Coin Slot Magazine - #024 - 1977 - January [International Arcade Museum]
Questions & Answers
By Dick Bueschel
Q. It
looks
like
OPERATOR
an
early
BELL,
Mills
and
it
even has Owl logos in the side
castings.
But the front casting
has the name
BELL FRUIT
GUM and a device saying "In
dustry Novelty Co." with the
initials "O.D.J."
Illinois
A. The machine is a Jennings re
vamp of the old Mills "Iron
Case" OPERATOR
1910.
BELL of
Ode D. Jennings, who
worked for the Mills Novelty
Company,
went
off
on
his
own and in 1906 started ope
rating a used machine business
as the Industry Novelty Com
pany
in
Chicago.
By 1911,
with the instant success of the 3-reel Bell machines, Jennings was
buying up Mills machines in closed territories and putting on his
own check payout cabinet fronts and reel strips, picking up the
idea of fruit symbols from Mills, reselling them as his own.
Al
though this Industry Novelty BELL FRUIT GUM Machine pro
fessed to sell gum, it was actually a gambling Bell machine with
com
.
m
:
1916.
u
from -muse
d
e
e
load .a went
From revamping, n Jennings
rcad into manufacturing and after WWI
w
Do his // own
he was making
www Bell machines and vendors, ultimately be
:
p
tt
coming the h
second
largest Bell machine producer next to Mills.
payouts in trade checks.
It's date is probably between 1914 and
In 1920, he changed the name of his firm to O.D. Jennings and
Company.
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