(bright piano music) (door creaking) - [Narrator] My great-grandfather, Felix Landis, was many things.

(bright piano music) He was a farmer, a dreamer, an artist.

(thunder roaring) But in his heart of hearts, he was a master craftsman, specifically in woodworking.

(bright piano music) His love of music led him to creating violins.

(bright piano and string music) He loved the deep resonating emotion that poured like a flood out of this simple wooden instrument.

(bright piano and string music) In his mid-60s, Felix decided to create his opus: four violins made from vastly different kinds of wood.

(bright piano and string music) He would push the boundaries of violin-making and create a set of masterpieces that would be unique in the music world.

(bright piano and string music) He started the project during World War II when hardwoods were in high demand by the war effort.

(bright piano and string music) Every single Jeep, tank, and plane the US produced had hardwood components.

Seats, handles, every rifle stock.

(bright piano and string music) Spruce and Maple became impossible to find.

(bright piano and string music) But Felix had an idea.

He went to different salvage yards and handpicked four antique hardwood doors.

(bright piano and string music) Each one was 60 to 100 years old.

He discovered that the hollow cell structure of these aged woods would produce instruments with incredible resonance.

(bright piano and string music) Their sounds were magical.

(bright piano and string music) While creating these violins, he often thought about the stories behind the doors.

Each one a weathered timeline of history.

(bright piano and string music) How many full and meaningful lives were lived behind these doors?

(bright piano and string music) He thought about how doors can be opened with love or slammed-shut with anger.

They can lock someone out or lock someone in.

(bright piano and string music) They can hide a mystery, or the truth.

(bright piano and string music) Or a door can be open wide for everyone to pass through.

(bright piano and string music) When he finally completed all four violins, he wanted to memorialize them by recording the story of each violin onto a reel-to-reel recorder, and then he played a tune with each one.

He couldn't read music, but he could make the instruments flow with emotion.

And to him, that's all that mattered.

(bright piano and string music) I've combined these two tapes so you can hear the stories and the music from Felix himself.

(bright piano and string music) - [Felix] Testing, testing.

Okay, I think this is recording, so let's proceed.

(Felix clears throat) This first violin I call the Songbird.

(lively violin music) I refer to the door it was made from as its mother.

(lively violin music) This mother door was crafted from bird's eye maple, a beautiful and decorative wood, and it came from the Lakeside Inn, a grand hotel, which was built in the 1880s.

It somewhat resembled the Hotel del Coronado.

The door itself was fancy, probably imported from Europe, and was part of a double-door set, most likely entering into the main ballroom.

(lively violin music) I could tell it was the right side door from the position of the doorknob hole being on the left side.

(lively violin music) I like that it was on the side that welcomed the guests in.

So many wonderful memories must have been created in that opulent room.

(lively violin music) (audience applauding) The formal dances where new love bloomed.

The 4th of July celebrations where the entire town would gather together and hear the military band play.

The wedding parties where two lives were joined as one, creating a joyful new beginning.

(lively violin music) This door saw the best of people: smiles, laughter, and a bonding comfort that only a real community can experience.

(lively violin music) (crickets chirping) This second violin, I call the Darkness.

(melancholic violin music) Its mother door was made from ebony wood, a very dark, almost black hardwood.

It was the main door to the original San Diego Jail in Old Town, built in the early 1850s.

This door was almost 100 years old when it arrived in my workshop, and the sadness it had seen was unmistakable.

(melancholic violin music) Inside the jail were metal cages that held the prisoners, but this door, this door was the main front door to the jail building.

(melancholic violin music) I feel a heavy responsibility when I play the darkness.

The truth is that most people who passed through this door were either hung or shot for their crimes.

That's what California justice looked like back in those days.

(melancholic violin music) Yankee Jim Robinson was held there before they dragged him out and hung him on the town gallows.

(melancholic violin music) He stole the rowboat, and it cost him his life.

(melancholic violin music)¦ This door saw untold amounts of desperation and regret.

(melancholic violin music) The weathered black wood I'm sure was a symbol of warning to the townsfolk: "Heed the law or suffer judgment."

(melancholic violin music) (crows cawing) This door has seen the darkest side of society, and I can feel it crying when I slide the bow.

(melancholic violin music) (gentle violin music) This next violin is made from American walnut, a sturdy solid wood.

(gentle violin music) I call it the Gambler.

