Post War Planning For The Coin Machine Industry
' '' By Max Hurvich
'1
of the Birmingham. Ala .• Vending Co.
sid es we hea r and read about
O N Post all War
P lannin g for every industry
wi th the possible exce ption of th e Coin
Machine Industry. Of course I will be an-
swered that coin machine manufacturers
are already making plans to manufacture
new machines-more beautiful and attrac·
tive than ever before-after the wa r. But,
to my knowledge, no plans a re bein g made
to lift our industry out of th e category it
is in and place it on th e level to which it
is enti tled.
I recently hea rd a brilliant talk by Paul
Hoffman, president of Studebaker and
chairman of ,Post Wa r Planning for Busi·
ness. On e of the main thoughts left with
me was "survey every possibility so that
you will know what you are 'planning for."
In ord er to intelligently arrive at a Post
War Plan we must survey th e Coin Machine
Industry. Wh en I and my broth er started
in business back in 1931 we had no in·
dustry to speak of. Any woodworkin g
shop could make a wood en box, dress it
up a little, and be classified as a coin ma-
chine ma nufacturer. Or, some aggressive
individuals arranged for a woodworking
plant to make the so·called machine, and
listed themselves as manufacturers. As most
of you will recall , the prices on these rna·
chines were very low, but costs were less.
not plan to think about a perm anent
future;' instea d af immedi ate profits after
, the war ? Why should states, cities and
towns pass li censes on our machines that
are prohibitive? Why should mac hines be
outlawed so that petty offi cials can create
a situ ation th at invites graft ? Why should
hones t, intelli gent coin machin e op erators
and distributors be classed as undesir-
abIes? . . . because of ignorance on the
part of the publi c.
Let's follow Mr. Paul Hoffma n's advi ce.
Let's survey our probl ems intelligently. Now
that the price of coin machin es has bee n
es tabl ished at a hi gh level, it would be a
simple matter for manufacturers to use
pa rt of thi s price fol' a fund to educa te th e
publ ic. Other industries s pend thousands of
dollars in educa tin g the publi c. If such
a fund is establi shed, a bi g ma n could
THE AUTHOR
Max Hurvich of the Birmin gham
Vending Compa n y, Bi rmingham, Ala-
b a ma , h as b een active in th e coin
machine field fo r the pas t twelve year s.
H e a nd his b r o ther Harry, h ave dis-
tr ib u ted vario u s ty p es of e quipment
for the n a tio n ' s lead in g ma nufacture r s
As time went on the coin machines were
imp roved. Instead of wooden boxes with
a nd h ave b een a ffecti on a t ely kno wn
a few inexpensive gadgets, rea l effort was
as "Th e Gold D u st Twins."
made to create coin machines that were
As Guest-E d ito r for Octo b er Max
attractive and that showed in genuity. In - ,
Hu r vich soun ds the keyn ote o n th e ad-
stead of fly-by-night manufacturers a real
industry was created. Busin ess men in - vantages of o r gan ized post wa r p la n-
stalled ma chin ery, bou ght buildin gs and
ning r ight n ow.
established th emselves as coin machin e
manufacturers. Soon th e industry beca me
so bi g that employment was given to thou-
be employed to head such an orga nization .
sa nds of men and women in th e manufac-
Not on e wh o mi ght be prejudiced on e
turin g of these machin es_ Thousands more
way or the other. Get a man who ca n com-
were employed in kindred industries, such
ma nd the respect of coin machin e peopl e,
as th e glass business', metal business, elec-
offi cials, and most of all . . _ JOHN Q.
tri cal supplies and th e like.
PUBLIC.
