Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

Issue: 1946 February

bis I'eturn.
H. A. Matheny of Peerless Amusement
'Service, Oakland, had an interesting story
to tell. Matheny had been in the business
for many years, but when his son Glenn L.
Matheny was drafted, and his son·in·law
George M. Livingston had to go into de-
fense work, and his own health failed, he
sold his route. But after peace was re-
stored, he bought the late Lew Menke's
route from the widow, and just recently
he acquired Peter Norman's route. One
month ago his son Glenn L. Matheny was
released from the Army Air Corps, and
now the three of them-father, son and
son-in-law have formed a partnership un-
der the name of Peerless Amusement Ser-
vice.
S_ F. Operating Co., owned by Jack
Kirby and Bill Duffin, have moved from
their previous location on Turk Street
to much more modern and spacious quar-
ters on Polk St.
Gisela Ney
Portland
Music operators throughout the country
helped to celebrate "Wurlitzer Days" Jan.
6th and 7th, when the new Model 1015
Wurlitzer phonograph and accessories were
previewed. The event was sponsored locally
by the newly organized Oregon Branch of
the Clark Distributing Co., West Coast dis-
tributors of Wurlitzer equipment.
From all sections of the state, as well as
from Idaho and Northern California, music
ops and their families trekked to the Ma-
rine Room of Portland's Multnomah Hotel
to view the first production model auto-
matic phonograph seen here in nearly four
years, to renew acquaintance with fellow
operators, and to have themselves a time,
and that they did. (Some brands of re-
freshments also not seen here in nearly
four years miraculously made their appear-
ance.)
Many new features of the phonograph
and auxiliary equipment were demonstrated
by Keith Payne, branch manager for Clark
in this area, and Johnny Kage, who came
down from Seattle to lend a hand and see
his mllny operator friends here. Chief in-
terest was centered around such improve-
ments as the new "cleared-for-action" serv-
ice feature, which permits easy accessibil-
ity to all the mechanism from the front,
new lighting arrangements and design, plus
noticeably improved tone quality. It is
claimed that some 33 major changes have
'been made in this model.
Operators were told of Wurlitzer's plan
to inaugurate an extensive national adver-
tising campaign using magazine and bill-
board advertising on a large scale to stimu-
late interest in automatic phonographs as
a source of diversion.
The Clark Company's new Portland of.
'flce is now open after many alterations at
1005 N. W. 16th Ave., and will include
complete shop facilities and parts depart-
ment for the Wurlitzer operator.
Helen Cusson of Jack R. Moore's head-
quarters announces that the initial showing
of the new Seeburg Model 146 phonograph
'will be held in Portland on Jan. 25th.
Dan J. Donohue, Regfonal District Mana-
ger for Seeburg is expected to be present
at this event as is Clyde G. Port, Sales En-
gineer in charge of Field Service, and Jos-
eph E. Kamys. George Gale, now out of the
service, is back in the Moore organization,
James Canon is the new accountant, and
Wendel Bays is the new stock clerk. Helen
and Ed Cusson~-s BOll Arthur is now at
Guinan on the Isle of Samar in tbe Philip-
pines on patrol boat duty.
Roland Allen, General Manager of Schoen
Enterprises, reports that Chuck T--"~on is
We Have Available For
I~mediale
FREE PLAYS
A.B.C ....................... $ 62.50
Air Circ:us .............. 119.50
Band Wagon ............ 45.00
Big Parade .............. 129.50
Bolaway .................. 77.50
Cadillac: .................. 30.00
.. Plastic: B........ 37.50
Defense .................... 95.00
Dixie ........................ 37.50
Double Ftr. .............. 32.50
5-10-20 .................... 109.50
Formation ................ 35.00
4 Diamonds .............. $
Glamour ..................
Gold Star ................
Gun Club ................
Jungle ......................
Limelight ..................
Masc:ot ....................
On Dec:k ..................
Paradise ..................
Playball ..................
Power House ..........
Punc:h ......................
65.00
50.00
37.50
79.50
72.50
34.50
30.00
25.00
45.00
47.50
30.00
22.50
Delivery
Sea Hawk _ .. _ .......... $
Seven Up ................
Polo ..........................
Slugger ....................
Snappy....................
Spot Pool................
Stars ........................
Super Six ................
Target Sk. ..............
Vic:tory ......................
Wildfire ....................
Zig Zag ....................
