PROJECTION LAMPS FOR PANORAMS
250 Watt ...... $2.00 500 Watt ...... $1 .75 750 Watt ...... $3.50
GENUINE SEEBURG AND BALLY GUN LAMPS
IN LOTS OF 10 • • •• 60c EACH
WRITE FOR SPECIAL PRICE IN LOTS OF lOO t
12" PM SPEAKERS ....••....•••...••....••....••..•.••...•.. $9. 50
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ONOMY SUPPLY COMPANY
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RUDY VOGT
(Continued from Page 47)
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
54
fOR
MARCH
1945
Jose, only to find my competitor had .two
quarter and three or four nickel machInes
in every location, good or bad. I decided
I must have something new or different to
cut in, so made up my mind that I must
have a dime machine. No factory had ever
built a dime self·pay slot, so I went to see
Charles Fey in San Francisco. Charley ad-
vised me not to try, as two thin dimes were
as thick as one new dime and he showed
me how it would be impossible to prevent
la ppi ng in the coin chute.
I was still determined to cut into San
Jose and started experimenting on dime
slot machines. The result was a pressure
spring in front of the coin slot to prevent
lapping, later replaced by the fa ctories
with two pressure levers set in the back
of the coin chute.
, Eighty new nickel Mills side vendors
were changed to dime coin chutes, tubes,
and pay slides, and the fun started. It was
estimated that over $10,000.00 was spent
by opera,tors wiring the factories for dime
machines, which of course they did not
have.
Flattering offers from the factories for a
sample, were, of course, refused and I had
the pleasure of giving my San Jose com-
petitor a music lesson for nine months.
Charley Fey and my two mechanics were
t,rue blue and helped me keep my secret
until about nine months later, when about
11 :30 one Saturday night a car drove up
in front of a Chink lottery location and
four men got out. Two stood at the door
and two went to the rear of the place,
where two quarter and two five·cent ma-
chines were ignored, but one of my two
dime machines was picked up and carried
out. The four men drove away and six
weeks later a Chicago firm was advertis-
ing dime slots.
We opened San Francisco while Sacra-
mento was open, but only lasted three
months th ere.
A three-month run in Pasadena followed
Sacramento and Stockton closing. A four-
day run, after nine months of preparation
with 200 specially built machines, in South
America, gave me the foreign cure, a Mex-
ican stand-off.
In the operating game, you have to take
it on the chin to get in the big company,
and go broke as easy as you make it. Six
times in the b ig money and six times broke,
trying new territory, I should know. I made
one mistake of letting myself go broke at
the time the depression started and it was
sure tough. Prior to that it did not matter
much as I had a lot of fun and was single.
Broke again, I produced a conversion for
old slo ts, capping the pay combination with'
stars and having the machine pay double
automatically when three stars showed on
a winning combination. Also a forty-pay
conversion. I produced over 800 of these
rebuilt machines for my last comeback and
about that time New York closed and the
rapid-fire closing over the entire country
caused me to turn to skill games.
In 1932, I tried to interest Bob Gans
in backing me in pin-game production,
when only one game, Whiffle, was being
manufactured, but Bob did not think at
that -time, that the marble game would
amount to much and was too busy to let
me convince him. At that' time we could
have made a couple of million the first year
on a five thousand dollar capital, as we
would have hit the ball and been the first
in the west to manufacture pin games.
Maine and Tennessee are the only states
I have missed in my travels. I can tell
about the three-inch headlines in San Fran-
cisco, when after a three months' success-
f ul run on a test case, a second test case
went against me . .. . Of the for ty penny
bells I built over from nickel machines, in
1921, and used in San Joaquin Valley be-
fore the factories produced penny bells .. . .
Of how the old-timers used to respect each
other's territory and work together. . . .
How, under heavy play, the old-style ma-
chines needed a new clock worKs at least
once a week and just how tired you got
counting an average of $1000.00 in nickels
every day in the year and if you missed a
day you had $2000.00 to count the next
day .. .. How the evolution from two-stick
gum to mints came about, from cash pay
to trade check, from trade checks to future
play and then to non-redeemable checks.
I was operating in Sacramento and also
financially interested in a chain of three
furniture stores in Sacramento, Stockton
and Roseville, when Herbert Hoover ar-
rived in Sacramento to run the morning
paper, the "Sacramento Union," for the
Democratic interests that had bought the
Union prior to Wilson's campaign for a
second term.
I called on Hoover to let him know
was running full-Flage ads in the Union.
I saw Jim Flynn knock out Jack Dempsey
at Murray and had $50.00 on Flynn.
I looked over Miami, Florida, a year
after the big blow but did not ltke · the
chances there, and was in New Orleans
when Hoover blew the levee 30 miles below
New Orleans, trying to relieve the flood of
the Missi'ssi ppi. I spen t three rainy days and
nights ankle deep in mud and water with
a searching party in the South American
jungle, hunting an American citizen who
had become lost. At one time I looked
over San Juan and Ponco, Porto Rico, but
money looked scarce there at the time for
operating. However, the trip was exciting,
as two days out of San Juan, my steamer
had to turn out of its course, to ride out
a small hurricane, giving me two thrilling
days.
Around San Diego and Los Angeles, I
was known as "Rudy"; in San Francisco,
Los Angeles and Stockton they called me
"Bud"; Utah pals called me "Doc", and
in a good many places, from 1912 to 1925,
I was dubbed, "King of the Slots."
* * *
A boy and girl were out driving. They
came to a quiet spot on the country lane
and the car stopped . .
"Out of gas," said the boy.
The girl opened her purse and pulled out
a flask.
"Wow," said the boy, "a bottle-what is
it?"
"Gasoline," replied the girl.
FOR SAI.E
Attention Operators
If You Want
to Buy
5-8011 Pin Comes
3
1
2
2
Bally Rapid Fire
Panorams
Pitchem Catchem
Western Baseball
Rock·Ola Ten Pins
Tokio Guns
Evans Ten Strike
Mills 1·2·3
2 Galloping Dominos
1 Mills 25c Dice Machine
3 5c Mills Glitter 9.T.'s
5c Pace Races Red Arrow
5c Pace Races Brown Cab.
2'5c Pace Races Black Cab .
1
2
1
2
Wings
Yankees
Lucky Strike
Flippers
Mills Bell Boy
4 Daval's "21 "
Mills Ticket+e
- - SEE--
NO REASONABLE OFFER REFUSED
PAUL A.' LAYMON
OWL MINT · MACHINE COMPANY. INC.
Ed , AI and Jack Ravreby
DISTRIBUTOR
245 Columbus Ave.
ITel. Kenmore 2640)
THE BLUE BLOODS OF THE INDUSTRY READ THE REVIEW EXCLUSlVEL Yl
.
Boston 1'6, Mass.
I