Automatic Age

Issue: 1933 November

A U T O M A T IC A GE
18
successful Sportland. Giving the players
a “break” but not making the scores too
difficult will turn each player into a booster
for the Sportland. Good advertising is
necessary in every business and the best
advertising for a Sportland is to treat your
patrons in such a manner that those pa­
trons will recommend the Sportland to
their friends and neighbors.
E D IT O R ’ S N O T E : A n y re ader of th is m a g a ­
zine w h o w ishes to o b ta in fu rth e r in fo rm a tio n
how to s ta rt a S p o rtla nd is in v ite d to w rite
to D a v e R o b b ins, w ho w ill be pleased to f u r ­
n ish such in fo rm a tio n w ith o u t a n y o b lig atio n.
M r. R o b b in s is a t the present tim e fin a n cially
interested in several h ig h ly successful S p o rt­
lan d s a n d h is advice w ill be based upo n his
o w n p ra c tic a l experience.
A. B. G. Announces
“Jockey Club”
“Jockey Club” is the name of the newest
release of the A. B. C. Coin Machine Com­
pany of Chicago, announced in this issue.
It is a counter size game employing a new
idea in reel type machines, namely, the use
of racing horses. It is called a racing
game on wheels. This firm, which is man­
aged by one of the old heads in amusement
machine circles, combines the fascination
of racing with that of spinning reels. The
cabinet is of solid oak and has a highly
polished aluminum front. It plays four
coins and shows last coin played.
Texas Operators Get
Second Injunction
Austin, Nov. 4. — State Comptroller
George H. Sheppard and other state tax
and enforcement officers Friday were tem­
porarily restrained from enforcing provi­
sions of a state law requiring payments of
an occupation tax on coin operated ma­
chines in an order handed down by Judge
J. D. Moore in district court here.
The suit attacking validity of the law
was filed by H. I. Drollinger of Harris
County, Joe Day of Austin, and the Electro­
Ball Co., for themselves, and for the Coin­
Operated Vending and Amusement Machine
Association of Texas. The suit also was
filed in behalf of managers, exhibitors and
owners of every coin operated machine of
any type in Texas.
© International Arcade Museum
November, 1933
Marshall Seeburg
Hurt in Grash
Mr. N. Marshall Seeburg, son of
Mr. J. P. Seeburg, founder of the J.
P. Seeburg Corporation, who was in­
jured Friday, November 10th, in an
automobile accident, was resting more
comfortably at the latest report. It
was learned that the injuries were
not as serious as first reported. The
skull was not found to be fractured
as first reports indicated, and there
were no internal injuries. Mr. See­
burg was badly cut about the face and
his hip was fractured. He is recov­
ering at the Franklin Boulevard Hos­
pital, Chicago.
New Coin Devices at
N. A. A. P. Exposition
A number of new coin operated amuse­
ment devices were exhibited this year at
the National Association of A m u s e m e n t
Park convention held the first part of No­
vember at the Palmer House, Chicago.
Among the more outstanding ones were
the “Drop Shot” shown by J. E. Van Tuyl,
inventor; a coin operated bowling alley,
shown by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender
Company; the “Crack Shot” by H. C.
Evans and Company, along with “Saratoga
Sweepstakes” in the new ball gum models;
a coin-released Skee-Ball game of regula­
tion size shown by the National Skee-Ball
Company.
Mr. Wm. Rabkin of the International
Mutoscope Reel Co., Inc., had a booth at
the Show but did not exhibit any of their
many arcade and amusement type ma­
chines. According to Mr. Rabkin, the ex­
pense of bringing them all for a complete
display was not justified.
The “Drop Shot” embodies a revolving
series of targets for the player to shoot at,
each target corresponding with a prize in
the compartment above. It was a beauti­
ful appearing machine and attracted a
large crowd of interested players and spec­
tators.
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
November, 1933
19
A U T O M A T IC A G E
Beginning
A series of articles on
“Successful Operating Methods —
Old & New”
B y Ja m e s C a n t e
of
W . J . C. V E N D I N G C O M P A N Y
N ew Y o r k C ity
How Much on My Investment?
V ERY operator, old or new, seasoned
or green, experienced or inexperi­
enced still ponders over this eternal
question.
Let’s go back a few years at the very
dawn of the pin game idea as a money­
making investment. That was the time
when an operator would pay $37.50 and up
for a machine which today sells for half
the price and would be glad to earn $3.00
or $4.00 per week on each such machine.
Today, many operators want to spend $5.00
or $10.00 and expect a return of, at least,
$25.00 on this insignificant investment.
What a change has come over him? It is
highly unreasonable that any operator
should demand such a fantastic return on
so small an outlay. Show me any business
on earth of such possibilities!
It is high time that operators awaken to
the fact that the pin-game business is a
legitimate business and positively not a
get-rich-quick scheme. There is a comfort­
able income to be derived from it by the
proper application of a reasonable amount
of diligent effort.
Successful operating
demands sound business methods and prin­
ciples. The operator of old was satisfied
with a steady income of a few dollars per
week per machine. Today an operator will
go to a jobber with $20.00 and will want
about 10 machines with a guaranteed in­
come of $25.00 per week! Besides being
unfair to the jobber, this attitude is des­
tructive to the business as a whole. In
this and future articles I will relate actual
instances of operators’ unfairness to job­
bers and to locations, all of which reflect
upon the operator’s business integrity and
E
© International Arcade Museum
distinguish him from the successful opera­
tor, who very wisely avoids these question­
able tactics.
There was an incident, with which I am
personally familiar, whereby an operator
lost a very good location through a pitiful
lack of good judgement. This particular
operator took $7.00 out of one of his ma­
chines, which was the total take-in for a
certain week during the summer months.
He was so dissatisfied with this that he
told the storekeeper that he would have to
remove the machine for the balance of the
summer. Now this storekeeper was per­
fectly satisfied with his end of the receipts
for the summer months, knowing that the
winter season would bring considerably
more, but the operator’s action in this case
so aggravated him that he went out and
bought his own machine. This operator
actually drove and encouraged this loca­
tion to buy its own machine, and then
whines, kicks, and complains about store­
keepers buying their own machines and
that “business is bad.”
Yes, it’s true that the jobber should not
sell to the storekeeper, and by the way, it
is not done by ethical jobbers. It is un­
questionably an after-effect of unsound op­
erating methods. So remove the cause and
there will be no after-effect.
Next month I will further comment upon
other unworthy methods actually employed
by unscrupulous operators, which have
promoted that abominable condition of lo­
cations buying their own machines. Look
for this instructive article next month; and
until then — GOOD LUCK AND GOOD
OPERATING!
http://www.arcade-museum.com/

Download Page 14: PDF File | Image

Download Page 15 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.