Automatic Age

New York City, before they were
confiscated recently, was in ex­
cess of $20,000,000. Pinball is
big business.”
NEWSPAPER STORY WHAMS
"PIN-MONEY PLONGERS”
Just a guess—but it seems
that the war news and other im­
portant events of national signi­
ficance are pushing the third-
rate politicians and reformers
off the front pages of news­
papers, in fact almost com­
pletely out of the news. That’s
sabotage! These third-raters are
never effective unless the news­
papers give them a lift by pub­
licizing their “good deeds.”
One would think that right
now these third-raters would be
busy on the war effort—every­
thing else being subordinate to
the winning of the war.
So we find that if “facts
and figures” are lurid enough
and approximate astronomical
heights—the third-raters can
still “make” news.
A case in point is the article
which appeared in the Baltimore
Sunday Sun of April 5, 1942,
written by one Perry Githens.
And a “digest” of the story ap­
pears in the June, 1942 issue of
The Reader's Digest, it seems
that the latter, arrogant with the
power of influencing 5,000,000
subscribers, is becoming a “re­
form organ,” judging solely by
the fact that it frequently prints
articles by so-called “great
names” whose topic is lambast­
ing something or other.
The Digest heads the article,
“Pinball is a sucker’s game and
a gangster’s racket— Pin-Money
Plungers.” Following is a para­
graph, whose tenor is typical of
the article:
A ccording to B illb o ai'd ,
250,000 pinball machines are
in operation today; averaging
$100 apiece, they represent a
$25,000,000 investment.
But
their cost is trifling compared to
the dividends they return. An
official estimate of the annual
‘take’ of the 11,000 machines in
+
ROBBINS PLAN FOR
PHONOGRAPHS CLICKS
Hundreds of phonograph oper­
ators are now using the plan that
is sold by D. Robbins & Co., 503
West 41st Street, New York
City, for increasing their collec­
tions. One large New York City
operator who tested the plan on
ten machines has now adopted
it for all of his machines.
“The plan is timely and it is
also patriotic as it helps the sale
of War Savings Stamps,” says
Dave Robbins. “There is abso­
lutely no trouble in placing the
plan into operation and best of
all, the plan pays for itself the
first few days it is used.”
+
MOTOR CITY ROCK-OLA
DISTRIBUTORSHIP
New Rock-Ola factory distrib­
utor for the Detroit area and
eastern half of Michigan is
Motor City Music Co. of Detroit,
headed by David Goldman. Ably
assisted by Morris Goldman and
Harry Goldman, the new distrib­
utor is planning ahead with
Rock-Ola for a substantial vol­
ume of business in 1942.
+
MUSIC OPERATORS
GET TOGETHER
Gorgeous Lorraine Benson, songbird, and O rrin Tucker, band leader, were big hits at the
M ills M inute Man Flag presentation party attended by officials from W ashington, D. C., the
Arm y, Navy, M arine Corps, and Treasury Dept.
AUTOMATIC *
PHOTOGRAPHY
The
remarkable
coin-operated
P H O T O M A T IC
machine, a worldwide public favorite, automati­
cally takes, frames and delivers a fine personal
picture in only 40 secondsl Requires no attendants:
very little weekly servicing. P R O V E N a steady
money-maker.
Investigate
without
obligation.
International Mutoscope Reel Co.. Inc., 44-03 llth
St., Long Island City, New York.
AUTOMATIC AGE
© International Arcade Museum
Cincinnati, Ohio music opera­
tors announced the forming of
an association and received a
charter from the Phonograph
Operators’ Association of Cleve­
land.
At a recent meeting represen­
tatives from the Cleveland group
attended with a representative
list of Cincinnati operators. The
problems presented by the pres­
ent war economy motivated the
Cincinnati operators to band to­
gether to cooperate with mutual
problems. A membership of
about 70 operators are expected
to join the new association.
May-June, 1942
http://www.arcade-museum.com/