Not trying to beat my own drum, but, in the early 1980's I wrote an
article for the MBSI Journal on the subject of Photoplayers (called
Films, Follies and Fotoplayers).  It was reprinted in the MBSI book
"Marvels of Mechanical Music" and should be available for anyone wanting
more information about the subject.

I once owned a Style 20 American Photoplayer and used it a lot to
accompany Charlie Chaplin movies.  It takes a little time to master,
using the double roll frame and adding all the needed sound effects,
but it is a lot of fun.

A photoplayer is really a large orchestrion but without the mechanism
of playing everything together automatically.  However, I do remember
seeing a Style 25 American Photoplayer in Texas which had one of the
tracker frames retubed to play the Cremona "M" roll--then it did sound
like a large orchestrion.

Ron Bopp