Whitney became an American citizen. She
has been somewhat homesick for her fam-
ily and friend and left the latter part of
May fOT an extended visit, going first
from New York to England, then to
France for a visit, then over to Africa
and after a visit there will return by way
of South America and Mexico to California
and back to Denver.
Maynard Todd, sales manager phono·
graph division of Rock-Ola, visited all
Rock-Ola operators in this territory durin!!
May. Leo Negri, Modern's sales manager,
recently made a trip to the Western Slope
and to Wyoming. He is at present in
Wyoming.
The Blackwell Distributing Co. recently
received its new Aireon phonograph mod-
el. It is being shown and is very well
received, according to Mrs. Nilla King of
the company. The model is somewhat
smaller, with some minor differences, but in
the main has all the good qualities of
Aireon machines.
Clarence Burg, of the Walker Music Co.,
is planning on a vacation in the near
future, together with his family.
Frances Conrey
New Vending Department
At Ferrara Candy Co.
CHICAGO- Sweet Shell is a new trade
brand name to cover a variety of products
for selling in bulk vendors, now offered by
Ferrara Candy Co. here. Among the items
to be offered for bulk vending are coated
peanuts, lozenges, baked bean confections
and other forms well known to the trade. A
variety of peanut coatings will be offered.
George Eby, so well known to the vend-
ing trade during his many years of associ-
ation with Pan Confection factory here,
heads a new vending machine department
in the Ferrara firm. Eby refers to the sum-
mer season and says he will gi~ special
attention to operating needs for the warm
season. He has made a specialty of study-
ing hot weather problems that confront
operators and will be glad to offer his
suggestions to any inquiring operator. He
work ed in close cooperation with some of
the largest bulk vendor operators in the
country during recent years and his com-
pany is making its merchandise to conform
to ideas gained from the trade.
Eby says the firm also offers some five-
cent packaged items, including chocolate
coated nuts and beans, which will prove
good summer sellers in regular candy bar
machines.
Eby has long championed the idea of
cleanliness in vending machines and says
he .has not lost his enthusiasm for the idea.
He says cleanliness is more important dur-
ing the summer months than any other
time.
Columbus Vendors Popular
OAKLAND-Because Columbus vendors
are low in price and easy to service,
th ereby enabling operators to buy a large
quantity of machines for a small invest-
ment, more and more vending men are
climbing aboard the Columbus bandwagon
a nd riding to Profit Lane, according to
Bert Fraga, whose Standard Specialty firm
di stributes the machine in Northern Cali-
fornia.
"Due to a strike in the glass fa ctory,
production has been slowed down," Fraga
sa id, "and shipm ents from the factory have
likewise de creased. We ask our many cus-
tom e rs to bear with us for a short tillle
until thi s situation clears up. Take it from
thousands of successful ve llding operators
throughout th e country·-it pays to wait
for Columbus."
PersonalifY,,'I f.il11
o'fheMonlh l R I
THE REVIEWS HAlL OF FANE
Carl Trippe
Whenever any coin machine operator
around St. Louis calls Carl Trippe a
"South Side Dutchman," Carl takes it as
a compliment-for in 15 years of activity in
every phase of the Coin Machine Industry,
he's come to believe that it takes the
phlegmatic calm characteristics of a Dutch-
man to make a go of the business.
Now one of the best-known figures in St.
Louis Coin-machinedom, Trippe got into
the Industry "by the back way." In 1930
he was driving an express truck, which was
frequently called upon to deliver phono-
graphs, pin balls and vending machines to
locations in and around St. Louis. Carl,
like -everybody else in. the pre-depression
years, was on the lookout for a worthwhile
business to invest in, and when he found
that the most promptly-paid bills for his
express service were invariably connected
with the Coin Machine Industry, he said
to himself, "That's it."
Unlike many operators who plunged in
with big investments and lived to regret
it later on, Carl started on a small scale.
His firs t warehouse and office was a garage
in back of his home in South St. Louis,
where in 1932, he bought his first pin ball
machine, augmented by a stock of North-
western peanut and candy vending ma-
chines. At that time locations were to be
had for the asking, and Carl had no dif-
ficulty in spotting every machine he could
rake up the money to pay for.
Trippe invested in more and more equip-
ment. From the outset, however, he was
impressed with the role played by the dis-
tributor in the Industry, and he began
clamoring for distribution rights almost
from the start. Thus, in 1932, he was
awarded distributorship for the newly in-
corporated Bally line, and shortly afterward
Northwestern vending equipment, and a
couple of others which have since gone out
of business.
