12
AUTOMATIC AGE
T he
C o in
August , 1937
M a c h in e
as
a
O p e ra to r
S a le s m a n
An address delivered by Herb Jones, Advertising Manager,
Bally Mfg. Co., before the Wisconsin Association of Coin Machine Operators
at Wausau, Wis., July 14, 1937
BOUT five oclock this morning,
I woke up on the train and
looked out over one o f those
majestic tracts o f forest lands which
makes the State o f Wisconsin so beau
tiful and brings so many thousands
o f visitors within your borders each
year. The thought came to me that,
if only I were going to talk to a
group o f lumbermen, I would find a
world o f inspiration simply by lying
in my berth and watching the scenic
splendor o f Wisconsin roll by. Then,
I began to think o f some o f the fig
ures I had gathered together and it
struck me that in a certain sense I
was on my way to Wausau to speak
to a group o f Wisconsin lumbermen.
Because, gentlemen, you are selling
Wisconsin lumber and selling a tre
mendous quantity o f it. Into each ma
chine operated by members o f your
group there is built from 40 to 120
feet o f high grade lumber— probably
75 feet in the average amusement
game. Each year in the neighborhood
o f 100,000,000 feet o f lumber— that’s
well over 5,000 carloads— is used in
the manufacture o f coin operated ma
chines. Just how much o f this lumber
originates in Wisconsin is difficult to
say, but anyone who knows that Chi
cago is the coin machine manufactur
ing center o f the world could tell by
merely glancing at a map that W is
consin is the logical source o f lumber
used in building coin machines. A
very safe and conservative estimate
would be that 75% o f the lumber go
ing into games originates in W iscon
sin. In fact, I know o f one company
that alone purchases $250,000 worth
o f lumber annually direct from W is
consin mills— and every stick o f it
goes into coin operated games.
A
However, figures on volume are not
as interesting or significant as the
picture behind those figures. Amuse
ment g-m es not only create a market
for lumber but a steady continuous
market. In fact, it might even be said
that lumber built into games is actu
ally consumed. By that I mean it
gets used up rapidly and has to ba
replaced. Now, that’s a very impor
tant point because lumber is not usu
ally consumed in the sense that food
or clothing is. Lumber is a durable
product and the long life o f most wood
products puts a limit on its sales vol
ume. For example, a wood house en
dures a lifetime or more. The same
is true o f furniture. A fam ily pur
chasing a set o f dining-room furni
ture is, so to speak, in the market for
a quantity of lumber. But after that
dining-room set has been bought, that
particular fam ily will not be in the
market for that particular wood prod
uct fo r a long, long time to come.
But in the case o f amusement ma
chines the public is constantly in the
market for more lumber. Every time
a man slips a nickel in the chute he is
indirectly purchasing lumber — be
cause he is paying in part fo r the
lumber that went into the construc
tion o f that game. And, the interest
ing fact is this: Lumber becomes a
perishable product when it is built
into a game. Not because it actually
wears out, but because being in the
amusement field we must constantly
give the public something new and
different.
That is the essence o f
amusement— something that will ap
peal to the public because it is new
and different. Therefore, the 75 feet
or so o f lumber in yesterday’s game
must pass away and be replaced by
75 more feet o f lumber in the game o f
today. Thus the amusement machine
industry becomes the lumbermen’s
dream— he can still point with pride to
the durability and long life o f lumber
— yet he can see his lumber being used
up at a rapid rate— 75 feet every time
an operator junks an old machine and
replaces it with a new one. In other
words, gentlemen, whether you know
it or not, you are among the best
salesmen the lumber industry has.
© International A rcade M useum
And what I’ve said about lumber
goes fo r other products too. F or ex
ample, since we have been building
the elaborate electrical games o f to
day, I estimate that 150,000 miles—
not feet, but miles— o f electric wire
are used annually in the manufacture
o f games. More than 3,000,000 feet
o f plate glass is used annually by this
industry. About three-quarters o f a
million dollars worth o f motors are
used each year in the coin machines
o f various kinds — and, incidentally
one company, buys $75,000.00 worth
of motors annually from a Wisconsin
motor manufacturers. Approxim ate
ly one-half a million dollars worth o f
electric bulbs are used each year in
light-up games.
And so on down the list— dozens o f
industrial products— used in tremen
dous quantities by an industry in
which you, gentlemen, are the most
important factor— because it is your
efforts which finally succeeds in sell
ing these millions o f feet o f lumber
and these miles and miles o f wire to
the public.
Please understand that when I say
you are selling wire and motors and
lumber to the public, I am not at
tempting to glorify your business. The
amusement machine business needs no
alibi. In itself it is one o f the most
worthy callings a man can follow , for
it serves a fundamental need o f the
human race— the craving fo r amuse
ment; the normal, healthful impulse
to escape from time to time from the
pressure o f modern life ; the desire to
pause for a moment o f relaxation and
fun. But, important as your busi
ness is from the recreational or social
view point, I want to emphasize to
day how much more important it is
from an economic viewpoint.
For example, I spoke o f you men
selling wire by the mile. Now, we
all know that the average man doesn’t
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