Coin Slot Magazine - #070 - 1980 - December [International Arcade Museum]
'Guide No. 1 for the Mills BLACK CHERRY is by far the greatest seller...'
interesting. I'm learning as much as the buyers of the
guides are, for it forces me to find data that I never would
have looked for without the prod of a printing deadline."
While much of the original manual data had been collected
by Dick over the years, an equal amount remained
undiscovered until the guide series was initiated. Many of
the missing manuals have been supplied by equally
interested collectors who have sold, traded or loaned their
precious manuals to Dick for use in the guides. The
amazing thing is that so much new material has surfaced
since the guide series began barely over a year ago. Major
"slot paper" manual collections, such as those of Dave
Roenigk of Dave Roenigk Restorations, Westlake, Ohio;
Paul Landsgaard of Moscow, Idaho; Bob Rosenberger of
Chicago; Pete Hansen of Des Plaines, Illinois; "Litty"
Litsinger of Baltimore, and the remarkable collection of
original engineering drawings from the Exhibit Supply
Company saved by Roger "Jackpot" Simale of Riverdale,
Illinois and sold to Dick Bueschel, just to name a few, plus
the many remarkable new discoveries of original paper by
Dick, have filled out the series with content of a once-in-a-
lifetime nature. One of the interesting parts in each and
every Coin Slot Guide is Dick's explanation of how and
where the original material was found, with much of this
reading like a fascinating detective story.
Guide No. 34 for the Superior RACES is typical. Dick
had completely assembled this guide, and had a wealth of
original data including patent papers that showed all of the
mechanisms and appearance parts. Rather than run with
what he had Dick sent all of the data to collector Bill
Johnson of Rosamond, California, a RACES owner, to
check it out against his machine.
Bill came back with the intelligence that, while similar,
the patent papers showed mechanical features far
different than his machine. That meant that a second
was produced at some point in time. So work on Superior
RACES Guide No. 34 stopped until this could be con
firmed. The aggressive search for backup material led to
an old operator who produced a full-color multi-page
foldout for a Buckley RACES showing the modified
mechanism in detail. Buckley? No one even knew Buckley
made the machines at that point. So the guide was
restructured, with both Superior and Buckley models
covered in detail, the latter supported by the oniy known
Buckley manual for RACES to have ever been found to
date.
What guides, of those printed to date, are the most
popular? You'll be surprised. Guide No. 1 for the Mills
BLACK CHERRY is by far the greatest seller, and will
probably be the first one to go into a second printing. But
Guide No. 9 for the Watling ROL-A-TOP and TREASURY
comes in as a close second. A surprising starter is Guide
No. 29 for the first Mills LIBERTY BELL and OPERATOR
BELL. This one goes like hot cakes, and already over
twenty times as many Guide No. 29s have been sold as
machines are known. Other popular guides are No. 8 Mills
SILENT "War Eagle", No. 10 Evans GALLOPING
DOMINOS, No. 5 Jennings CLUB CHIEF/STANDARD
CHIEF, No. 20 Mills Bell-o-Matic 21/STANDARD and No.
Mills BONUS. Others, not in the original list of a hundred
guides, are also asked for, including the Exhibit CHUCK -
O-LETTE, Bally TRIPLE BELL, post-World War II models
of the Buckley TRACK ODDS, Jennings JACKPOT "Blue
Boy", Bally BALLY BELL"Double", Jennings CIGA-ROLA
and GOLFA-ROLA, Keeney THREE-WAY BONUS SUPER
BELL, the Keeney "flashers" of the late 1950s such as
SWEET SHAWNEE, a wide range of arcade machines,
including Exhibit and Mutoscope diggers and strength
testers, and a number of pre-and post-World War II pinball
games. Miraculously much of this newer material has been
found in the past year or so, with over half of it to be loaned
by enthusiastic collectors. The newer list of collector
"wants" also demonstrates a growing interest in the
electrical consoles and pinball games of the 1930s
through 1960s, an inside key to future desirable collec
tibles.
When
publisher Bill Harris met with author Dick
Bueschel at Steve Gronowski's Chicagoland slot machine
show in April 1980, Bill asked Dick, "Can you do another
hundred different one's of these, including pinballs?"
Dick's answer was the same as it was a year earlier; "Sure,
why not?" That led to some fast work on Dick's part, and
the blocking out of another one hundred pocket folders for
the next batch of Coin Slot Guides. Many more arcade
machines are included, as well as the new "Yellow Series"
for pinball games and "Black" series for scales. The list is
now at 200 hopefully to be produced at the same rate of
two guides a month. Who knows, if our luck and rate of
original material discovery keeps holding out the list may
grow to 300. You tell us what you'd like to see in the series
and let's see if we can work it out.
Listing of "Second hundred" Coin Slot Guides added to
the series and now in preparation:
Guide No.
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113.
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
122
Coin Machines Featured
Mills BROWNIE
Mills 3 BELLS/DUPLEX BELL
Bally TRIPLE BELL
Central/American Amusement SILVER CHROME/
SILVER BELLS/CHERRY CHROME
Caille LOG CABIN (1901 Pinball)
Keeney THREE WAY BONUS SUPER BELL
Bally BALLY BELL ("Double Bell")
Gottlieb SLICK CHICK (1963 Pinball)
Mills COMMERCIAL
Jennings FAST TIME/BOBTAIL/SILVER MOON CONSOLE
Buckley DAILY DOUBLE TRACK ODDS/LONG SHOT PARLAY
Mills DUPLEX
Clawson LIVELY CIGAR SELLER and other trade stimulators
Bally CITATION/LEXINGTON (1948 Pinballs)
Exhibit IRON CLAW/CENTURY DIGGER
Paupa & Hochriem/Mills/PILOT/EAGLE
B.A. Witney KING SIX/SEVEN GRAND
Evans 1936 GALLOPING DOMINOS/BANG TAILS/ROLETTO
Mills OWL/1-2-3/SPINN ING REELS (1938-1941 Pinballs)
Exhibit NOVELTY MERCHANTMAN/IMPERIAL Diggers
Watling OPERATOR BELL/TWENTIETH CENTURY
Continued on page 44
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There's h also a lot of questions about upcoming guides.
The ones most asked for that have not yet been printed are
No. 51 Watling BLUE SEAL/TWIN JACKPOT; No. 75 Bally
DRAW BELL; No. 90 Jennings CHALLENGER and No. 100
© The International Arcade Museum
DECEMBER, 1980
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
THE COIN SLOT — 43