By Joe Rinaudo

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7   CHAPTER 8

Chapter 9

The next day I drove over to Dave’s house to tell him all about my experience with Mr. Sennett and to show him the lamp that Sennett made for my Fotoplayer.

Dave told me that my next step is to find all the other parts that are needed to finish the lamp. We looked up the company that Mr. Sennett had told me about. It was Crystal Lamp Parts in Los Angeles. I called them up and asked how I could purchase lamp parts from them and get a catalog. I was told that I had to bring in to them my resale permit and business information before I could become a customer. I asked Dave how does one get a resale permit. Dave said “Just go to your local State Board of Equalization office and ask for one!” I told Dave that seemed too simple and that there had to be more to it. Dave said “It’s simpler than you think so Just DO it!”

A couple of days later, on July 14, 1976, I drove down to the State Board office and requested a resale permit. When the nice lady at the front desk asked me what kind of business I had, I didn’t really know what to say. So, I just blurted out, “Piano lamp Manufacture.” I thought that if I could get a permit and then get the parts for my Fotoplayer lamp I could just throw the permit away and that would be that. What use would I have to make any more lamps for American Fotoplayers?  The nice lady returned with a form for me to fill out. When I finished that she asked for a $10.00 fee and handed me the permit! That seemed too easy!

I went down to Crystal Lamp Parts and got registered as a customer and received a catalog. I then went over to Dave’s to show him my new permit and catalog. We both looked through the catalog and were amazed by all of the cool lamp parts that were available.

I was always fascinated by the Victorian gas and electric lamps that I had seen in old movies. These were lighting fixtures (manufactured around 1890 – 1915) that used real gas light and the new-fangled electricity on the same fixture! There was one in particular that I had always liked and wanted to own but was never able to find. It was a gas-electric wall sconce in a Laurel and Hardy film called “Going Bye Bye”. It was really cool because it had two bent arms that formed a perfect circle. One arm that was half of the circle had a gas fitting which aimed up at the ceiling and the other half of the circle aimed down toward the floor with an electric socket. Both had beautiful Victorian matching glass shades attached. The larger being the gas and the smaller one the electric. I purchased some 3/8” brass tubing from the parts supplier and tried to bend it over an old fan belt pulley. After much struggling, I had two arms that made a perfect circle! Since both arms were attached to a round ball fitting called an armback, I had no way of attaching them. At this time, I was not well versed in cold or silver soldering. This would be the easy way to attach them. So, I tried threading them but soon realized that if I tried to screw both into the armback at the same time the arms that formed a circle would hit each other preventing them to be threaded into the armback. When I showed my problem to Dave he just said: “Why don’t you thread one arm with right hand and the other with left hand threads?” Why does Dave always make the solution to a problem so easy?

I purchased a left-hand tap and die for the 3/8” tubing. Dave showed me how to thread and tap one side of the armback left while the other was right. We then screwed both arms into the armback at the same time and viola, the circle arm was complete! Dave showed me how to tweak the attached arms to a perfect circle and solder them to the armback so they can’t move.  This was a great new experience for me and a hell of a lot of fun! I remembered Mr. Sennett’s words about the lamp manufacturing business being a good one to get into.

A few weeks earlier on July Fourth 1976, on the bicentennial of the United States a very wonderful thing happened (besides the bicentennial). The piano and some of the sound effects as well as the bass organ to the Fotoplayer played for the first time! The treble organ portion of the Fotoplayer was almost in playing condition. After Dave showed me how to voice and tune the bass wooden organ pipes, I was ready to tackle the restoration of the treble wooden flute and metal violin pipes. I was really anxious to hear the treble organ speak after about 40 years of being silent but there was still a lingering problem. One of the small wooden pipes was missing and several of the violin (metal) pipes were badly bent and broken. Dave said that he had a friend who might be able to help me.  This friend was Mr. Pete Sieker of Abbott & Sieker organ builders. Dave said that we should go pay Pete a visit. Dave said that Pete was a very busy man but he might be willing to help reproduce the missing pipe from my Fotoplayer. So, Dave took me to meet Mr. Sieker at his organ building shop and what a place this was! It was like an old German work shop with organ pipes and parts all over with many unique organ building tools. The shop was very clean and orderly with tools and equipment all neatly organized (pun intended). Pete was a very friendly and humble man. He looked the part of an old-world German craftsman. He was kind of heavy set and wore suspenders and had a heavy German accent. During our visit Dave asked Pete if he could help me by manufacturing the small missing wooden pipe. Pete said that if we brought him the pipe on either side of the missing one and let him know what pressure the organ is voiced for, he would see what he could do.  In the middle of Pete’s shop stood a beautiful pipe organ that he was building from scratch. This was a beautifully made pipe organ. What a magnificent craftsman Pete was!

