Automatic Age

th e a u t o m a t ic a g e
VOL. 6
CHICAGO, OCTOBER, 1929
H O W
S H A L L
N E W
W E
W E L C O M E
No. 3
T H E
O P E R A T O R ?
Practical Questions Raised by Letters from Operators
T*HE following letter has that frankness and full freedom of
expression that we like to see coming from an operator. We
firmly believe that AUTOM ATIC AGE could be made of more
practical value and interest to its readers if there were more
expressions from the boys themselves. We are beginning a kind
of questionaire plan this month to try to open the way for letters
and news from operators. Meanwhile, if anyone knows of ;a better
plan to get them to write fully and frankly, we will appreciate a
suggestion as to how to do it.
Now, back to the letter:
A U T O M A T IC A G E :
*
Have been lucky in selling a great many o f my larger arcade
machines since returning here from Gary, and have turned a
good deal o f the money into other smaller machines more suit­
able fo r operating. Have a hundred and fifty or seventy-five
machines working here in the city and about that many more
in the smaller towns around here, many o f the locations being
those that I had fo r several years before I opened the A uto­
matic Fun Palace so that all o f those fellows were old friends
and all I had to do was to drive up to their place with a machine
and set it in. Lots o f them are loyal to me and would not allow
any other operator to place a machine with them, especially in
view o f the fact that the majority o f operators only have a
vex*y few different kinds o f machines and leave the same old
machine in their place month after month, long after it has be­
come passe with their patrons. While I have exactly one hun­
dred and nineteen D IF F E R E N T KINDS OF M ACH IN ES and
can bring a different machine every four to six weeks and keep
it up fo r years. This also makes it tough for the other fellow ’s
machine that has been setting fo r months, to compete with a
brand new different kind o f machine every few weeks.
I
learned this years ago when I was young in the operating busi­
ness.
The great curse o f the operating business is the amateur
operator. They are new in the business and consequently ig­
norant o f the ins and outs o f it. Many o f them have machines
that NO ONE could make any money with, for having had no
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