Coin Slot Magazine - #045 - 1978 - October [International Arcade Museum]
design format showing an eagle facing left - peace eagles of the day
apparently face right -- hence the nickname.
The most popular machine was yet to come, arriving on the
scene in 1933 as the SILENT MYSTERY, or just MYSTERY. The
name MYSTERY came from the fact the machine introduced the
3-5 payout, replacing the earlier 2-4 standard.
The first machines
on location made their surprisingly larger payouts without benefit
of reward cards.
In
1937 the MYSTERY was upgraded at the same time the
SI LENT was, with the newer machine in a light oak cabinet sport
ing a single jackpot front.
Only now the name was changed, with
even Mills calling it BLUE FRONT. Serials took another big jump,
going from the 400,000 range up into the 470,000 range as pro
duction eased toward an end with the coming of WWII.
At the end of the thirties Mills came out with the CHROME,
called "Diamond Front" because of the red diamond designs on its
front casting.
The line was so successful that Mills kept the theme
_going, coming out in the summer of 1941 with a front and cabinet
finished in gold glitter.
The machine is called GOLD CHROME,
quickly named "Gold Diamond/' or "Gold Front."
It was just as
quickly followed up by a handload jackpot model in a sparkling
green glitter called EMERALD CHROME. "Green Diamond" and
"Emerald Handload" are the names that followed.
ember 1941, COPPER CHROME was introduced.
Then, in Dec
But that ended
the Mills line as America went to war.
After the war Mills came back with the BLACK CHERRY, a
remarkable number of which have survived in mint and "not used"
condition.
GOLDEN FALLS was a handload version in a new
cabinet, followed by the Mills JEWEL, the first "hightop", in
1947. Other than a few experiments in club counter and console
models, the "Hightops" ended the Mills Bell line just as they started
the Bell-O-Matic line of machines made in Reno, Nevada, for the
next decade.
Bell-O-Matic (which later became Mills Bell-O-Matic)
com
live on today.
.
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e-m track at this stage are serials
The major gaps in a
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ded Mills ca serial
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and machine identifications
own ww.a between 30,000 and 100,000 and any
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indication of the "Hightop"
serials starting in January, 1947. Ser
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ttp:/ can also indicate which machines went in
ials from the h thirites
kept the old
Mills serials going, and they still
and out of production in a hurry, and which ones came back again.
We have most of the answers to these mysteries in our machines.
© The International Arcade Museum 12
http://www.arcade-museum.com/