Automatic Age

February, 1940
By
AUTOMATIC AGE
9
C a r r o l l E . V e t t e r ic k
Leadership for Our Industry
Is No Longer Lacking
W AY from the feverish
activity of Exhibition
Hall and far removed
from the many other crowded
points of interest during the
1940 Coin Machine Show — al­
most unnoticed by the trade in
general— was enacted one of the
most significant and dramatic
events in the history of the
coin machine industry.
A
When the newest and finest
equipment displayed at the 1940
convention has been used, dis­
carded and forgotten— when the
spectacular features and pleas­
ant associations enjoyed at the
recent Show have become dim
memories—the benefits and sig­
nificance of a meeting attended
by a small group of serious-
minded coin machine men will
be undiminished.
At the industry’s first “ Asso­
ciation Banquet” held on Wed­
nesday evening, January 17th,
in the Crystal Room of Hotel
Sherman, more than fifty offi­
cials of operators’ associations
throughout the country were
the guests of Coin Machine In­
dustries, Inc. More than twenty-
five operators’ associations re­
sponded to the special invitation
issued by James A. Gilmore,
CMI Secretary, and sent their
presidents and secretaries to at­
tend this banquet.
No such representation of the
industry’s trade a s s o c ia tio n s
ever before met in one room.
No similar invitation was ever
before extended by a manu­
facturers’ association to the rep­
resentatives of operator organi­
zations.
A comprehensive and detailed
report of the short talks made
by each operator-delegate and
each CMI official would not ac­
curately reflect the significance
of this first “ Association Ban­
quet.” It is the precedent estab­
lished by a manufacturers’ or­
ganization in sponsoring this
kind of an affair that causes us
to rate it the most important
feature of the most successful
coin machine show ever held.
Coin Machine Industries, Inc., in
thus honoring association work
among operators and in extend­
ing warm hospitality to associa­
tion representatives from the
far corners of the nation enables
us to forecast a new order of co­
operation between the men who
make coin machines and the
men who buy them.
The spoken tributes by CMI
representatives in recognition of
the accomplishments of oper­
ators’ associations were both
significant and sincere. The ex­
change of information between
association delegates who re­
ported on conditions and accom­
plishments in their respective
territories was most valuable
and most encouraging. Yet, to
the writer, the most impressive
© International Arcade Museum
feature of this first “ Association
Banquet” was the fact that in­
telligent, capable and far-seeing
leadership has finally come to
the coin machine industry.
The writer has been privi­
leged to occupy a ring-side seat
in our industry over a span of
some thirteen years, a period
which has witnessed the birth
of all but the very earliest op­
erators’ associations. We have
seen many local operators’ as­
sociations come and go; have
witnessed numerous attempts to
form successful national oper­
ator organizations; have seen a
number of manufacturers’ asso­
ciations rise and fall. Repeated­
ly, we have seen organization
efforts wrecked through person­
al and petty jealousies and
through lack of successful lead­
ership.
Accomplishments of the past
year by local and state oper­
ators’ associations, and by na­
tional manufacturers’ associa­
tions, leave almost no doubt
that organization within the
coin machine industry has risen
far above the level of mere per­
sonal ambitions and petty jeal­
ousies. And final, convincing
proof that organization work is
destined to proceed smoothly,
effectively and permanently was
found at the industry’s first
“ Association Banquet” held dur­
ing the 1940 Coin Machine
Show, where, in one room, we
found the one re q u ire m e n t
needed to make the coin machine
business a bigger and better in­
dustry— leadership that is “ 100-
proof.”
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