This silent-film-era instrument is disappearing. Not on Joe’s watch

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From the outside, Joe Rinaudo’s home in La Crescenta-Montrose looks like any other house. But inside, it’s quite remarkable. You’d be surprised to find a 20-seat silent movie theater complete with an almost-finished organ, a small museum filled with instruments from the silent film era, and a fully-equipped workshop. And you definitely wouldn’t expect to see the 74-year-old Rinaudo playing a hundred-year-old instrument, bringing a lively ragtime tune to life with its whistles and whirs.

Rinaudo is deeply passionate about the photoplayer, a unique American instrument that was essential for watching silent movies in the early 1900s but is now largely unknown.

Photoplayers were similar to player pianos, using perforated rolls to automatically play music. They were popular in the U.S. from around 1910 to 1930, providing live musical accompaniment for silent films, particularly comedies. However, the arrival of “talkies” quickly made them obsolete. For over fifty years, Rinaudo has passionately collected, restored, and promoted these instruments and their connection to silent cinema. Now, he’s working to establish a nonprofit organization to ensure photoplayers and the history of silent film are preserved and appreciated for generations to come.

Rinaudo is a well-known figure among photoplayer enthusiasts – almost a legendary one. Nate Otto, a restorer of player pianos and photoplayers, explains, “When people think of photoplayers, they think of him.” Rinaudo’s popularity has grown thanks to videos of his playing online, especially a 2006 clip from “California’s Gold With Huell Howser” which has received over 2.6 million views. He’s also a key contact for the small group of people who currently restore and play these instruments. According to Otto, “He knows pretty much all the American photoplayers being restored, because everyone reaches out to him at some point.”

Rinaudo considers preserving these unique instruments and sharing them with future generations to be her life’s work. However, it’s a challenge because so few photoplayers remain and most people never get to experience them. The American Photo Player Co., a pioneering manufacturer, created around 4,500 photoplayers between 1911 and 1926. Today, only about 50 are known to exist globally, and even fewer – roughly a dozen – are still working. Only one photoplayer, restored by Rinaudo and given to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is publicly accessible. The remaining instruments are largely held in private collections, with a small number being played and maintained by enthusiasts like Rinaudo.

Rinaudo has been involved with around six of the few remaining photoplayers, either by owning them or helping to bring them back to working order. He once owned four of these machines simultaneously.

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Born in Santa Monica in 1951, Rinaudo spent his childhood watching silent films on his family’s black-and-white TV. He grew up with a player piano in his home and quickly learned how to fix it when needed. As a teenager, he wondered if he could synchronize the piano with the movies, but it wasn’t practical at the time. Player pianos could only play one song at a time, creating awkward pauses while the music roll rewound. Rinaudo initially tried to build a system for switching between two rolls, but then an older expert suggested he look into “photoplayers.” Rinaudo had never heard of them and was curious to learn more.

For several years, Rinaudo searched for a photoplayer, contacting piano sellers, theater owners, and antique shops. When he was 19, he heard a promising rumor: the Hoyt Hotel in Portland, Oregon, supposedly had one, along with someone who knew how to play it. Rinaudo convinced a friend to drive him there in a Volkswagen van. He recalls the hotel being magnificent, with a ballroom designed like an old-fashioned bar complete with gas lighting, and, most importantly, the photoplayer itself.

“The sound quality was incredible,” Rinaudo explained. “The crowd was going wild – singing, shouting, and applauding. It was an amazing experience, and I knew I had to get one for myself.”

A year after the Hoyt closed, the same photoplayer was put up for auction. Rinaudo returned, hoping to buy it, but couldn’t compete with the winning bid of $8,600 – a significant amount for a twenty-year-old at the time. The following year, he heard about another photoplayer for sale, this one priced at $5,000. He went to check it out, but unfortunately, it was still beyond his budget.

Rinaudo kept getting lucky. A year after missing out on a photoplayer, the seller unexpectedly offered it to him for only $3,500. He quickly bought it and spent the next two years carefully restoring it in his parents’ living room. While they were initially a bit concerned about the time he was spending and the mess it created, they eventually understood his passion. To learn the restoration process, he asked a mechanic friend to teach him how to repair the instrument’s complex parts – valves, gears, pipes, and bellows. Later, Rinaudo used these skills to work as an automechanic, but he eventually started his own successful lighting business, which he still runs today.

Rinaudo practiced his photoplayer every day as soon as he got it working. He believes he’s a uniquely skilled player, stating, “I don’t know of any other players that can perform like I do.” Bruce Newman, an Oregon-based restorer of instruments like the photoplayer, saw Rinaudo perform around 25 years ago and describes the experience as powerfully immersive. “The whole room vibrates,” Newman says, “You feel it deep inside, and it’s exhilarating.”

For years, Rinaudo tirelessly searched for photoplayers, always asking around for any information. He eventually bought a photoplayer from the Hoyt Hotel, which ended up in Arizona. His search led him on many adventures, including a trip to a Seattle warehouse where the price was too high, losing out on an auction in Las Vegas, and driving to Fresno only to find the theater with the rumored photoplayer had been demolished. He also checked antique shops in Bakersfield based on a tip and thoroughly searched a historic hotel in San Diego, but neither attempt yielded a find.

Rinaudo recalls someone telling him about a hidden ‘photoplayer’ – an early type of movie projector – supposedly buried inside Los Angeles’ Regent Theater. In 1969, he found the theater owner and was led inside the dilapidated building. The owner used a sledgehammer to break through the stage floor, but the projector wasn’t there. Rinaudo says this was just one of many fruitless searches, explaining that tracking down these instruments often felt like a treasure hunt or an archaeological excavation.

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Over time, Rinaudo connected with a network of fellow restorers who helped each other by sharing information, skills, and necessary parts. He became well-known in the field – Newman considers him a leading expert, often calling on him for help with identifying instruments. When YouTube emerged, Rinaudo began posting videos of his work, which introduced many photoplayer enthusiasts – including Newman and Otto – to these unique instruments. Today, a dedicated following of a few thousand people keeps up with his restorations and performances through Facebook or his Silent Cinema Society blog and newsletter.

Even though photoplayers have their fans, it’s uncertain if they’ll continue to exist in the years ahead. Most of the people who restore these instruments are around the same age as Rinaudo. Bruce Newman is relatively young at 61, and Otto, at 36, is considered the next generation. Rinaudo believes photoplayers should be played and appreciated, and his videos have certainly increased global interest in them. However, there aren’t enough new restorers, which threatens the ability to keep these instruments playable in the future.

Rinaudo is taking the lead in preserving silent films and the unique instruments used with them, like the photoplayer. He’s starting a nonprofit called Silent Cinema Art & Technology with some friends to not only save these films but also teach others about them. The goal is to create a lasting organization that can raise money for future film restorations. Rinaudo plans to host showings and events in his home theater and museum – a space dedicated to his love of silent film – for donors and offer educational programs for kids. Ultimately, he wants the nonprofit to continue preserving and showcasing these films and the theater itself long after he’s no longer able to.

Rinaudo describes his passion for preserving the history of silent cinema and sharing it with others as a true calling. He explains that his father instilled in him a belief in leaving the world a better place, and he feels he’s discovered how to do just that. He believes he’s found his purpose.

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2025-11-03 14:33