Distributing from a garage didn't carry
quite the necessary prestige, Carl decided.
Therefore, in 1936, he took over what had
been a grimy, narrow shop on Market St.
near downtown St. Louis, which quickly
became a sort of coin machine museum for
operators. Carl was one of the first dis-
tributors to set up a service shop available
to all operators, to carry a complete stock
of parts, and to both operate and distribute
with the same equipment. He proved him-
self so ·successful in both fields that he won
the Rock-Ola franchise for St. Louis, and
extended his operating activities. Since
then, of course, operating has become such
a headache that Carl has unwillingly sacri-
ficed most of his routes to the pressure of
a distributing business-all except for one
small phonograph route which he still main-
tains to more or less "keep his hand in."
The Market St. location soon overflowed
with pin balls, vendors, phonographs, parts,
punchboards, merchandise lines, and in
fact , everything related to th e coin machine
field. Carl gradually took over adjoining
shops, knocked out partitions to form a
huge warehouse, but still bulged at the
seams. During this period, St. Louis coin
machine operators and distributors got
together to form the old Phonograph
Owners of St. Louis Association, Missouri
Vending Machin e Association, etc., which
have since been tran smuted into the present
Missouri Amusement Machine Association.
.About 1939, when it was impossible to
get so much as another roller skate into the
Market St. headquarters, Carl took a big
breath and decided to put distributing on
a grandiose scale previously unheard of
in this area. By careful maneuvering, he
got the lease on a two-story, 7500 square
foot building at 2833 I;ocust Ave., where
the present Ideal Novelty Co. still holds
forth. A lot of operators will recall with
nostalgia the opening party and banquet
which Carl staged. Manufacturers' repre-
sentatives from all his lines were on hand,
photographers shot pictures, banquet tables
were loaded down with fine foods, and an
8-man bar went full-blast. The Locust St.
headquarters were the biggest thing in
coin machine circles at the time, with
extensive repair shop, huge warehouse
space in basement and second floor, and a
sales office complete with separate show-
rooms, executive offices, and vast display
windows. Just prior to the war, this build-
ing, too, became over-crowded.
"Anyhow it was a big improvement over
the catacombs we had to work in on
Market St.," Trippe has been known to
say.
About five years ago he became highly
interested in arcade management, with the
result that Ideal Novelty Co. arcades
popped up in the downtown district, and
in four amusement parks surrounding the
St. Louis area. Not content with buying
and seIling, as well as operating arcade
equipment, Trippe also looked into the
roller rink field, and has owned as many
as five or six at a time. Right now t!J.ere
are three . Ideal roller rinks. Buying and
seIling arcades, operating them in amuse-
ment parks, and enjoying substantial suc-
cess with his roller rinks, Trippe went
through a lot of refinancing manipulations
and loans, whit h has always kept the ljead
bookkeeper at Ideal Novelty on his toes.
For the past several years Trippe has kept
up his arcade operation in three amuse-
ment parks, one of which, "Chain · of
Rocks," he bought outright and operates
as a branch of Ideal Novelty. Thus, he
owns a distributing business, coin machine
route in central Southeast Missouri, a
phonograph route in St. Louis, a series of
arcades and roller rinks, and last but not
least, two roller coasters. Not a bad spread,
some observers say, when you realize he
began with a few peanut vending machines
in a one-car St. Louis garage!
Now 46, and slimmed down after a year's
tussle with a reducing diet, Trippe tears
himself away from work occasionally to
indulge in his three hobbies, fishing, photo-
graphy, and traveling. With Mrs. Trippe,
he frequently takes his two children, Mar-
lene and Carol, 9 and 11 years old re-
spectively, on extended trips to New York,
Chicago, and New Orleans. At Christmas,
the Trippe home annually wins St. Louis
awards for holiday decorations. As a
means of relaxation, Carl carries an ex-
pensive candid camera, and has at one
time or another snapped almost every cus-
tomer or business associate who will stand
still. For the past two . years he has been
teIling operator-customers that he's retiring;
that the pressure is too much-but the
chances are that ten years from now he
will still be on the scene.
Candy.Coated Gum
CHICAGO-Leaf Gum Co. will soon in-
troduce a new candy-coated chewing gum
to the market, in addition to several other
developments now ori the work boards.
The new product will be merchandised
under the trade name "Leaflets." P. R.
Trent, director of sales and advertising,
states that the gum will incorporate several
new factors in the field.
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
109
FOR
JULY
"47