After seeing a video on YouTube from a Facebook friend, I started doing some research into something called a Photoplayer. Apparently this is a one man orchestra that is a relic of the silent film era. This lead to looking at examples of this on YouTube, but the one that was the best was the one I saw on Facebook:
Looks like quite a lot of work, and also looks like a fun instrument to play. Apparently the instrument can be played live as well, without the use of a piano roll.
I can’t be the only person that spent the entire video laughing my ass off at the sounds coming out of that contraption.
When I was a kid there was one of these at a pizza place in town. They had all kinds of themed parties and Halloween was always a blast. Played live most of the time.