(gentle violin music) This mother door came from a downtown hotel called the Grand Horton.

(gentle violin music) I picked it up from Cecil Salvage on Main Street.

He only had a few left.

(gentle violin music) Cecil believed that this door was probably the door to the beer parlor on the first floor because it was much more worn than all the other doors, as saloon doors are prone to be.

(lighthearted music) I couldn't help but think about the story of a certain gambler who was murdered in the hotel.

(gentle violin music) As the story goes, he was a cheater and a poor loser and he was chased up to his room by some angry gamblers trying to collect a debt.

(gentle violin music) When they kicked the door in, they found him cowering in the armoire.

(gentle violin music) That's where they shot him.

(gentle violin music) (gun firing) The man was able to stumble downstairs and enter the saloon through this door, where he collapsed and died.

(gentle violin music) The fear he must have felt lying there on the floor as a lifetime of bad decisions led to this moment.

Dozens of drunken men staring down at him, his life slipping away.

(gentle violin music) (gentle violin strokes) (indistinct murmuring) (bright violin music) This last violin is my favorite.

(bright violin music) It's made from a door crafted of Brazilian cherry wood, and I call her the Strawberry Blonde.

(bright violin music) The music she creates is unlike any other instrument I've made.

(bright violin music) This mother door came from a little chapel in Old Town called the Church of Immaculate Conception, and was built sometime in the 1850s.

It was a simple chapel made from Adobe.

(bright violin music) In the 1930s, the entrance doors were replaced with much bigger ornate doors.

But this door, (bright violin music) the amount of love this original door witnessed is immeasurable.

(bright violin music) This door was always open, and open to all.

(bright violin music) There was once a poor young shepherd boy who met a wealthy Danish girl in his church, and they fell in love against their family's wishes.

But their love was pure and powerful and destined to overcome all obstacles.

(bright violin music) (crowd cheering) Their love even inspired a famous book called "Ramona."

(bright violin music) It reminds me of my wife and I when we were young.

I was a poor farmer in Kansas and she came from a wealthy family.

(bright violin music) They treated me like the dirt I tilled.

(bright violin music) But Alice, my sweet Alice, (bright violin music) she gave up everything from me.

Her family, her family's money, all just to follow her heart with me here to San Diego.

(bright violin music) I can still remember her smile as we stepped off the train, not a penny to our name, but I felt like I was the richest man in the world.

(bright violin music) The love in her hazel eyes gave me the confidence to believe that anything was possible.

(bright violin music) I can still hear that love in this violin.

(bright violin music) (vibrant piano and string music) - [Narrator] My great-grandfather passed away when I was just a baby, so I never got to know him.

(vibrant piano and string music) The violins were handed down to my grandfather, Felix Jr., and he displayed them in his home with pride.

(vibrant piano and string music) Sadly, in the 1970s, some burglars broke in and stole the violins, all of them except the Strawberry Blonde.

(vibrant piano and string music) Fortunately, that violin was being loaned out for a symphony's holiday concerto.

(vibrant piano and string music) My great-grandfather knew that so much of life is lived in the spaces in between.

(vibrant piano and string music) In between the turning points and between hopes and dreams.

(vibrant piano and string music) Between the boundless joys and the tragedies that we all encounter on our journey.

(vibrant piano and string music) And all the doors we encounter on our journey are not just wood and varnish.

(vibrant piano and string music) They are a silent witness to the highs and lows of humanity.

(gentle piano music) They are a hardened physical symbol of the beauty of life we can all achieve if we just have the courage to open the door.

(vibrant piano and string music) (vibrant piano and string music continues) (bright guitar music) ♪ In a quiet room ♪ ♪ Where the sunlight creeps ♪ ♪ Crafting melodies that the heart keeps ♪ ♪ With every stroke ♪ ♪ The wood starts to sing ♪ ♪ Whispers of stories where memories cling ♪ ♪ Hands of an artist ♪ ♪ Skilled and so wise ♪ ♪ Transforming the silence into tender size ♪ ♪ Strings come alive ♪ ♪ With each bow's caress ♪ ♪ In a dance of notes, we find our success ♪ ♪ Play me a song ♪ ♪ Let it echo through time ♪ ♪ Leaving our dreams like a life in a rhyme ♪ ♪ Let the music flow through the air so bright ♪ ♪ Together we'll chase every star in the night ♪ (bright acoustic music)