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Photoplayer, Fotoplayer & American Photo Player
By Robbie Rhodes

The generic name today is "photoplayer", and many fans limit the term
to a player piano with one or more side chests that contain pipes and
sound effects devices.  This description is given in "Encyclopedia of
Automatic Musical Instruments", by Q. David Bowers, page 352:

  What is a photoplayer?  Basically, a photoplayer is an orchestrion
  or automatic orchestra specifically designed for theatre use to
  accompany and to provide sound effects for silent movies.  To this
  end, photoplayers have a special format: their profile is usually
  wide and low -- for use in the orchestra pit just below the movie
  screen.  Unlike a coin-operated orchestrion, the photoplayer is
  equipped with pedals, buttons, and other controls to enable the
  operator to supplement the automatic operation by adding extra
  effects as desired. ... Best sellers were the Reproduco (made by
  Operators Piano Company), American Photo Player Company instruments,
  and those made by Seeburg and Wurlitzer. ... The photoplayer business
  was dead by 1930.

Because Wurlitzer used Photoplayer as a brand name, the American
Photo Player Company (notice two words) used Fotoplayer(tm) as the
brand name of their main product, and Fotopiano(tm) for a smaller
instrument.  Seeburg also used "Photoplayer" in the context of
a brand name or product, as in their music rolls marked "Special
for Photoplayer."

Art Reblitz discusses photoplayers versus orchestrions at
http://www.mmdigest.com/archives/Digests/200312/2003.12.22.03.html 

Robbie Rhodes, MMD


(Message sent Sun 18 Apr 2010, 01:33:00 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

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