Automatic Age

12
AUTOMATIC AGE
T he
C o in
August , 1937
M a c h in e
as
a
O p e ra to r
S a le s m a n
An address delivered by Herb Jones, Advertising Manager,
Bally Mfg. Co., before the Wisconsin Association of Coin Machine Operators
at Wausau, Wis., July 14, 1937
BOUT five oclock this morning,
I woke up on the train and
looked out over one o f those
majestic tracts o f forest lands which
makes the State o f Wisconsin so beau­
tiful and brings so many thousands
o f visitors within your borders each
year. The thought came to me that,
if only I were going to talk to a
group o f lumbermen, I would find a
world o f inspiration simply by lying
in my berth and watching the scenic
splendor o f Wisconsin roll by. Then,
I began to think o f some o f the fig­
ures I had gathered together and it
struck me that in a certain sense I
was on my way to Wausau to speak
to a group o f Wisconsin lumbermen.
Because, gentlemen, you are selling
Wisconsin lumber and selling a tre­
mendous quantity o f it. Into each ma­
chine operated by members o f your
group there is built from 40 to 120
feet o f high grade lumber— probably
75 feet in the average amusement
game. Each year in the neighborhood
o f 100,000,000 feet o f lumber— that’s
well over 5,000 carloads— is used in
the manufacture o f coin operated ma­
chines. Just how much o f this lumber
originates in Wisconsin is difficult to
say, but anyone who knows that Chi­
cago is the coin machine manufactur­
ing center o f the world could tell by
merely glancing at a map that W is­
consin is the logical source o f lumber
used in building coin machines. A
very safe and conservative estimate
would be that 75% o f the lumber go­
ing into games originates in W iscon­
sin. In fact, I know o f one company
that alone purchases $250,000 worth
o f lumber annually direct from W is­
consin mills— and every stick o f it
goes into coin operated games.
A
However, figures on volume are not
as interesting or significant as the
picture behind those figures. Amuse­
ment g-m es not only create a market
for lumber but a steady continuous
market. In fact, it might even be said
that lumber built into games is actu­
ally consumed. By that I mean it
gets used up rapidly and has to ba
replaced. Now, that’s a very impor­
tant point because lumber is not usu­
ally consumed in the sense that food
or clothing is. Lumber is a durable
product and the long life o f most wood
products puts a limit on its sales vol­
ume. For example, a wood house en­
dures a lifetime or more. The same
is true o f furniture. A fam ily pur­
chasing a set o f dining-room furni­
ture is, so to speak, in the market for
a quantity of lumber. But after that
dining-room set has been bought, that
particular fam ily will not be in the
market for that particular wood prod­
uct fo r a long, long time to come.
But in the case o f amusement ma­
chines the public is constantly in the
market for more lumber. Every time
a man slips a nickel in the chute he is
indirectly purchasing lumber — be­
cause he is paying in part fo r the
lumber that went into the construc­
tion o f that game. And, the interest­
ing fact is this: Lumber becomes a
perishable product when it is built
into a game. Not because it actually
wears out, but because being in the
amusement field we must constantly
give the public something new and
different.
That is the essence o f
amusement— something that will ap­
peal to the public because it is new
and different. Therefore, the 75 feet
or so o f lumber in yesterday’s game
must pass away and be replaced by
75 more feet o f lumber in the game o f
today. Thus the amusement machine
industry becomes the lumbermen’s
dream— he can still point with pride to
the durability and long life o f lumber
— yet he can see his lumber being used
up at a rapid rate— 75 feet every time
an operator junks an old machine and
replaces it with a new one. In other
words, gentlemen, whether you know
it or not, you are among the best
salesmen the lumber industry has.
© International A rcade M useum
And what I’ve said about lumber
goes fo r other products too. F or ex­
ample, since we have been building
the elaborate electrical games o f to­
day, I estimate that 150,000 miles—
not feet, but miles— o f electric wire
are used annually in the manufacture
o f games. More than 3,000,000 feet
o f plate glass is used annually by this
industry. About three-quarters o f a
million dollars worth o f motors are
used each year in the coin machines
o f various kinds — and, incidentally
one company, buys $75,000.00 worth
of motors annually from a Wisconsin
motor manufacturers. Approxim ate­
ly one-half a million dollars worth o f
electric bulbs are used each year in
light-up games.
And so on down the list— dozens o f
industrial products— used in tremen­
dous quantities by an industry in
which you, gentlemen, are the most
important factor— because it is your
efforts which finally succeeds in sell­
ing these millions o f feet o f lumber
and these miles and miles o f wire to
the public.
Please understand that when I say
you are selling wire and motors and
lumber to the public, I am not at­
tempting to glorify your business. The
amusement machine business needs no
alibi. In itself it is one o f the most
worthy callings a man can follow , for
it serves a fundamental need o f the
human race— the craving fo r amuse­
ment; the normal, healthful impulse
to escape from time to time from the
pressure o f modern life ; the desire to
pause for a moment o f relaxation and
fun. But, important as your busi­
ness is from the recreational or social
view point, I want to emphasize to­
day how much more important it is
from an economic viewpoint.
For example, I spoke o f you men
selling wire by the mile. Now, we
all know that the average man doesn’t
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