggest shoutouts is from those who recognize him from a gig he started back in the late 1980s — at Hayward’s Ye Olde Pizza Joynt, where delicious pies were being served alongside tunes from Nagano’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

“Being in the Bay Area, if someone comes up to me and says, ‘I heard you at…,’ it’s almost always at the Pizza Joynt,” said Nagano, who took up the organ as a kid in his native Los Angeles because he didn’t feel the thrill or challenge of a piano.

In the 1970s, pizza paired with organs was all the rage nationwide. But in the following decade, organs and organists began to disappear. Pizza and entertainment entered a new phase in 1977, when Atari founder Nolan Bushnell planted his latest creation in San Jose, the very first Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre.

Hungry customers flocked to see Chuck E. Cheese and his buddies, such as Jasper T. Jowls and a lion named “The King” that sang in the style of Elvis. But even as pizza and pipes were ready to enter their swan song, Ye Olde Pizza Joynt had plenty of great years.

Ye Olde Pizza Joynt opened on Hesperian Boulevard in 1958, but a fire silenced the organ — and some of the East Bay’s best pizza — for good in 2003. Fortunately, despite smoke damage to the organ’s console, the pipes were salvaged, protected by the thick oak shutters that controlled the volume.

Nagano started at Ye Olde around 1988 and played there until 1997, serving as one of only four organists the place ever had. The most famous of those was Bill Langford, who played at Ye Olde for 18 years until 1981. “My audiences were the children of Bill Langford,” Nagano said.

Nagano played organ full time for his first five years at Ye Olde. Five nights a week, he perched at his instrument, with vinyl albums emblazoned with Jerry for sale off to the side. Monkey toys crashing cymbals and a train whistle added even more texture. Despite the fun of his gig, he now had a mortgage in San Jose, and the prospects of a 40-year career as an organist wasn’t going to get things paid.

Nagano, who has an undergraduate degree from UCLA, began taking computer classes at De Anza College in Cupertino during the day, which first led to a job at NASA and then a career at Stanford as an electrical engineer from 1998 to 2024. Five days a week in Hayward became two.

Despite his new full-time gig, Nagano found a way to keep his very unique skill going.

“When I started this year from hell of doing college classes, going to NASA and playing at the Pizza Joynt, someone decided, ‘OK, you don’t have enough to do, so let’s throw another something on your plate for you to spin — would you be the Tuesday night organist at the Stanford Theatre?’” Nagano recalled. “That was one of my two free nights, so another night was taken up.”

Now 67 years old, Nagano splits his time between the Stanford Theatre and the California Theatre, the organ programming in both venues supported by the Packard Humanities Institute. Nagano has a knack for dazzling audiences with tunes that often fit the bills of the respective venues, especially at Stanford, which specializes in playing vintage films as far back as the silent era.

Opera San Jose General Director and CEO Shawna Lucey understands that in today’s modern era, where competition for one’s entertainment dollar is fierce, opera is more than a rustic stage and beautiful singing. Going to the opera is an event, where patrons bask in the thrill of the world’s greatest vocal compositions. Nagano has been a staple for those attending the California’s many events since 2008, and having a Bay Area icon in the house just amplifies the setting even more.

“It’s a special thing from this region that we have remarkable talent, and Jerry is delighting audiences with the sounds of one of the most classic American experiences. It just doesn’t get any better than that,” said Lucey, whose father, like Nagano, is a retired electrical engineer. “We have Jerry play, but he doesn’t just play. He talks to our audiences and explains things about the Wurlitzer organ, which is really exciting for our patrons and audiences both young and old.”

Watching Nagano dive into the two-, three- or four-manual organ is to watch an American master in motion. In the dimly lit lobby of the California Theatre, where the 1928 two-manual instrument is housed, each keyboard has 61 keys, with 32 more notes at his nimble feet. That’s not to mention the plethora of sound buttons that surround the keys just above, featuring every brass, woodwind or percussion sound imaginable.

The Mighty Wurlitzer and all its iterations have seen their best days. In the Bay Area, those days are largely attributed to the few folks like Nagano, keeping a tradition alive that is straight from the pages of classic Americana. Nagano still enjoys playing, still loves sitting down and cranking out a Broadway tune, even keeping tricks up his sleeve from newer shows like Hamilton or classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin.

The only rules Nagano has are his own. No matter the setting — in fancy dress at the opera, enjoying a film from the golden age of cinema, or, back in the day, scarfing down pepperoni slices with your family — Nagano’s number-one rule is all about having fun.

“There are many other organists in the business that play better and more accurately than I do, and I always refer to them as the organists that want to impress people,” Nagano said. “That was the point where I said, ‘I would much rather entertain my audience than impress them, so I will work on giving my audience a fun, good time.’ You might be impressed or you might not be, but I sure hope you have a good time while you’re listening.”