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Coin Slot

Issue: 1979 May 051

Coin Slot Magazine - #051 - 1979 - May [International Arcade Museum]
A SAFRI IN SEARCH OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT
ROBERT L. FRANKENBERGER, PH.D.
206 MEADOW DRIVE
There it sits. . .in the family room between the
Dewey and the digger.
chest-type freezer.
dirty snow.
it.
As beg and as square as a
It looks like a cubic yard of
My wife hates it. My friends laugh at
each.
macomb, Illinois
A nice profit and an apparent good deal
for collectors of odd-ball machines.
A person in
the southwest is reported to have bought twenty
Elephants at $800 each.
He got nervous about
Even I am beginning to lose affection for it.
his herd of Elephants and began selling them out.
It is developing a malevolent personality of its own.
A friend from St. Louis and I bought two out of
it snarls instead of hums.
It clanks and clatters
like a disposal full of hammers.
What am I going
it was.
to do with this thing?
By
now you
Denver from "Slick Al" for $1000 each. I'd never
seen one but only heard what a mechanical marvel
should
have guessed that the
As I helped my friend in St. Louis unload his
"THING" is the famous 25 cent Roulette, WHITE
machine, the excitement was tangible.
ELEPHANT.
stil! packed in their original crates, secured with
A name that fits it like a glove. It's
Both were
big, it's white, and I'll probably never get rid of
iron straps around them.
it.
marks for a machine as old as the rumors said it
It is an albatross hanging around my neck that
is getting heavier and heavier.
You
was.
name "White
After about six hours and several six-packs of
Most of my friends were
beer, we finally cursed and kicked the machine into
might wonder where the
Elephant" came from.
No dents or damage
"into" three reelers, stimulators, or pinballs, etc.
life.
They looked down on me for owning such a huge
A real detective story for a couple of amateurs.
(No diagrams or instructions were included.)
prsce of noisy junk., I'd never really talked about
Mine was, of course, still on the truck--a virgin
it with any pride of ownership.
waiting for the first screwdriver to touch it since
1950 or so.
One day I called Bill Harris to place an ad to
sell it.
I tried awkwardly to describe it, and he
finally said, "Oh sure!
phant."
and joy.
You've got a White Ele
What a glorious sight when it finally began to
operate.
The entire machine is boxed in white
What a cruel thing to say of one's pride
5/8 inch plywood, covered by a double-thick plate
It was the first time I had ever heard
of glass, showing stacks of dollars and the entire
the term, but it was sure accurate.
playing field and wheel of roulette.
The numbers
and odds were all there, lit up by a million little
I
never placed the ad.
I figured I'd hide it,
light bulbs in lovely accurate colors on a field of
absorb the loss, and stash it away like you would a
soft green.
black sheep member of the family.
one; 1st, 2nd, 3rd row, three for one; red-black,
Double zero-36 pays thirty six for
odd-even, 1-18, 19-36, two for one; 1-12, 13-24,
Most collectors brag about their good deals.
25-36, three for one.
And under the cool glow
They crow about the "rare, less-than-a-hundred-
of a fluorescent light, the roulette wheel spins
made" machines they've obtained.
silently and steadily.
ing about the White Elephant.
Well, I'm cry
The history I have
of this machine is mostly rumor.
(The steady turn was a real
flaw in the design as it later turns out.)
I am certain
that there are a few people out there who know
the facts, but they are remaining wisely silent.
You select the number or color or odds or row
by turning a large selector knob on the front right
of the machine.
It looks similar to the selector
m on the old Bingo-type pinball machines.
.co knob
m
:
u
Rumor has it that a hundred White
Elephants
Once you select red and put in your quarter, you
m
use
m
d fr in o central
were discovered in a warehouse
Indiana.
cannot select black.
The machine won't let
-
e
e
d
d
a
oa the
A clever collector n bought
lot
for $400 each.
l
c
you cover the field except on 00-36.
It would
r
.a
w
That's a bundle
on a pure speculation.
show no profit. The unusual thing for a machine
Dow of // money
w
: w
Who in their right
of its age is the fact that you can put in up to
http minds would want one? I guess
he knew I was out there, and I'll buy anything. As
45 quarters on every selection except 00-36.
the story goes, he sold many, if not all, at $800
the Elephant does indeed have a good memory.
© The International Arcade Museum
So
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
Coin Slot Magazine - #051 - 1979 - May [International Arcade Museum]
It
stores the numbers of quarters played, the
Terry, his best Bally-trained mechanic, over.
