A Navy
Wife Relates Her Experiences Handling
Husband's Operations During His Absence
by DOROTHY TYRRELL
(EDITOR'S NOTE-In every part
of the country we find dutiful wives
handling the operations of their hus-
bands while they are in the Armed
Forces. Some of these women had no
previous experience in the Coin Ma-
chine Field and the ingenuity they are
displaying in successfully managing
large operations is truly amazing. In
this article Mrs. Richard Tyrrell tells
of some of her experiences in han -
dling the affair s of the Standard Auto-
matic Sales Company of Oakland while
Dick Tyrrell is serving as a flight
instructor in the Navy. Before becom-
ing Mrs. Tyrrell, Dorothy taught in the
San Francisco Schools and covered the
Bay District news beat for THE RE-
VIEW.)
RANSPLANT a school,
into the
T business
world and he s a gone goose.
teache~
Such is the attitude of the general public.
When that school teacher is a woman and
you transplant her to the coin machine
RAY GUN OPERATORS
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WITH OUR FAMOUS CON·
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OF OUR UNITS NOW IN
USE
"AXIS RATS"
(H ITLER-JAP)
FOR CHICKEN SAM AND
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"SHOOT THE DIRTY RAT"
. FOR BALLY BULL
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FOR RAPID FIRE
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All units consist of new figures
and attractive sce nery. $15.00
each F.O.B. San Antonio, Texas.
Sold by Leading Distributors
HAROLD W. THOMPSON
Seeburg Distributor
415 Carolina St.
San Antonio 3, Texas
chine business has not proven so very dif-
ferent from school teaching in many re-
spects. I had been used to getting along
with people and getting them to follow
directions. Mine wasn't the bossy tech-
nique, either, in case your tongue is al·
ready in your cheek. The first morning
when I talked with the men it reminded me
of the pep talks I used to give at assembly
on buying a student body card, only this
time its application was directed. to keep-
ing the growth of the business on the ris-
ing curve. I explained that I couldn't re-
pair a phonograph as each of them could,
but I would interpret for them how their
efforts were being directed; both were es-
sential to a business. I planned to make no
changes in methods of servicing. They are
extremely loyal men, and they responded.
The first two weeks they found locations
for six phonographs that had been gather·
ing dust, and for twice as many games.
A man's business is frequently his whole
life. When a woman steps into a man's
place she still has a home that requires su-
pervision. I wanted a part in the raising of
our daughter. Looking for a housekeeper
in a defense area who is the type with
whom,. you can trust a tiny baby is ' no
hreeze, but I was in luck. My mother sent
me a dandy from out of town who liked
taking charge of the . house, the baby, and
me. I still had to do all the buying, for her
recommendation was that she was excellent
as a cook and housekeeper, but she had no
feeling for the value of money. I opened
up the store at eight o'clock (we still sold
nuts and 'c andy retail) and tried to get
home to give the baby her six o'clock
feeding. I ' have religiously tried to keep
this one contact with her.
I'm a ' leisure-loJirig soul. My teaching
position ' had given me ample time to play
golf and ride three or four , times a week.
I soon learned that the coin machine busi-
ness does not countenance such goings-on.
I haven't lifted a golf club since I took
over, and one Sunday's ride I regretted all
the next week. I just don't see how some
operators get the time for these things.
- - - - - -- - - TURN PAGE
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"SHOOT THE YELLOW RAT"
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b~siness world, the odds are so great
against her that not even the Black Market
will handle that goose. I knew all that be-
fore my husband became a flight instructor
for the Navy. As a REVIEW correspondent
in the Bay district I had heard the boys
discuss the few women who had tried their
hand at it. Their attitude was definitely
unfavorable, to put it mildly. But this
knowledge, plus the very tangible presence
of a two months gld baby did not dis-
courage us. War has always opened new
fields to women, and the coin machine field
seemed to offer plenty of challenge. I
scarcely need to add that challenge or no
challenge I 'was scared the evening my
husband left.
To discuss abstractly the maniging of
one's husband's business while he is away
serving his country seems to me of little
significance here. Too much has already
been written glorifying "the little woman."
In most cases it's a job that has to be done,
and this is only one woman's diary of how
she did it.
Our business at the time my husband
left consisted of routes of nut and candy
vending mach ines with a smattering of pho.
nographs and pin games. My muddling ex·
periences will, no doubt, lead you to be·
lieve that I stepped from my music teach-
ing position in a San Francisco high school
straight to the head of our company. Such
was not the case, fortunately. I had had
a year's leave-of-absence before the baby
was born during which I had kept the com-
pany's books. Since it was a relatively
small business and since I had had no
training in bookkeeping we had not used
the double entry system, over which I later
was to acquire grey hair in mastering. My
husband has always been "the boss," the
one who made the final decisions, and he
is horribly meticulous about detail. Ours
must be another case of "opposites attract-
ing." On top of that he has confidence in
my judgment; that's more of a responsi-
bility. The hardest part of the job to mas-
ter and the most recurrent has been the
necessity of making swift decisions and
standing by them, sometimes against a tor-
rent of protests from all sides .
Strange as it may seem, the coin ma-
ANOTHER MONTH
NEARER VICTORY!
~ ~ cJ,.-Iu:'"
INTERNATIONAL MUTOSCOPE CORPORATION
PI!NNY ARCADE HEADqUARTERS SINCE 1195
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COIN
MACHINE
RE'IIEW
7
FOIt
SEPTEMBER
.' 943