#fotoplayer

The American Fotoplayer was a mechanical orchestra built in the 1910s to bring sound and emotion to silent films. It combined a player piano with organ pipes, drums, bells, and levers that produced effects like train whistles or thunder. One of the few working examples today belongs to Joe Rinaudo, a film historian and restorer who dedicated years to rebuilding it. Rinaudo performs live silent film shows using the Fotoplayer, hand-cranked projectors, and original 35mm reels. Through his work, he keeps alive the artistry and ingenuity of early cinema, reminding audiences how movies once came to life without recorded sound.

this is a fotoplayer if you were curious

A fotoplayer (or photoplayer) is a type of orchestrion specifically designed to accompany silent films.  When silent films were first publicly shown, they would be accompanied by a regular piano, organ, or even an orchestra.  Starting in 1910, venues that couldn’t employ their own gifted musicians to accompany the films could use a fotoplayer, which ran on pre-printed music rolls.  The person “playing” the fotoplayer could load a new roll even when one was playing, to change the mood of the music for the next scene, and could add sound effects, like gun shots, birds chirping, a phone ringing, and train whistles, which were built into the fotoplayer.

Joe Rinaudo explains how a paper roll for an American Fotoplayer differs from a roll for a player piano, and plays the “Enter the Gladiators” circus march

Joe Rinaudo at the American Fotoplayer music at 2:53