April. 1931
A
u t o m a t ic
A
13
ge
dicate that machines are ready and waiting now. Cigarette venders
were also on display but they have never made the headway that
candy bar venders have on account of price cutting and legal re
straints on the sale of cigarettes. On looking over the firms ex
hibiting one would conclude that the rank and file of the manufac
turers is still made up of small and medium sized enterprises.
There was a tendency at this show for those firms that have been
in the limelight in the automatic field to come in and lend their pres
tige and influence to making the show a success. All these' things
were observed by the visitor and the general effect was to create
a favorable impression of the trade. It would be difficult to say
which exhibits received the most attention, but among the many
attractive ones the following may be mentioned. The Photette ma
chine shown by the National Automatic Machines of St. Paul at
tracted many visitors; the Atlas cabinet baseball machine seemed
to be kept in constant play; the ice cream vending machine from
Kansas City was unusual in the vending machine line; the auto
matic grocery shown by National Sales Machines Co. of St. Louis
presented an elaborate picture of what automatic selling is like;
the prize winning booth of the Automatic Canteen Company com
manded attention for its beauty; and the Radio and Gent electric
target rifle seemed convenient for visitors to try their marksman
ship. This remarkable showing of automatic machines bespeaks a
year of great progress for the trade. These annual exhibitions
come only once a year, but it is the privilege of A u t o m a t i c A g e to
present in its advertising and reading pages each month the most
complete panorama of coin machines now extant. Take this trip
through the Cleveland exhibit and then watch every page of this
magazine through the year to keep well posted on the trade.
BOOTH NO. 1— Alamo Novelty Co., San
(And here we could never
catch the attendant at leisure long enough
to ask his name; he sure was busy). The
“ Ten Ball” po*i table and the Wik-ball (A
the Capitol Manufacturing Co. were to be
seen in this booth. Visitors starting down
the long lane of exhibits were introduced to
the coin machine business by seeing these
attractive tables. Both these machines have
been advertised in A u t o m a t i c Age and de
tails are fairly well known. The displays
of table games of this kind at the 1931 con
vention indicate that much interest is being
shown in these miniature table games. Wik-
Ball introduces an element of the game of
croquet into the table game field.
BOOTH NO. 2-3— Amusement Machine
Corporation, Ltd., Los Angeles, Calif., rep
Antonio, Texas.
© International Arcade Museum
resented by J. W. Boak and J. M. Boak.
The All-American cabinet baseball game
was to be seen here. This machine was first
presented to the trade at the 1930 conven
tion and now it comes back again with many
refinements made during a year of exacting
tests under operating conditions. Observ
ers looked on with wonder to know how a
mechanism could (be constructed that would
reproduce so many features of a real base
ball game. Cabinet constructions of these
games make them suitable for the most elite
of locations. It has a five cent coin slot.
BOOTHS 4-5— Coinomatic Corporation,
Buffalo, N. Y., represented by Harry Clavir,
president, and R. B. Jester. The Radio
Rifle was all set up for target practice here.
Visitors could try out their markmanship
and actually feel the thrill of using the rifle.
http://www.arcade-museum.com/