A Not So Silent Night of Player Pianos

 Anoka, MN

Beige is the new Beige!

A Not-So-Silent Movie in Anoka

Tonight we enjoyed another experience that Donna found by reading our local (statewide) newspaper.  In September, Donna was reading The Star Tribune and ran into this article about a guy in Anoka who restores Player Pianos and also shows silent movies in his garage while a "Photoplayer", or what is otherwise known as an automatic mechanical orchestra, played music to match the scenes.  

Thankfully the snow we got just over a week ago was totally clear so we could make the 30 or so minute drive to Anoka.  We don't have snow or even all weather tires so we just avoid driving in snow or ice conditions.  

We arrived at a house and parked on the street and then followed the signs to the garage in the back.

We were greeted by Nate, by a young man in a bow tie.  We were the first to arrive so Nate showed us around his shop (garage) and talked to us about how we learned about the presentation tonight.  Donna mentioned the newspaper article and he realized the article had gone live when all of his reserve able spots filled up for the rest of the year in about a day.  A few minutes later a younger woman joined us.  We learned that she had attended a performance before and then 2 other older folks joined in and they had heard about the performance in the newspaper.  

Donations were gladly accepted and he is always trying to improve his presentation so there is a survey at the end.

This is the Photoplayer.  It's a player piano with an organ in the back, as well as percussion instruments which included a drum and a symbol controlled by the 2 pull cords on the left.  It has 2 reels for the music rolls so one can be queued up while the other plays so the music never stops.

This is a Coinola piano.  It plays 1 of 10 songs on a reel for a Nickle.  The music reel can play the piano as well as play the xylophone that you can kind of see through the stained glass window.

Here is a closeup of the Xylophone.  

He also collects old storage furniture that he is using to update his shop storage.

These turned out to be the music rolls he picked for the movies.  More about that in a bit.

These are the bellows that open and close in reaction to the player piano music roll.

This is Nate loading a Music Roll into this non-electric player piano.

The piano plays itself when you pump the foot pedals.  The faster you pump, the louder and faster it gets.

Dona gave it a shot and it sounded great!

Here is a shot of her working the foot pedals.

The scroll scrolls and the music plays.  That metal tracker bar, or pneumatic motor, is a vacuum and as the holes pass over they allow air to enter and this makes the piano play.

After a tour of the shop and a few demonstrations it was time for the movies to start.  We all grabbed our own folding chairs and set up for the show.

I was going to ask if this was a heater but he explained it was air for the Photoplayer before I could ask.

Nate talked about the 2 movies we were going to see and explained that movie houses chose the music they would play with the films depending on what they had available.  Songs would be named with fairly generic names like "fight scene" or "love song" and they would be played according to what was going on in the movie.  He also explained that these Photoplayers were a more cost effective solution for movie theaters that often hired live players or even orchestras to play during movies.

Nate changed reels while he watched the movie as well as used the pull strings to time the symbols to clash for things like breaking glass and car accidents and the drum to bang for things like explosions.  He even banged keys during key moments like falls or a piano breaking in the movie.

The two movies we watched were The Insect's Christmas (1912) and Laurel and Hardy's Big Business (1929).

After the performance Donna filled out a survey, we donated some money and headed home.  We would absolutely go back and will keep an eye on the list of performances on his website.

Pinball Tournament

Early in the day I played in a pinball tournament at 56 Brewing.  I was doing really well when I had to leave. I still ended up placing tied for 12th out of 44 even after having to abandon the tournament still having 2 of 3 strikes left.  It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to playing more tournaments in 2025 with an eye towards seeing how high I can place in the Minnesota State standings.

56 Brewing was having a sort of winter celebration.  They had a jacuzzi that quite a few people were using later in the day.

There was a DJ and fire pits going too.

They were also caramelizing dark beer with hot pokers if you wanted.

Today was also the launch of their Pintometer.  You bought a mug and the beers were priced according to the temperature.  It was very warm today so beers were close to normal price but if we have a cold day before the promotion ends, you can get a really cheap beer.

Well that's it for today.  If you missed, "A Free Day of Adventure", check it out.  We took advantage of some free activities here in Minneapolis.