> I like old movies and watch a lot and I have _never_ seen
> a player piano in an old Western movie.  Why do people always
> say this?  What started this myth?

Because they _were_ in old Westerns.  I remember one old TV show
where the sheriff shot a nickelodeon in a bar because it was being
a noise nuisance.  The ever-so-proper womenfolk in the small town
of Bumluck said it hurt their delicate ears, so the obliging sheriff
shot it dead, and it ran down like a windup record player running
out of spring power.

Not realistic at all acoustically, but still in a Western, and of
course a nickelodeon was always present in the very popular series
"The Wild Wild West".  I don't seem to remember it ever being played
but it was there as a prop.

Tim L'Amoureux