In my humble opinion, this is wh ere
Let this ma n cond uct a survey as to th e
the ma nufacturers fail ed. Had a concerted
effort been made to organize th ese manu - number of peo pl e employed by coin ma-
chin e manufacturers ! Let him conduct a
facturers, mu ch good could have bee n ac-
survey as to the number of ope rators ove r
complish ed. In th ese days and times th e
th e country, and the numb er of people th ey
mere mention of "Coin Machine Busin ess"
employ. Such a survey should in clud e th e
invites liftin g of eyebrows. Despite th e
number of fa mily men, how many own
fact that a man has a good re putation in
their own homes, how many co ntribu te to
the community, and des pite the fact th at he
communi ty e ffo rt~, and how ma ny are active
conducts his co in machin e business similar
in cha ritable endeavo rs_ To my knowledge,
to thousands of oth ers in busin ess, h e is
immedi ately labeled ' in the "slot machin e
business," with all the aspersions this in -
vites. In every community, people know th e
operator as a law-abiding citizen ; in most
in stances a fa mily man who raises his
children in a decent ma nn er. H owever,
these sa me peopl e feel that for so me
reaso n othe rs in th e "slot" mac hine busi-
ness are racketeers a nd hoodlums. WHY ?
Beca use of poor pl annin g ! And now, with
eve ryon e else pla nnin g, let's get togeth er
to pl an for the pos t war era. We rea li ze
that no co in machin es a re bein g ma nu-
factured. However, we kn ow th at coin
machin e manufac ture rs are kee pin g th eir
plants operatin g on war work. From ads
in th e various coin machine magazin es, we
kn ow th ese manufac turers are ma kin g
plans to com e out with new and more in -
ge niou s devices after th e wa r. But wh y
in twelve years, no ,-s uch survey has been
conducted.
When thi s director has the facts, which
I know will prove encouragin gly startling,
h e can th en publicize them as h e sees fit.
When these true facts become known to
the publi c, no official would hesitate intro-
ducin g legislation that would take this
business out of the illegal status and clas-
sify it as it should be. Every man readin g
this arti cle knows that very few officials
will stick their necks out now to sponsor
such legislation, even thou gh they may
know it is fair and necessa ry. As one
legislator so aptly put it to us years ago,
"It is much more popular for a politician
to oppose coin machin e legislation than to
vote for it." Why? -Because his constitu -
ents want him to oppose this " NEF ARI-
OUS BUSINESS." Wh en you hear dero ga-
tory remarks about a nyon e or any business,
you believe these, if you aren' t familiar
with the facts. If you, and by you I again
mea n JOHN Q. PUBLIC, know all the
fa cts, you cannot oppose a nythin g that
doesn' t deserve to be opposed. Inh erently,
the American public is fair, and wh en they
have the fa cts, th eir judgment is sound .
It is true we have had , and will have,
undesirabl es in our i'ndustry. However, it
is equally true th at eve ry bus in ess or pro-
fession has these undesirables. Because
som e mini ster is di sholl est is no reaso n for
tis to condemn th e entire ministry; beca use'
som e doctor is discovered practicing' un -
ethi cal method s is no reason to say all do c-
tors are in that category, and beca use some
me rchant is fl eecing the publi c is no rea SOli
to condemn that business. As intelli gent
men a nd women, we put the bl ame where
it belon gs, and never think of incl uding
everyon e. Th at is, in every instance exce pt
THE COIN MA CHINE INDUSTRY.
In th e earl y part of this arti cle I sug-
gested that th e proper beginning be
launched by the manufacturers. More than
90% of coin machines are manufac tured
in Chi cago, and it would be much easier
to organize this one city th an it would be
to sta rt with jobbers and distributors all
ove r the country .. I am sure there are some
manufacturers bi g enough, and who com-
mand enou gh respect f rom th e industry, to
underta ke such pl anning. We can start
from "scratch" after thi s war, with con-
crete informa tion we have lea rned through
ord eal. If such intelli gent pl annin g i,
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~ ·ka.MG!~
INTERNATIONAL MUTOSCOPE CORPORATION
PENNY A RCADE H EADQUARTERS SINCE 1895
Manufaeturers of Photomatie a nd Ot her Famous Coin Operated Equipment
44·01 ELEVENTH STREET, LONG ISLAND CITY I, NEW YORK
Mention of THE COIN MACHINE REVIEW is y our b est introduction to our advertisers
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
5
FOR
OCTo.BER
1943