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In the first decade
of the twentieth century the music at a small cinema, the Palace
Theatre, Tamworth, Staffordshire, in England's Potteries district,
was provided by a trio and a solo pianist. In early 1908, the
proprietor had a disagreement with his trio, and decided to
replace it by some kind of organ. He contacted the John Compton
Organ Company, then located at Nottingham, and ordered an
instrument for immediate delivery. Compton provided a Harper
electric player-piano, which was electrically connected to six
ranks of organ pipes and drums. Thus was born the world's first
photoplayer. Jimmy Taylor, of Compton, played it great success. [A.W.
Owen, "The Evolution of the Theatre Organ", Theatre
Organ Review, Vol. V, No. 17, March, 1951, Leeds, England, p.p.
8-9].
Strangely, only two
or three photoplayer-type instruments were ever used in England,
but in America they rapidly became very popular with owners of
small theatres.
More photoplayers
were built than any other form of theatre organ, and it has been
estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 of these instruments were
constructed between 1910 and 1928. [David Q. Bowers,
"Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments", Vestal
Press, Vestal, New York, 1972, p. 352]
The photoplayer was
suitable only for use in providing accompaniments to silent films,
so its demise was complete and immediate once sound films became
established. In the history of musical instruments there can have
been few instruments which experienced such a dramatic upsurge and
decline, for of the possible total of 10,000 photoplayers in use
in the 1920s probably less than a hundred exist today. Some 99% of
the photoplayers built were thrown out and destroyed in the 1930s
and 1940s.
Photoplayers were
installed in the orchestra pits of theatres. Unlike unit theatre
organs, all the pipe work and effects were in the pit. There were
no organ chambers as such. The "classic" photoplayer
comprised an electric player-piano with a double roll-player
mechanism, and on each side of the piano was a large case housing
pipes and effects. Blower units were often separate. Smaller
organs had only a case on one side of the piano, and the very
smallest had their few pipes actually housed within the piano
itself. Photoplayers could contain from one to eight ranks of
pipes.
Most of Australia's
photoplayers had only one manual, of full piano compass (85 or 88
notes), of which 61 notes could play the organ stops. Some of the
larger instruments had two manuals, the lower being of full piano
compass, the upper having 61 notes. A few, such as the Seeburg
instrument at the Victory, Kogarah, NSW, had pedal boards as well.
The Wurlitzer photoplayer at the Grand Theatre, Adelaide, was
fitted with a pedal board when it was enlarged by Dodd of Adelaide
in 1918. [Dodd & Co., Adelaide, brochure, 1918]
The instruments may
have had a short life, but it was a busy one, as in many cases
they would be in operation all day, every day. In some theatres
they were played solo only for the less important shows, but they
would be used also at the more prestigious shows to augment the
orchestra.
The two main
suppliers of photoplayers to Australian theatres were the American
Photoplayer Company, a subsidiary of the Robert Morton organ
company, builders of the "Fotoplayer" (imported by the
Pianola Company), and Wurlitzer, whose photoplayers were known as
"Duplex Orchestras". Other American builders whose
photoplayers were installed in Australia were Seeburg and the
Marquette Piano Company (whose instruments were branded "Cremona").
E.F. Wilks & Co. Ltd. of Sydney imported the Gulbransen
"Duo-Concerto Pipe Organ Orchestra Player-Piano
Combined".
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