Automatic Age

139
AUTOMATIC AGE
November, 1985
Machines Returned
Phonograph Operators Organize
at Wurlitzer Banquet
T )E PO R T S of the accomplishments
attained by Harry Drollinger and
his fast-moving, well-knit organiza­
tion of music operators in the State
of Texas have convinced phonograph
men in the Chicago district that they,
too, need an organization of their
own.
Initial steps were taken in this
direction when seventy-five Wurlitzer-
Simplex operators from northern
Illinois and Indiana cities attended
a banquet and meeting staged by
R. S. Bleekman, Wurlitzer-Simplex
District Sales Manager, at the Coun­
try Club Hotel, Chicago, on Saturday,
November 16.
E. H. Petering, factory Sales Man­
ager, who flew from the Wurlitzer
plant at North Tonawanda, New
York, to attend the banquet, brought
a message of good will from E. H.
Capehart, Wurlitzer Vice-President,
who was ill and unable to attend, and
also commended Mr. Bleekman for
his progressive spirit and for the
admirable sales record he had estab­
lished during his first year as Sales
Manager in the Chicago area.
Outlining briefly his plan of or­
ganization, Mr. Bleekman declared
that the purpose of the association
would be to promote good will,
harmonious action, greater coopera­
tion in furthering the automatic
phonograph industry, and to stimulate
public interest in music machines.
He also said that the organization
would assist in bringing about the
enactment of laws against the misuse
°f American legal tender coins, and
would vigorously oppose undesirable
and confiscatory legisation and taxes
which might affect the automatic
phonograph industry.
“Thus far our branch of the busi­
ness has escaped most of the difficul­
ties encountered by other divisions
°f the industry,” Mr. Bleekman said,
“but we must be prepared at all
times. Exorbitant taxes have been
Proposed by various State legisla­
tures which would directly affect
music machines, and in some States
such taxes are already in force. The
chiseling operator is steadily becom-
Jng more of a menace and unless we
organize and do so at once, ours will
become a cut-throat business,” he
added.
M. H. Rosenberg, District Sales
Manager in Omaha and surrounding
territory urged operators to organize.
He pointed out that in South Dakota
music operators are burdened by a
heavy tax, which might have been
avoided had they been properly or­
ganized at the time the tax law was
up for consideration in the State
legislature. He emphasized the fact
that where an individual is practically
powerless to bring pressure against
the passage of unfair legislation, an
association can do much in this
regard.
That the phonograph operators in
Minnesota have taken a decisive
stand was indicated by W. C. Moss-
barger, Wurlitzer-Simplex District
Sales Manager stationed in Minn­
eapolis, who declared that in the
Twin Cities locations were guaran­
teeing $7.00 weekly. He said that
music operators who often invest as
much as $40,000 in equipment should
not feel that they have to let loca­
tions use this equipment for nothing.
Operators in attendance pledged
wholeheartedly their support of the
new association, but opinions varied
as to the advisability of asking mem­
bers to demand a $5.00 weekly guar­
antee from their locations and a
fifty-fifty split over that amount.
Frank Miles of Danville, 111., de­
clared that such a demand would be
nothing new to his locations—that he
was already asking it and having little
difficulty in getting it. Other opera­
tors expressed a fear that some of
their locations could not stand a
requirement of that amount.
Mr. Bleekman stated that this
question and other matters pertain­
ing to the new association would be
discussed further at the next organi­
zation meeting, which is scheduled
for November 30 at a point in Chi­
cago not yet determined. He added
that he was pleased at the manner
in which operators had accepted his
plan of organization.
Mimeographed copies of the pro­
posed constitution and by-laws of the
new organization were distributed to
operators for consideration between
then and the next meeting.
© International Arcade Museum
FALL RIV E R , Mass.—Amusement
machines and electric cranes recently
seized by the Middleboro police in
the arrest of two residents of that
city were ordered returned to their
owners by Judge John H. Sullivan
in the District Court of that city
recently who stated that no evidence
was brought before him to show that
the machines were gambling devices.
A D V A N C E
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