Two Rare Jukeboxes within One Month
by Al & Julie Miller
AMI Singing Towers jukebox that he wanted to sell
also. My interest was certainly sparked when he
mentioned that this jukebox had two turntables!
Somehow I just couldn't convince myself that we
were going to see another double Singing Towers a
few days later. Even as we drove the short distance
to view the jukebox I was convinced that it couldn't
be another double, it had to be just a regular Singing
Towers. We were barely in the front door of the
house when we were face to face with another nice
original double Singing Towers! It wasn't long
before it was loaded into our trailer and heading
home with us.
We have been collecting and restoring jukeboxes
and other coin operated machines for close to twen-
ty years now. Like many collectors, we are always
on the look out for rare and unusual machines to add
to our collection. In November, 2003 I ran across a
rare jukebox listed for sale on Ebay. It was a dou-
ble AMI Singing Towers. Since the auction was
ending while we were planning to be at the
November Chicagoland Jukebox Show, I placed my
bid and off we went to the show. I was hoping that
some of the other potential buyers for this jukebox
would be preoccupied with the upcoming show. I
was thrilled to find out a few days later that we were
the high bidders for the jukebox! After arranging
for our new purchase to be shipped from
Pennsylvania to our home in Wisconsin, all we had
to do is await it's arrival. When it arrived I was very
pleased with our pur-
chase. It was a nice
original jukebox and
should be an easy
restoration.
We are now the proud owners of not one, but two
double Singing Towers jukeboxes! These jukebox-
es are quite rare. I know the term "rare" gets over
used, but after talking to other knowledgeable col-
lectors, the general consensus is that there are less
than ten of these machines known to exist! It's cer-
tainly unusual for two of them to come our way
within a month. One being an Ebay purchase, com-
ing from across the country. The second was found
the old fashioned way, by word of mouth and prac-
tically in our own backyard!
This story could end
right here and I would
have been quite happy.
We had acquired a rare
'------------'----'-'------' jukebox to add to our
collection. The transaction went smoothly, and
shipping it across the country was no problem
thanks to North American Van Lines. Then (within
two weeks) I got one of those phone ca11s. A friend
of mine left me a voice mail message about a juke-
box lead. When I called the owner I was disap-
pointed to find out that he had a couple of '70s juke-
boxes for sale. We collect primarily '40s jukeboxes,
so I didn't really have an interest in pursuing these
machines. Again this could have been the end of
the story, but for some reason we continued to visit
about our shared hobby of restoring old jukeboxes.
When I mentioned that I was primarily interested in
'40s and '50s jukeboxes, he stated that he had an
This story just goes to show that there are still many
treasures out there just waiting to be found! You
never know how or when they'll show up, but if you
keep looking you're bound to get lucky once m
awhile! Good luck finding your own treasures!
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