52.00
42.50
30.00
64.50
64.50
64.50
67.50
32.50
37.50
92.50
47.50
64.50
CONSOLES
Mills Jumbo Parade HH. P.0 ........... $159.50
Mills Jumbo Parade F.P ..................... 119.50
High Hand, Comb ................................ 195.00
MUSIC
ARCADE
Bally Rapid Fire .................................... $150.00
Bally Convoy ...................................... 175.00
Bally Shoot-The-Bull ............................ 50.00
Chic:ken Sam ........................................ 75.00
Wurliher 41 Counter ........................ $165.00
Wurlitzer 61 Counter .......................... 149.50
Wurliher Twin 16, Steel Cab •• Roc:k-
Ola Glamour Tone Column with 7
Buc:kley 32 Rec:ord Boxes, c:omplete 675.00
Give Second and Third Choice. 1/3 Deposit. Balance C.O.D.
NOBRO NOVELTY CO.
(FORMERLY OPERATORS EXCHANGE)
369 Ellis Street
San Francisco 2. Calif.
now out of the Navy and in charge of their
night service department in Vancouver,
Wash. Roland left on the 21st for Los An-
geles vacationing until the end of the
month.
Over at Western Distributors, Budge
Wright announces that his service depart-
ment will be leaving shortly for Kansas
City to attend Aireon's school for service
men, which leads us to believe that some-
thing will be cooking with Aireon before
long.
Lou Dunis of Portland Amusement ex-
pects to be seeing Fred Fields of Seattle
within a few days. Fred is the newly ap-
pointed representative for Oregon and
Washington for the Packard Manufacturing
Co.
There has been a heluvan epidemic of flu
in the city of Portland in the last few
months, and the guy writing this is doing
so in bed, hovering between life and death,
which somewhat accounts for the uninter-
esting character of this letter.
FritilS Hall
Seattle
The Row is perkin' like an overheated
coffee pot. While the order· takers have lit-
tle to show except display models, the
promise of solid shipments·to·come wafts
showrooms like the scent of lilac on a
spring day. Everybody knows they're com-
ing but no one's waiting until Delivery Day
to prepare. The solid beat of hammers, play.
ing sweet accompaniment to the whirring
whine of drills, shelf reinforcements and
floor-wall invasions proclaim better than
mere words the halcyon days to come.
In rapid·fire order, here's what's cookin':
Every third word spoken in Western Dis-
tributors is "Aireon" and every saw·stroke
brings inches closer the floor space required
for housing and maintenance.
Plans are blue-printed and ready; $25,000
nestles in his check book as Frank Count-
ner awaits work startage on his super new
building which will house extensive shop
rooms, phonograph records, and a modern
appliance department.
Ken Shyvers' $15,000 studio has been
completed in Bremerton. Equipment for the
phono master's eye·opening invention is
rapidly being installed. In Inid-January Ken
will have unmasked his brain buster.
Carpenters are still beating the boards at
COIN
Seattle Coin Machine Company in prepara- MACHIN.
tion for an enlarged shop.
REVIEW
Ten whirlwind days of remodeling un-
veiled a lavish display room at Clark Dis-
tributing; a lease has been clamped on the
entire building; in several months 9,000
feet of flooring will clear for action the
FOR
phono with the "cleared for action" fea- FEBRUARY
ture.
'94'
Is it possible to double warehouse and
counter space without requiring additional
footage? The sleight-oI-hand artists at Sun-
set Electric, Columbia Record distributors,
not only turned the trick but tossed in a
streamlined, production·pronto job as well.
. With the aid of wheeled carts, orders are
rolled in, billed, packed, shipped and re-
ceived by the customer soon after the ink
of his order· pen has dried.
Those who haven't begun tearing down
to build are hungrily eyeing every inch of
available area, tugging at boxes, and wish-
ing for a Mandrake.
The hot potato of last month is now cool,
comfortable, and resting nicely, thank you.
If you perused these lines in January's
REVIEW, you are aware of the city council's
proposed ordinance limiting pin game lic-
enses to 2,000 and how opposition of tavern
and restaurant owners torpedoed the pro-
posal into indefinite postponement. Presi-
dent of the Council, James Scavatto, who
fathered the bill, departed on an out·of-
town trip; when he returned, he discovered
an alternate measure had been passed into
a city ordinance. A careful reading of the
new law convinced Scavatto that it was
salutary for the operators; careful question-
ing of Scavatto by the REVIEW'S Seattle
representative confirms that opinion.
