"You wouldn't expect, for example, that it contains a 20-seat silent movie theater with a semi-complete organ, a mini museum dedicated to instruments of the silent cinema era, or an extensive basement workshop whirring with the sounds of power tools. And you certainly wouldn't expect the 74-year-old Rinaudo seated at a century-old instrument, yanking pull-cords and pushing pedals while the machine in front of him whirs and whistles to a rag-timey tune."
"A cousin to self-playing player pianos, photoplayers automatically play music read out of perforated piano rolls. During their slim heyday - from their invention around 1910 until about 1930, when the silent film era is thought to have ended - photoplayers delighted audiences (mostly in the U.S.) as accompaniments to silent movies, especially Buster Keaton-esque comedies. But then the talkies came, and photoplayers were rendered obsolete, slipping out of public awareness as quickly as they came on scene."
Joe Rinaudo of La Crescenta-Montrose owns a house containing a 20-seat silent movie theater, a semi-complete organ, a mini museum of silent-cinema instruments, and an extensive basement workshop. He is 74 and plays a century-old photoplayer, operating pull-cords and pedals to produce ragtime accompaniment. Photoplayers are American self-playing instruments that read perforated piano rolls and accompanied silent films from about 1910 to 1930, delighting audiences before talkies made them obsolete. Rinaudo has spent over fifty years locating, restoring and promoting photoplayers and related instruments. He plans a nonprofit to preserve and educate about these instruments and silent cinema.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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