Automatic Age

A pril, 1936
17
AUTOMATIC AGE
wants to make a living from his
routes, the jobber and distributor who
makes a living selling games to oper­
ators, and the manufacturer who
builds equipment and depends upon a
market for his products.
* * *
^^B O U T a year ago, Lee S. Jones,
of American Sales Corporation,
started a lot of thinking when he rec­
ommended the use of petitions for
mobilizing the voting strength of coin
machine interests and those allied
with the industry. The plan was put
into action in a number of cities, with
more or less success, but the petition
idea seems now to have been aban­
doned. Since this is an election year
when petitions might reasonably bring
plenty of pressure to bear we got to
wondering why the petition was not
being used in Chicago. We asked one
of the operators who has always been
active in association work what was
wrong with the petition plan. (Chi­
cago operators used petitions last
summer). His answer mentioned two
arguments against the effectiveness of
petitions. The first was that most
people who signed petitions did so
without paying much attention to
their nature, and as a result were in­
fluenced but little in their political
leanings. The second argument was
that the foes of coin machine inter­
ests could offset such petitions by cir­
culating petitions against machines.
This operator said that while coin
machine men were getting 250,000
signatures, unfriendly o p p o s itio n
could probably get twice that num­
ber.
A u t o m a t i c A g e would like to hear
from operators who have used peti­
tions in other cities in order to get
further information as to their value.
* * *
O R D E R some poison at once for
numbskull operators who are buy­
ing locations outright. This is the
latest brainstorm by Damfools, Inc.,
who by accident or the result of mis­
directed genius can always furnish
new ways for ruining the coin machine
business. And this is a good one for
that purpose. A scheming operator
discovers that he can run out com­
petitors’ machines by paying the lo­
cation so much for the location. But
can he? Other operators will buck
him with the same tactics, starting
another commission war which has
no ending outside of the poorhouse.
And the locations will always sell out
to a higher bidder. If you can use
some more trouble in your territory,
try this, otherwise order. the poison
for any op who starts it.
* * *
yi LOT of operators used to clamor
that operating conditions would
never improve until the part-timers
and side-liners were eliminated from
the business and territories were
again in the hands of professional
operators. If they were correct, then
conditions ought to start improving
pretty soon. Today only the finest
and newest machines can command
the good locations, which means an
investment many times greater than
was necessary a year ago- Can the
side-liners stand the pace of paying
up to $150 for a new machine, par­
ticularly when a machine of that
price happens to be one which re­
quires a lot of operating science to
make it stay put? The Coin Sorter,
would be mighty careful where he
placed any machine that set him back
that kind of money. That’s “sartin” !
It’s a pretty safe guess that all oper­
ators will be using more science and
less guess work as time goes on, which
probably means that there will be
fewer and better operators in the
amusement end of the business.
* * *
D E M E M B E R when A u t o m a t ic
A g e used to issue a special “Ar­
cade Number” for the month of
April? About this time of year every­
body started thinking about the good
old summer time and penny arcade
owners began thinking of putting
their popular amusement centers in
shape. The thinking went about as
far as making a trip to the amuse­
ment park, and “putting in shape”
largely meant scraping the dust off
obsolete equipment and making such
repairs as would enable the old klucks
to run another year in some fashion.
Probably if any real thinking had
been put into the improvement and
modernization of penny arcades by
the operators and by the manufac­
turers of arcade equipment, we would
still be putting out an “Arcade Num­
ber”. A u t o m a t i c A g e for several
years urged that penny arcades be
modernized and made attractive to
better classes of people. Sportlands
came along, that is true, but the avei'-
age Sportland wouldn’t last two weeks
if a modernized Penny Arcade were
opened in the same vicinity. Coin
machine engineers have performed
miracles with wood, metal and elec­
tricity since the Penny Arcade was
in its hey day, yet the fruits of their
© International Arcade Museum
ingenuity have been largely repre­
sented in games which last from two
to six weeks on location. If part of
this engineering had been applied to
arcade type machines, coupled with a
real effort to give the machines and
the setting new appeal, it is my opin­
ion that Penny Arcades would be
flourishing today. Nothing has tak­
en the place of Penny Arcades. There
is no real substitute for this form of
entertainment. It is simply a case of
lingering death and stagnation. Peo­
ple did not tire of the entertainment
offered by Penny Arcades so much as
they did of the atmosphere in which
it was offered. The public would still
get a kick out of Penny Arcades if
they are revived, modernized and pre­
sented in a wholesome and attractive
setting. There are still a few good
Penny Arcades today, operating at
a handsome profit. There could be
hundreds.
Helpful
A u t o m a t ic A g e ,
Gentlemen:
Enclosed please find my per­
sonal check for two dollars, to
pay for another two year sub­
scription.
This is a very helpful pub­
lication to my business, as I am
buying new machines every
month.
Very truly yours,
James W. Garton.
Jobbing Firm Has
Own Paper
The Coin Sheet,” new house organ
of the recently organized Leary, Man-
uson & Jensen Company, Minne­
apolis distributing firm,made its bow
to the industry last month.
The initial issue consists of six
mimeographed sheets, the makeup
and editorial content of which does
credit to the journalistic ability of
its editors, who call themselves the
“two Scandinavians and an Irish­
man.” Besides the firm’s own adver­
tising,- the paper carries several well
written news items and articles of
general interest to the trade.
At the top of the title page is the
slogan, “Doing business today— so
you'll do business with us tomorrow.”
http://www.arcade-museum.com/