Tune in live and turn up the sound as Joe Rinaudo performs a
LIVE FACEBOOK STREAM
CORONAVIRUS QUARANTINE CONCERT
on his Style 20 American Fotoplayer
SUNDAY MARCH 22, 2020
6:00 PM PDT
Go to:
Facebook.com/FotoplayerJoe
If you’re bored at home during the global pandemic, Joe invites you into his home to entertain you. Right in the middle of his living room stands his Model 20 American Fotoplayer (customized with extra bells and whistles—and horns and glockenspiel and earthquake and sirens and on and on) which he restored a few years out of high school. You can hear this thing for blocks! The neighbors actually enjoy the sound, as many of Joe’s You Tube followers do, too. If you’ve never seen or heard a Fotoplayer, you are in for a treat.
Here, Joe is demonstrating the Fotoplayer on an episode of Huell Howser’s California Gold, when Mr. Howser interviewed Joe in his very same living room in 2006.
What is a Fotoplayer?
The fotoplayer (“foto” from photoplay and “player” from player piano) is a wonderful contraption that was built to provide music and sound effects for silent movies. These machines appeared around 1912 and were used in medium sized theaters. Fotoplayers were in expensive to operate because you didn’t have to be a musician to play them as they were also playable by way of player piano rolls.
The fotoplayer used a fascinating combination of piano, organ pipes, drums, and various sound effects designed to narrate the action of any silent film.
Pedals, levers, switches, buttons, and pull cords were all used to turn on the xylophone, beat a drum, ring a bell, create the sound of thunder, or chirp like a bird.
When sound films came into being in the late 1920’s, the fotoplayer became passé. Of the thousands of American fotoplayers made during their heyday, sadly less than 50 survive, and of those only 12 are known to be in playing condition. One of those 12 is in Joe’s living room.
This machine was originally built in 1926 in Van Nuys Calif. and shipped to a theater in Saskatchewan Canada. It was meticulously restored by Joe Rinaudo in 1976…after being shipped back to California.
Details and Photos
Visit this page to learn more about the Fotoplayer and see close-up photos, right here on SilentCinemaSociety.org
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