fol coin-operated scale. These were strength, grip
and lung testers, electric shocking machines, and
fortunetellers. The machines were rugged wood
and cast-iron affairs proven on location in English
pubs, and depended on their initial novelty for
drawing power. They were quickly successful. The
machines found their way into saloons, especially in
New York City, and railroad stations. Like the first
American coin-phonographs, their production was
slowed by the depression of 1893. Most of these
devices were sold outright to location owners, who
frequently junked the machines when they went
out-of-order too often.
To these British importations were added two
American innovations, an eau de cologne vender for
perfuming handkerchiefs, and a die stamper, which
cut a patron's name on a strip of aluminum. Mark
grouped all these penny-in-the-slot contrivances in
one arcade, flanking them with batteries of phono-
graphs and Mutoscopes, which remained the back-
bone of coin-operation. In its first year, the Union
square arcade grossed a phenomenal $101,000,
returning a 20 percent net profit on the original
investment.
The old-time arcades, which followed the suc-
cessful Mark pattern, consisted of rows of machines
placed along the walls of an open-front store, and, if
the location was large enough, a double row of
machines would be placed back-to-back down the
center of the room. The athletic machines, such as
strength and lung testers, wee always located near
the rear of the arcade where patrons, who were
blowing themselves blue in the face on a lung tester,
could not be ridiculed by passersby. Punching-bags
usually carried a placard to the effect that Corbett or
Fitzsimmons had once made a scorer of several
thousand, and invited the patrons to beat the cham-
pion.
piano, usually a Tonophone or Peerless, was used
for ballyhoo, while gum, candy, and nut venders
completed the picture. Plenty of room was allowed
for the crowd to drift about and successfully exper-
iment with the machines. Operators would period-
ically shift their devices about, for the public would
rapidly tire of an arcade where it constantly saw the
same machine in the same place.
The arcades operated from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m.,
and, during the summer months when people
flocked to the beaches, no amusement park was
complete without its Penny Arcade. Park locations
operated on a 20-35 per cent commission basis, or
brought rental fees of from $100 to $1000 for out-
right season privileges. Women and children were
found to be the arcade's best customers, and card
venders were developed to meet their tastes. These
cards carried celebrities' pictures, jokes, horo-
scopes, fortunes, advice on whom to marry, lover's
messages, etc.
Mitchell Mark's Union Square arcade developed
into the Automatic Vaudeville Company, which
subsequently branched out into some 35 parlors,
operating 4,600 machines. [Figure 4] Associated
with him in this enterprise were a large number of
investors including Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew
and actor David Warfield. Loew and Warfield with-
drew in 1904 to form their own concern, the
People's Vaudeville Company, operating three loca-
tions in New York and another in Cincinnati, while
over in Brooklyn, William Fox operated a small
arcade of his own. The arcade idea boomed and
even spread across the border to Canada where the
American Arcade Company operated in Quebec,
Montreal and Ottawa. The Mills Amusement
Company advertised in 1905 that it had netted
$3000 in one month from a State Street location in
Chicago. As the arcades multiplied they began to
compete, and it was not unusual to find several on
one city street. Competition meant showmanship,
improvement in machines and an increasing over-
head in decorations, illumination and fancy stucco
and pressed steel fronts . With a blaze of electric
lights, bright colored signs and a blaring player-
piano for ballyhoo, arcades mushroomed in every
Female Attractions
Weighing machines and fortune-telling devices
were placed near the front of the arcade to snare the
female trade, while phonographs and Mutoscopes
were also placed up front to prove that the arcade
was up-to-the- minute in its attractions. A player
36