First, there is no limit to the number of
licenses that may be issued. Second, every
operator aoolying for renewal or for a new
license will appear before the city council
and list his locations. Third, the council
will either approve or disapprove; if turned
down, the operator has no further recourse
because under the municipal licensing code,
the council is vested with police powerS
which ring the bell of finality. Says Council
Prexy Scavatto: "Under the old regulation,
an operator could walk into the County.
City Building and buy 100 licenses, then
75
th .. operator see the '46 machine first, then
decide." Jack Moore, still smiling, departed
from the scene with these words: "Deliv-
eries of new models will begin in Febru-
ary."
During his recent visit in Southern California Rudy Greenbaum, Aireon Vice-Prexy found
time to call on one of his distributors, Nickabob Co. Pictured are, left to right: Bill Simmons,
Aireon Regional Sales Manager; Willis Benson, Nickabob Office Manager; Greenbaum, and
Nick Carter, head of Nickabob Co. and Nickabob Sales Co., Los Angeles and Fresno.
proceed to oust an incumbent's games by
offering the location increased commissions.
With the new ordinance in effect, the oper-
ator applying for one or more licenses-
either additional ones or renewals-must
tell us exactly where he intends to place
the games; if the locations named are al-
ready amply provided with pin tables, then
his application will be disapproved. No lic-
ense applications will be disapproved arbi-
COIN
MACHINE trarily or capriciously; the council will act
fairly and impartially."
REVIEW
For fifty-one years Dame Fortune out-
dueled, outfought and out-maneuvered the
Grim Reaper whenever it tried to cast its
spell over the Shyvers clan. But three days
before Christmas the Reaper reaped. Death
FOil
FEBRUARY of Ken's mother in Des Moines, Iowa, was
the family's first in more than a half cen-
1946
tury. Ken and Brother Loren motored-or,
to be literally accurate-iced home for the
funeral. "The trip consisted of about 1800
miles on sleet and 400 on good roads," Ken
narrated. "When it got rough, we took half
the poundage out of the ti res and practic·
ally drove on flats."
100,000 service men were trying to get
home; every kind of kindling that could be
made to look like a box was called a
"train" ; the weather was sub-zero, and
everything was breaking-including a coach
which snapped in two just before reaching
Minneapolis-when Seeburg called and Bert
Beutler answered. He sandwiched his offi-
cial business with a Christmas visit to Mrs.
Beutler's Ashland, Kentucky home, but af-
ter that Bert was the sandwich victim and
it was a close press all the way.
A Victor innovation has turned into a
landslide of sales. A short while back the
company announced that fifteen hit tunes
of years bygone-such as Dinah Shore sing-
ing "Blues in the Night"; "Begin the Be-
guine", with Artie Shaw; Wayne King's
rendition of "Josephine"-would be waxed
with the same number on both sides. "This
was a good-will gesture aimed at the oper-
ators," explained Bert Proctor of the local
branch. "You've heard the plaint of the
phonograph boys: a hit tune on one side, a
Class B on tbe other. The hit tune plays
and plays until the record is unplayable,
then it's discarded without the other side
hardly feeling the needle. The operator will
be able to get double play out of those
fifteen specials."
It was ten days before Christmas and
all through the Inn, all the creatures were
stirring (their drinks); there was even a
mouse (under the eye of a soldier after
trying to scuttle the navy). The Inn was
Lockhart's and the occasion a farewell-
Christmas party for George Schnabel. Fea-
76
ture event of the evening was the alleged
personal appearance of Jerry Colonna which
turned out to be "Three Alarm" Alsdorf
hiding his lip behind a black bushel. Puget
Sound cohorts presented George with a
Ronson cigarette lighter and case. Events
transpiring afterward are slightly dimmed
by the 90%, which is good enough proof for
anybody as long as it comes out of a bottle.
A few days later George placed a steady
hand on the steering wheel and guided his
car to the Southland for a short trip.
We've heard the sad lament of the record
jobbers for months and months: no stock
today. We've seen lonely shelves craving for
companionship of a few discs. Now that re-
conversion is here, we expected the deluge
to pour forth. But did it? Listen to a quick
poll of the Big Three: Bert Proctor, Victor:
"During the past month there's been less
stock, not more-and here's why: more
classical albums for Christmas meant fewer
popular tunes." Andy Huffine, Decca:
"We're getting less stock." J. H. Johnson,
Columbia: "Our incoming shipments have
been increasing."
Paratrooper Donnie Davis chuted into the
shop of Western Distributors after riding
the skies of Europe with a winged battalion
of dare-Nazi·devils and concentrating for
a year in a camp by the same name. Now
he joins brother-in-law Vern Preston in Sol-
ly Solomon's emporium.