His
number, color, and odd-even as well as the specific
tory repeats
odds for each, and it actually pays off with un
cases of beer, the machine was kicked and cursed
failing accuracy into a large, double-hand size pay
into life.
itself.
After six hours, two more
out cup.
Terry
A large flashing red button on the front of the
machine signals when all selected numbers, odds,
motor,
went through
search
mechanism.
unit,
every contact, solenoid,
memory
unit,
and
payout
We dropped $75.00 in quarters into
and color information are stored in the memory.
the bank-type coin counter, which was hooked up
At a touch of the button, the genuine excitement
to the memory sensors that served as the payout
of
mechanism.
Roulette
begins.
The
little
wooden ball
is
brought up by a pinball-type transport system. A
solenoid is fired by the flashing red button.
The
After a few more beers and a light supper, the
ball spins counter-clockwise; the wheel spins silently
neighbors
clockwise. The ball finally bounces and clatters into
several hours of play and on-the-spot repairs. The
began
drifting in.
The Elephant got
a numbered, colored hole on the wheel. There the
new electrical smell was invigorating as it thumped
machine's memory and search units take over scan
and
ning for the number, color, odds, and group com
payout
clattered
out the
quarters on
a long shot
binations played.
My son, Kevin, however, soon had most of the
We have to remember the state of the art during
the time of manufacture.
The search unit and
memory bank look again similar to the Bingo ma
quarters and was collecting side bets from us that
he would win on his next turn.
Under parental and
neighbor pressure, he finally revealed his method.
chines that were popular until President Truman
Kevin noticed the regularity of the spinning roulette
signed the Johnson Act in 1950 which made them
wheel and that if he hit the ball release button
illegal.
when a certain quadrant of numbers passed a spe
The Elephant may have been a prototype
or designer model for club or casino use out west,
cific point during its slow steady revolution, the
and the Johnson Act stopped their interstate ship
ball would consistently fall into a group of num
ment. So they languished for twenty years, motors
bers of another quadrant of the wheel.
gumming, contacts corroding, and solenoids stick
really simple since the wheel was sectioned into
ing.
fourths and the wheel motor revolved with such
consistent turns.
Considering their age and their complexity, it
It was
The machine could be beaten
and beaten badly, especially when 45 quarters are
is truly a wonder that any of them operate. They
put in at 3-for-one odds.
have a reputation for being a fragile machine.
9 numbers of one quadrant to obtain a 36-for-one
this is an undeserved reputation.
But
For me, it serves
He only had to "cover"
pay almost every time.
as a nice transition piece between solid state elec
tronic slots of today and sophisticated electrical/
What is needed now is for one of our contribu
mechanical
payout pinball and console slots of
ting experts in pinball machines to give us an article
yesterday.
Nothing else resembles this machine
on the mechanical and electrical wonders of this
closely except the Mills 1-2-3, or Owl pinball ma
machine.
chines, or the Mills Twenty Grant payout pinball
collectors forever grateful for expert information
machines.
on the care and feeding of the White Elephant.
electrically.
Both are nightmares mechanically and
I can't wait to own one or both of
those machines either!!
thing.
I know there will be at least a hundred
Like I said, I'll buy any
I even own a Pinto!!
If you have such a
machine, just call Macomb and ask for "Stupid."
So this ends the story of my safari with the
White Elephant. S really like it. I even treasure it.
But it's so big, so ugly, and so noisy. The mainte
nance
m problems for me are simple. I call my re
.co pairman,
m
he shoots a little "Blast" on a sticky con
:
u
e
om in m
S learned what not to do to fr mine
St. us
Louis.
tact or he cleans up a stubborn solenoid, and the
d
-
e take
So S bought a cheap pickup
White Elephant is off and thundering through my
ad it e home, since
oad . to
l
c
r
n
a
w
it and my family
wouldn't
fit into my station
recreation room again.
o
w
D
w
w
/
wagon. The care, cost,
and feeding of the Elephant
/
:
ht to tp escalate far beyond its value to
was beginning
The very few of us who admit owning the ma
Someone will get ahold of me.
me as a collectible.
At home, I called the local
chines often swap stories about it and the troubles
pinball company owned by a friend, and he sent
and pleasures it causes. We endure the sneers from
© The International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/

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