On Photoplayers and bakeries in West Berkeley

Joe Rinaudo plays his Fotoplayer, manufactured in 1926 at the Van Nuys plant.

The contraption you see in the video above was developed and first manufactured in Berkeley by the American Photo Play Company, which opened its factory on the corner of Addison and Bonar Streets in 1912. It remained at this location until 1925.

But photoplayers (so named because they served to accmpany silent films) were only one type of product manufactured on the block that now makes Strawberry Creek Park. To learn about the history of this block, read Bread and Music Were Staples of West Berkeley Block.