The candy boys are beaming optimism
along with the rest of the industry. The first
of March increased shipments are expected.
By summer the sweet stuff should jam ware-
housing facilities to the rafters. But right
now? Take that knife away, pal; we can
cut the gloom without it. The sad fact is
that candy manufacturers, having used up
their fourth quarter sugar allotment in
November, were unable to wrap a morsel
in December. Result? The worst shortage
ever, war or no war.
Comfortably astride the saddle of his
motorcycle, Curly Gohr bounced along the
street. The wind whipped at his shaggy
mane and poked playful fingers at his bil-
lowing shirt. Life was so free, so zestful,
so-dangerous! Curly saw the automobile
without lights coming at him-and then
everything was a black tangle. He recov-
ered from back and foot injuries in time to
hie to Los Angeles and join his family for
Christmas.
Smiling Jack Moore entered the scene
with these words: "The Seattle showing of
the 1946 Seeburg Phonograph will be held
in our showrooms January 24th. It'll be
open house. We're not taking orders now.
We're not asking any operator to tie up
with our line exclusively. Our policy is: Let
Meet the hoys at the revamped offices of
Columbia: AI Brosche, "inside man," in
charge of incoming and outgoing ship-
ments; J. H. Johnson, ambassador of orders
and good will in metropolitan Seattle and
Eastern Washington; Morrie Littlejohn, for·
mer Victor satelite, covering Western
Washington; and Ray Mitchell, ex-radio
specialist, at the counter.
Meandering Among the Microbes: a strep
germ, looking for something better in life~
moved into the abscess class and attacked
Vern Preston's throat. After a brief hos-
pitalization, Vern returned fit for shop ac-
tion. An infectious brother bacteria fIued
"Three Alarm" Alsdorf and Charley Mi-
chael. The beauteous blondshell at Nelson-
Michael is walking around with two cracked
ribs and a puzzled look. She's puzzled be-
cause the why, the how or the when of the
ribbing is an enigmatic mystery. No cracks.
fell as ! Two ribs are enough!
The saga of Bob Chamberlin is the para-
dox of a story with a happy ending and an
unhappy ending. Discharged from the serv-
ice, Bob returned to Seattle-but only for a
short visit. Son "Sandy," aged five, is in
California with a recurrent attack of rheu-
matic fever; medicos recommend that he
stay in the Southland where Old Sol can
perform miracles of healing. So it's hello
and goodbye to Bob . Chamberiin until early
summer when he makes his return perma-
nent.
Top-kick of a local firm reveals some in-
teresting sidelights on discharged veterans
and the current period of readj ustment:
"Some of the boys work out swell, but some
-well, after what they've gone through, no
one can blame them, although it does make
it difficult-but the nervous ones, particu-
larly those who have suffered from nervous
fatigue, pose a problem. We had one such
chap who was a model of deportment until
late in the afternoon when he became tired.
Then he verged on hysteria, shouting at the
top of his voice, quarreling violently. and
generally throwing the establishment into
chaos. Some veterans are unable to settle
down to one job but keep drifting. Others
apparently feel that after the years of priva-
tion and sacrifice-and we are sympathetic
and try to be as helpful as possible-that
they are entitled to start near the top in-
stead of at the bottom. After all, a man
coming into a new business-regardless of
any war experience-still has to learn the
trade."
Coinings on the CuD-Flash from Disc-
land: Normal record production in 90 days
. . . Major Ray Pepple, commander of an
armored tank corps which steam rolled the
Nazis, is now Civilian Ray Pepple, pro-
prietor of a North End Grocery store. Ray
formerly opped for Joe Hart ... Clark Dis-
tributing scored 'a beat on the field by show-
ing Wurlitzer hrst. Production models held
the attention of throngs of operators J an-
uary 6.
Thelma Oliver is due for discharge short-
ly ... A sleeper disc that may awake some
morning to find itself a best-needier: AI
Dexter's "Guitar Polka" . . . Ex-Countner-
ite Frank Scanlon is phono-ing for Nelson-
Michael.
Bulletin from the separation center: place
an "ex" before the name of Navyman Marv
Pickett, formerly with Heberling's . . •
Ere heading for Cal., Alex Lewis sales-
slipped his Tacoma phono route to Harold
Fowler ... A holiday visitor: Rudy Peter-
son, back from Pendleton, Oregon, where
(See SEATTLE, Page 79)

Download Page 75: PDF File | Image

Download Page 76 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.