Indianapolis
COIN
MACHINE
/IIi EW
106
FOR
FEBRUARY
1947
It's surprising how many guys are getting
ideas these days. The slight seasonal slump
must have given these fellows time for some
heavy thinking. Nobody beefing, all eyes on
the ball, and it looks like coin operators as
a whole should bear watching in the very
near future.
Personal Music is getting a nice shove-off,
with Paul Jock of P-J Distributing doing
some shoving_ Paul also distributes AMI
and has some beautiful set-ups using PM's
studio equipment with timing control, auto-
matic volume control, and other refine-
ments, along with two AMI record changer
units.
This combination was shown to me by
"Dutch" Holman of Janes Music; and while
it won't fry hamburgers, it will talk and
sing for you, kick out a troublesome ampli-
fier or record changer and keep carrying on.
Dutch is all steamed up over Personal
Music, and Mrs_ Blanche Janes isn't far
behind_ The difference is that Dutch has a
charley horse from carrying one of the
boxes under his left arm.
Which brings us to new service offered to
operators by Janes Music_ They have a
surprising number 01 pairs leased from the
telephone company, and will pipe music to
any operator's location for a specified
monthly {)harge plus rental of the circuit.
Dutch explains that an operator may drive
up to his location with a location-.amplifier
and an armload of boxes and make instal-
lation of a small amount of equipment, then
turn on the piped music. Some deal.
Tex Holley of Vending Ma~hine Ex-
change reports business as usual, except
that he keeps talking about flying. Offers to
fly parts or equipment to any operator
anywhere in emergencies. He carries a
pretty fair parts inventory, and will pick up
anything available in town, making the
flight for the usual rate.
Southern Automatic gave ' a party on
January 18 and 19 in the nature of a service
school on Scientific Sound Distribution and
the '47 Seeburg. Refreshments were served.
Congratulations are in order for Al
Bland, Southern Automatic service super-
vis.or. B~by girl arrived December 29. ,Both
domg . mcely, thank you. Al was slated to
go on territory the first of the year, but
remained at the old bench until after the
service school. He hit the road January 20.
Peter Stone of India~a Automatic Sales,
Rock-Ola distributor, announces the ap-
pointment of Frank Wey, a former Terre
Haute operator, as state sales representa-
. tive. Pete thinks he can keep busy with
other duties, including direct supervision of
their service department. Mrs. Stone takes
care of the front office.
Game operators got a nice buzz from a
local columnist recently when the Times
ran a picture of Martin Joachim, service-
man for Sicking Co., servicing a pin ball.
Arcade Equipment
RAY GUNS
or CONSOLES?
-SEE-
PAUL A. LAYMON
Di sTRIBUTOR
Devoted the day's column to describing the
play, and how a "sharpie" gave him a lesson
on body english and other fine points. Mar-
tin is an able hand at the business, well-
known here; he formerly operated in Los
Angeles.
Ran into Tom Graves at Sicking's, who
had just picked up four new pin games to
take home to Muncie. Tom is a former
operator, and after a four-year lapse, can't
keep away from it.
The question of nickel or dime play is
sorta mixed up here, what with Wurlitzer
for a dime; Seeburg for a nickel, and others
on the fence. Many operators are taking
advantage of the price campaign in the
press to up percentages to where they right-
fully belong. There are still too many loca-
tions getting 50 Pt?r cent.
Another write-up in the Indianapolis
Times gave Personal Music a' good build-up
recently. Paul Jock claims Henry Windt,
local operator, put in the first Personal
M usic install~tion in Indiana, and he also
has been offering the piped music deal to
other operators, so I stand corrected.
Greatest evil at P-J Distributing is that
they're unable to get sufficient AMI's to
supply the trade. Enough pin baIrs of most
kinds are being received.
Kyle Herder of Brandt Distributing, Wur-
litzer people, says Pete Brandt just spent a
couple of days with them, and was happy
'over the looks of things generally. Brandt
returned to headquarters in St. Louis. This
concern took over the distributorship from
Indiana Simplex in November. Herder says
they have received their first shipment of
the new 1080 Colonial Model, and they are
being shipped to operators as fast as they
arrive. Dick Wagner of the local sales staff
is now in charge of Evansville territory,
replacing Jim Parsons who resigned. Les
Hagglund, covering Northern Indiana for
Brandt, has been ill for two weeks, but is
now back on the territory. Herder says he's
getting orders for dime and three for a
quarter chutes, and will furnish them
wherever required. Seems to think that the
dime campaign is being misconstrued by
the public as well as operators, and ,would
like to leave the impression that the oper-
ator decides what he wants and if he thinks
dime play will, go, Wurlitzer has broken the
ice for him.