So, I gave Dave the two companion pipes on either side of the missing one so Pete could make the copy. About two weeks later Dave brought me a perfect reproduction of the missing pipe!  After we finished it with orange shellack and leathered the stopper it sounded and looked just like the others. I asked Dave how much did Pete want for the fantastic work he did on reproducing my missing pipe. I think Dave said something like “How about twenty dollars!”  I then thought if we could get Pete to restore all of the bent and broken metal violin pipes they would be just like new. I asked Dave if he could talk to Pete about this. So, Dave took all of my violin pipes to see if Pete would be willing to take on this project.  

About two weeks later Dave returned with a box of my like new violin pipes! They were all cleaned, revoiced and all of the broken miters were perfectly repaired! I thought that the restoration of these 38 pipes would cost a lot but, much to my surprise, Dave said that Pete wanted only fifty dollars. By August of 1976 the treble organ of the Fotoplayer roared to life. So for the first time in forty-six years she was singing again! My Fotoplayer was one of the last ones built and was used in a theater from 1926 (the year that the American Photoplayer Co. went bankrupt) to 1930. When the theater converted to sound and installed a large screen, the Fotoplayer was sealed up under an expanded stage. Like King TUT’s tomb, only to be discovered many years later when the theater was being demolished in 1973.

Now with the Fotoplayer playing, my attention turned to finishing the lamp over the piano console. I had purchased all of the parts that were needed to make the lamp complete. There was a matter of polishing and finishing the lamp. I asked Dave how this might be done. Dave reminded me of the brass piano roll rewind striker plate that he had given me several years ago when we first met at Carty Piano. He asked if I remembered that he polished and lacquered it for me. When I said yes, he told me that he would like to show me how to polish my Fotoplayer console lamp. We went over to an electric motor mounted on a very heavy metal base. The motor had two arbors or arms. One on each side that had round buffing wheels attached. He started this thing up and I had to jump back as it kind of growled and shuddered to life with a great whirring sound! Dave showed me how to polish only on the bottom half of the wheel so the part being polished does not get grabbed by the wheel and thrown back at me or flung into the twilight zone! (This happened a few times as I was attempting to learn the craft).  One wheel was for teardown and the other was to finely polish the parts after the teardown. In no time at all we had polished and lacquered all of the Fotoplayer lamp parts.

I started thinking about my Laurel & Hardy gas-electric wall sconce as the next lamp project. I started looking for other lamp suppliers that might have different parts or more unusual Victorian type parts. I ended up with several catalogs that had some great stuff! This showed me that I could build almost any kind of Victorian lamp that I might want to.

I thought, I now need a shop like Dave to experiment with any antique lighting project that I might want to do. So, my father and I built a small eight by twelve foot shop in the back yard of my parent’s house. This consisted of 2X4 framing covered with cheap press board and a flat roof. There was a work bench against one twelve foot wall and shelving on the other. Because of the limited space, I needed a way to store tools that didn’t take up much room. A good friend of mine, Dave Feldman, had just the answer for this problem. Above the bench he helped me install pegboard so all of the tools could be stored neatly and be found at a glance.

Dave Hartman helped me find buffing supplies and an old buffing machine. I purchased a belt grinder and a drill press. I went to garage sales and found some great tools. This made me very proud and excited to have a shop similar to Dave’s. although not as grand and complete as Dave’s shop it was still a good start.

At this time, I was still working in the kitchen at Glendale Memorial Hospital. I had made friends with Dick Van Hoosebecause he had trained me when I first started working there. We both attended the same high school. Dick was always fascinated by my Model A Ford. Soon he purchased one and we were touring buddies. Driving our Model A Fords through Griffith Park on our lunch breaks. Dick got a job at a British car repair shop but we still kept in touch.

One day Dick came over to hear the Fotoplayer which he really loved. He told me that he purchased the repair shop where he was working and offered me a job for considerably more money as a British car mechanic! I told him that I didn’t know anything about British cars and the only experience that I have ever had was keeping my Model A running. Dick told me that the way I showed him how to work on his Model A and how I had kept mine in such good running condition proved to him that I would make a good mechanic. This was only a small part of his decision to hire me. He told me that the real reason he wanted to hire me was, “Anyone who could learn to rebuild an American Fotoplayer and keep it playing in top shape would make a greatmechanic!”

I took the Job. (Thank you, Dave!)

To be continued…

Do You Have
— EXPERTISE in NON-PROFITS? —

Joe Rinaudo, founder of Silent Cinema Society, is currently forming a non-profit which he calls SCAT —Silent Cinema Art and Technology — to fund the restoration and preservation of the actual machines and media of the silent era.

Advice and suggestions in the area of non-profits are most welcome. Contact Joe Rinaudo here.

Through Silent Cinema Society, which is comprised of you, the fans and supporters of silent cinema, Joe will continue to enlighten and entertain with The Newsreel newsletter; this Silent Cinema Society website; and hopefully soon, live shows where audiences are once again able to wear big hats that block the screen. SCAT, the non-profit, will also support Silent Cinema Society so that information and entertainment will continue to be presented to you, silent cinema fans. Lady, will you please take off that big hat!