Barbary Coast Restaurant - FotoPlayer
Portland, Oregon
Organ installation timeframe: 1963 -
 
Back to the Theatre Organ History: Restaurants page

A glimpse of the Barbary Coast fotoplayer from an album cover, c.1965
Note: hinged lids on the left and right cabinets
 
The Barbary Coast restaurant/bar may have been the first organ-equipped eatery in the Pacific Northwest. In 1963, owner Harvey Dick rescued a 1912 Fotoplayer from the Arcade Theatre in Hoquiam, Washington and installed it at the restaurant.
 
The only information available on this instrument is from the LP record jacket (a souvenir most likely sold at the Barbary Coast gift shop):
 
Sounds of the Barbary Coast Frank Elliott at the Fotoplayer Hoyt Recording Company, Portland OR Stereo LP.
 
This LP included the tracks: Twelfth Street Rag; Only a Bird in A Gilded Cage; Yes, We Have No Bananas; Thunder and Blazes; William Tell Overture; Nola; I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate; Havah Nagila; Casey Jones; Chinatown, My Chinatown; The Perils of Pauline; Bill Bailey; Hi-Lili Hi-Lo; Can Can; Beer Barrel Polka. Included are: Reed Organ; Pipe Organ; Player Piano; Orchestra Bells; Snare Drum; Bass Drum; Chinese Gong; Crash Cymbal; Hi-Hat Cymbal; Train Whistle; Fire Siren; Klaxon; Diesel Horn; Castanets; Wood Block; Horse's Hooves; Tambourine; Triangle; Whipcrack; Sleighbells; Cowbell; Doorbell; Bicycle Bell; Thunder Roll; Five Bulb Horns; Pistol Shot.