photoplayer

plural photoplayers

1. datedA film actor.

   The photoplayer who asks for food, stretches his hand toward the spread table and looks more or less appealing, according to the circumstances in which he finds himself.

   1913, Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Technique of the Photoplay, New York, page 7

2. historicalbroadcastingAn orchestrion in the silent film era.

   Small theatres usually had a photoplayer or "pit organ" located beneath the screen in the orchestra pit.

   1967, Q. David Bowers, A Guidebook of Automatic Musical Instruments, volume 1, Vestal Press, page 7