C·oinman of the Month
HOWARD W.DOLPH
Howard W. Dolph of Tulsa, Oklahoma is one of a
vanishing breed. He operates only iukeboxes-but
maybe that statement should be qualified some-
what since his son, Dorian, recently persuaded him
to spring for a few sit down pinballs, which Dorian
has agreed to maintain. But the fact remains that in
a time when games are competing successfully for
larger and larger shares of the operator's doUar,
Dolph stands as somewhat of an enigma- still
prospering after 52 years in a field which many
operators are beginning to shun.
Howard's jukebox operation (which consists of
roughly ninety pieces) stretches sixty miles in all
directions from Tulsa- that's quite a geographical
spread considering that H. W. Dolph Distributing
Company consists only of himself (72 years of age),
Dorian, and a secretary who has been with him for
99 years, Mrs. Hershel McLawson. Even though
her functions are primarily office related, she too
has made collections when the need has arisen. And
she can also handle minor service problems such as
stopped coin clots. Such is usually the nature of the
personnel at the smaller operations throughout the
country- but at H. W. Dolph Distributing, etc. it
seems to typify the closeness and efficiency of his
entire operation.
Born and raised in the backwoods of Michigan,
Howard worked at many iobs before being enticed
into the Jukebox business by an advertisement in a
local daily newspaper which said the National Piano
Manufacturing Company was looking for mechani-
caUy inclined individuals who it could teach and
send to any part of the United States ..
The company later changed its name to
Automatic Musical Instrument Company (AMn.
The iob consisted of opening up locations for the
company's phonographs, making collections, and
servicing those locations. Dolph said he felt the
company's phonograph afforded him with an
outstanding advantage-aU the competition's pho-
nographs still had horns, but AMI's was the only
phonograph with a loudspeaker.
- When the Depression got reaUy bad, AMI began
to trim away its phonograph operation and, in doing
so, offered Dolph his choice of any route withi'TI. his
10
PLA Y METER , December. 1979