It appears that everyone who amounts to
much is attending the Chicago show, and I
could have sold an armload of tickets, as
well as hotel accommodations.
Some of these boys are really hard to
catch at home. Had several dry calls this
trip, and would like to drop a hint to
anyone with news and views to leave a nate
in the office around the last few days of the
month, and save someone a lot of shoe
leather.
C. A rthur W "llace
Fori Worih
Fort Worth operators did not wind up
their 1946 business in a blaze of glory, but
they did come through with a December
volume not too much below their expecta-
tions. Local coin machine business was
hampered by extreme cold weather during
the last week of 1946 and the first week of
1947. Sub-freezing temperatures, ice and
snow kept the volume of all business below
normal and coin machine trade in particular
was hard hit.
.
On the cheerful side, however: is the fact
that as a whole, 1946 was a good year for
the local Coin Machine Industry. The com-
pleted year's business was at least 20 to 25
per cent above that of 1945. ' ' .
Charles Beale, coin machine man of
Bowie, considers himself the luckiest man
in these parts. During the Christmas holi-
I
Jays, Charles purchased a $1.00 ticket in an
automobile rame that was being conducted
in Oklahoma. Thinking he was only accom-
modating a friend, Charles soon forgot
about the ticket. Imagine his surprise when
he was telephoned at his Bowie home and
informed that he was the lucky winner. He
was showing local coinsters his sporty new
Nash sedan on his recent visit to coin
machine row.
W. E. Dixon of Southwest Amusement
Co. reports more AMI phonographs are now
being received by his firm, but not enough
machines to fill the backlog of orders that
has accumulated during the recent busy
weeks. Dix is also quite optimistic over
AMI promises of increased deliveries in the
early weeks of 1947.
. Clarence Cleere, head of the Cleere Music
Co. arid Trinity Distributing Co. is a busy
man these days, but not too busy tll keep
his ea,r to the ground for trends in the coin
machine business. Clarence says that music
business of local operators is now at the
leveling off stage. As ' Cleere sees it, local
operators may"look forward to a somewhat
. smaller gross take from music operations
in 1947 than they received in 1946. But
according til our prophet, 1947 will be more
profitable for the operator.
Our seer explains this seeming paradox
by pointing out that music operators will '
either reduce or eliminate some operating
expenses in 1947 that were willingly allowed
last year when their volume was at peak
heights. Smarter operating, by eliminating
' antiquated music equipment and unprofit-
able locations, will also help 1947 grosses.
We hope Cleere is right. He usually is.
Frank W. Wood
L. A. County 'O perators
In Critical Plight
LOS ANGELES-Amusement gaIiJe oper-
' ators of the unincorporated area of Los
Ange~s County are face to face with the
most difficult fight since the inception of
games in. March 1937. A combination of
varied factors is responsible for the present
situation. Violations of Section 338 of ihe
Penal Code (free play clause), promiscuous
talk by operators and location owners an
. excessive number of machines in one ~pot,
and operators' political activities have all
contributed to the present dilemma.
Besides pledging to adhere strictly to th e
letter of the law, AOLAC members agreed
to build good' will among locations and the
public so that a more tolerant attitude
~ould . be forthcoming as an aid to staying
m busmess.
At the Januau 8 meeting it was decided
to cut down on the number of games on
each location to prevent them from being
eyesores; members also voted for a mora-
torium on all locations (no "bumping" of
spots) until the next meeting, and okehed
a motion that no location would have mo~e
than one console.
"Curley" Robinson, managing director of
AOLAC, stated that the association would
police locations and recommend a decrease
in the number of machines if that would
serve the best interests of the local industry.
_150 attended.
Art Mohr, association attorney, also spoke.
SUCJar Decontrol Seen
By First of July
NEW YORK-Sugar price and rationing
control will be removed by July 1, accord-
ing to a prediction made by Daniel L. Dyer,
sugar broker.
"Decontrol could come tomorrow, despite
the general expectation that controls will
continue through 1947," he said. "Myobser-
vation is that sugar control is crumbling,
whether we like it or not."