Coin Slot Magazine - #033 - 1977 - October [International Arcade Museum]
was around 1898 when they formed The Western Novelty Com
pany in Kalamazoo, incorporating their bustling company in the
Fall of 1899. Their advertising proclaimed that they were "manu
facturers slot and amusement machines", and their products made
an immediate impression on the market. They started out big,
making a 5-way floor machine similar to the Mills OWL which
they called the ELK. Next, to match the popularity of the PUCK
made by the Illinois Machine Company in Chicago and the Caille-
Schiemer Company in Detroit, they made HONEST JOHN. It
wasn't just a name, for its moniker
meant something.
There were no
plugs on HONEST JOHN; the player
could see the way the wheel worked,
and every stop was live. Then, when
the 8-way machines made by the
Automatic Machine & Tool Company
in Chicago, World's Novelty in New
York, and other producers in New
York, Detroit, and Chicago, came out,
Western Novelty made an even bigger
version of the "straight" machine in
an 8-way model which they again
called THE ELK.
There must have been a lot of HONEST JOHN'S around.
Location
records and photos confirm placement in St. Louis, New Orleans,
Chicago and elsewhere around the country. Used machines were
even being advertised in 1901 when local law enforcement closed
down on the locations in Key West, Florida, with an "Honest Jno,
6-way automatic" up for sale for $20.00. The only hitch was that
the buyer had to pick it up, and Key West was a fer piece away.
Machine placement is also evident by the wide spread sales offices
opened by The Western Novelty Company in key operating areas,
with Western offices in Chicago and St. Louis, with reps in New
York, Denver and San Francisco.
But wherever the machines
were placed, and where they went after that is anybody's guess.
Only one example is known to exist today, Serial No. 1033, and
it's in the hands of a collector and restorer in Colorado.
com
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use HONEST JOHN is unique.
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As a gambling machine
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load only .a one
Not only is it n the
rcad around, it is also a classic example of
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Do maker's
the cabinet
www art. At the time the machine was made, the
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world capital
htt of fine furniture, store cases and cabinets was Grand
Rapids, Michigan, a fast freight-train ride of less than two hours
15
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