Coin Slot Magazine - #077 - 1981 - July [International Arcade Museum]
rants reopened, did the box become a familiar feature
of the American scene.
One more consideration of note is that prior to the
introduction of amplification in the late Twenties, no
JUK6EOX
phonograph could make enough noise to compete
with the clatter of the player piano and the uproar of a
mechanical band
So, for the purpose of this article and with all respect
lever
for our friend in San Francisco in 1899, let us further
define the jukebox as, 'an amplified phonograph built
on a commercial production basis with a coin mech
anism, for the purpose of making money from the
customer. The people making money on these juke
boxes were tavern owners, the distributor, the opera
tor, and the manufacturers. Was the mob also involved?
More on that later. If I am wiped out in the mean time
you will know who did it.
The first commercial jukeboxes could very well have
been built around 1925. There are-some clouds as to
By Jim McLellan
the manufacture that gets the credit and blue ribbon...but
Mills, Seeberg, Automatic Musical' Instrument Com
pany (AMI) were tooling up in the late 20's. Wurlitzer
and
The Jukebox— Its Beginnings
Rock Ola,
later to become giants, didn't get
cooking until around 1 933-34 as they were primarily in
the music box business.
The first jukeboxes of this era (lets say from the late
20's and early 30's) resembled old radios. They posses
The jukebox was invented by Gus Edison, a distant
sed no plastic or rotating lights, or bubble tubes. Their
nephew of old Tom Edison, in order to save his bar in St.
cabinets were made of oak, mahogany, maple and
Louis. MO. from foreclosure. The year was 1907.
The above paragraph is, of course, totally untrue, but
as with any beginning there are many stories. History
has a way of glorifying facts in order to keep the kids
other materials that you would find in furniture pieces
awake in class, although it never worked for me.
jukebox with transluscent plastic panels behind which
In order to ascertain the true beginning of the
jukebox — maybe the first step is to define a jukebox.
were fixed low wattage bulbs, goes to Seeberg in
1938. The effect was to make the phonograph glow.
of that time period.
These early jukeboxes were blah compared to the
boxes of the late 30's and 40's. Credit for the first
The simpliest definition I can conjure up on my own as I
Manufacturers had striven to give their equipment
sit here at my writing machine is "A phonograph with a
drawing power by using veneers, sfeps and angles on
coin mechanism attached to it for the express purpose
of making money from those who wish to play it."
Further, a more formal definition of jukebox (Gullah
the wooden cabinets. But this was the age of electricity
International Dictionary, or as very poetically put in the
and the light-up jukebox was a breakthrough. When
the "Symphonola" classic was unveiled at the 1938
convention at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago, it stopped
the show. Rock-Ola, Wurlitzer and'AMI went straight
January 1975 edition of OUI mag, by Albert Goldman
back to their factories and restyled their 1938 models.
juke, joog disorderly, wicked), Webster's Third New
—
Most
McLuhanesque
ot
media,
most
Norman
Rockwellish of teenage scenes..inspiration for dan
The most gigantic impact ever made on the light-up
animated jukebox was by my man, .'Paul Fuller of the
cing saddle shoes, .consolation for boozy, heads-down
Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing "Co., North Tono-
middle age., altar to the great god Bass...progenitor of
wanda. New York. He is largely responsible for the
light shows..archetypefordiscotheques...noble sculp
classic jukeboxes made by Wurlitzer from 1939 to
tured, gloriously illuminated, ebulliently bubbling foun
1949.
tain of youth and luridly glowing shrine to the maltshop
Paul's impact produced the revolving lights with
muses — of all pop icons, the most sublime by far is
animated color changes, bubble tubes, elaborate use
the juke-box
of chrome, little ministages complete with curtains on
God1 If I could write like that. I may be
stuck away in the corner of some smoke-filled publica
the back door and behind the record stack. Jukeboxes
tion room writing articles instead of the mile-high airof
were offering 24 selections now instead of 10 or 12.
.com
m
:
u
e birth may be
om bets m for
jukebox...then one of the fr
best
us its
d
-
e
e
in 1899, when the a owner
d Palais Royal Saloon in
a the
lo d .a an r of c electric
n
San Francisco
installed
motor-driven Edison
w
w listening tubes
Do /ww four
phonograph. It / had
and the machine
:
was activated
http by inserting a nickel in a slot. However.the
Denver having a blast collecting old jukeboxes.
OK...if we are to use the simple definition of a
Just before the War and up until 1949 were the
classic years for the jukebox. These are the valuable
collector items today. The most notable jukebox from
before the war was the 850 Wurlitzer with its polorized
Peacocks that flitted its feathers in time to the music,
or so it seemed. The classic jukebox, and the one the
second reincarnation of the jukebox may be more
Smithsonian Institute has on display was the 1015
'Wurlitzer There were more 1015s made than any other
relavant as we know it. Not until-Repeal (January 5,
jukebox and it seems to be the favorite of most of the
1933), when thousands of taverns, bars, and restau
nostalgia freaks. It is the one with the crown top,
42-THE
COIN
SLOT
© The
International
Arcade
Museum
July 1981
http://www.arcade-museum.com/