MARKETPLACE
NEWSLETTER
PAGE 3, FEBRUARY 28, 1974
Where Old Jukeboxes Refuse To Die
..
By ROBERT P. LAURENCE
Stoff Writer
The Son Diego Union
Consider the Jukebox.
Part electronic gadget,
part furniture, part aculp-
tu re . A partl-col~ed,
money-propelled music ma-
chine that fascinates the
eye, turns the mind to cnelo-
dy and syncopates the feet.
From the right juJtebox, a
nickel or a dime can buy
more than harmony. •n can
buy youth. Memories pour
out of those chlntz-COfered
speakers.
Ask Bill Worthy. He's been
selllng and renUng out luke
boxes since 11137. He aru his
wife fell In love danc~ io a
counter-top Wurlltzer Mltey-
Mlte.
Today, in addition tt his
usual line of up-lo-date JUke
boxes, pool tables and pin·
ball machines, he's back tn
selling the j ukeboxes he
started wltft. But now :hf:
prices are much, much
higher.
Worthy got Into the an-
Uque business about lh1'ee
months ago when he bou~ht
Sf of the old machines from
a New Mexico dealer. About
711 remain at his Star Service
Co. at India and C streets
and In an empty store he's
rented across the street.
The earliest models, dat·
ing from the late Ul'20s and
early 19305, are simple woo-
den boxes with glass fronts.
They hold j ust 12 78-rpm
records, and can play only
one side of each record.
But as Ume goes by, they
grow more elaborate, and
can play 16 records, then
both sides. Worthy, who
knows a little about the hlS·
tory of his product, can tell
you that the mechanism to
pick up records, put them on
the turntable and pick them
up again was Invented by
Homer Capehart.
Capehart, who was promi-
nent In the phonograph and
radio business, later became
a United States Senator from
Indiana. And why not, con-
sidering that the melody for
the. song " It's All In the
Game" was written by
Charles Gates Dawes, who
became vice president under
President Cilvln Coolidge?
The names or Seeburg,
Wurlitzer and Rockola doml·
nate the field, but some oth·
ers have arisen over the
years, such as Packard,
whose only model was the
Pia-Mor, and Evans, which
only built a few models.
They were called juke-
boxes because they were
first plaeed In "juke joints,"
tawdry bars and restaurants
that couldn't afford to nlre
bands. And the word "juke"
stems from African words
meaning disorderly and
wicked.
Their design reached a
peak In 1938 and 1939, with
the Seeburg Throne of
Music, a big, red, round
model, with great red co-
lumns shooting stralght up
all around the top.
That was about the same
lime Wurlitzer had a model
which featured pictures of
peacocks etched in glass;
the peacocks' tails constant-
ly changed colors.
Or the Seeburg Symphono-
la, a mld·30s model made
primarily of wood, with a though, Including a 1946
marble design painted all Wurlitzer Colonial, featuring
over it.
Intricate wood cabinet work
In 1942, with World War II and a wagon wheel design on
on and. everything scarce, the front.
"I've been offered $2,000
Wurlltzer searched around
the warehouse for spare for this one," he said. " But I
want
to keep it."
parts and put together the
The machines are In all
Victory, with massive
carved wooden legs, lighted states or repair. Some still
gl ass panels pict uring have old 78-rpm records In
drums, trumpets and harle- them. One, when he plugged
quins, and a round window It in to turn on the lights,
crossed by a single row or refused to stop spinning its
turntable.
buttons.
He was asked If the buyers
On one Rockola model,
more than six feet Of red, put In more modern, 33-rpm
green and gold, records are phonographs when they buy
picked by spinning a tele- the juke boxes.
" Some do, but that costs a
phone-like dial.
Back when he and the ma- lot," he said. "A lot of people
chines were younger, Wor· want the 78-rpm records.
thy sold them for $250 or $300 You can still buy those. They
want the old music coming
each.
Today, as antiques, as de- out or these jukeboxes.
corations for recreation
" I 'd like to open a muse-
rooms, they bring from $500 um one of these days, with
these and those old game
to $1,600.
He 's keeping a few, mac6ines upstairs."
Bill WORTHY hos been
selling jukeboxes since
1937, and now he's bock
with the jukeboxes he
started with. His hand rests
on o 'Victory' model of
World War II vintage.
Growing interest in coin operated entertainment is nationwide. Leading newspapers, maga-
zines, radio and TV commentators, have been featuring items, articles and even full page
etoriea about every division of this industry. This article which appeared in "The San
Diego Union", San Diego, Calif., takes a nostalgic course covering the early juke box
years. Ha.ta off to Bill Worthy of Star Servicea,Inc., San Diego,Calif., for helping to
bring such great public relations to the industry.