Joe Rinaudo has spent decades restoring photoplayers, rare instruments that once accompanied silent films.

He is a legendary figure among restorers and hopes to preserve the photoplayers’ legacy with a new nonprofit group.

If you walked past Joe Rinaudo’s house in La Crescenta-Montrose, you probably wouldn’t think anything extraordinary of it. You wouldn’t expect, for example, that it contains a 20-seat silent movie theater with a semi-complete organ, a mini museum dedicated to instruments of the silent cinema era, or an extensive basement workshop whirring with the sounds of power tools. And you certainly wouldn’t expect the 74-year-old Rinaudo seated at a century-old instrument, yanking pull-cords and pushing pedals while the machine in front of him whirs and whistles to a rag-timey tu

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