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CHAS. A. BREWER & SONS
Largest Board and Card House In t he World
6320 Harvard Avenue
Chicago, U.S.A.
Calcutt Subject of
Added Publicity
8
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
The coin machine industry's "most pub-
licized man" for 1939 is rightfully Joe Cal-
cutt owner and operator of the Vending
Madhine Company of Fayetteville, North
Carolina.
Calcutt made the national news recently
in the much discussed "Ten Billion Nick-
els" in the Saturday Evening Post for May
13. The Post article credited him with con-
siderable influence in the industry and as
being one of the largest operators in the
country.
A more recent story, dealing with Calcutt
and his Vending Maching Company, is a
front page spread in the News and Ob -
server of Raleigh, North Carolina, for June
4. He~e Calcutt becomes the "czar" of coin
machines in North Carolina and Maryland,
and his machine operations are discussed to
some extent, telling no doubt, many things
about Calcutt that he himself did not know.
The cause for the recent newspaper pub-
licity originates, undoubtedly, in a · recent
change of the legislation controlling slot
machines in North Carolina. Heretofore
illegal, slot machines were legalized at the
1939 meeting of the legislature. The mach-
ines will pay a license of $20 a year each
and, according to the Observer, "Calcutt
estimates that there will be 25,000 of them
licensed."
The newspaper attributes Calcutt's suc-
cess to his "flexibility." "No slot machine
manufacturer has ever devised a machine
more flexible than the business methods of
Calcutt himself. Just as the machines he
distributes depend upon varying local laws
and more important upon the varying strict-
ness with which those laws are enforced,
so are his operations governed. Operating a
business, which in some sections of the
country is completely disreputable, he has
by his conduct in Fayetteville surrounded
himself with a very high degree of respect-
ability.
"In 1937 the Flannagan act outlawed all
slot machines in North Carolina. The 1939
Revenue Act makes it possible for slot
machines to be operated in the State. In
Maryland a law that allowed the operation
of the machines for two years has now ex-
pired, and has not been renewed, therefore
North Carolina is the principle field for slot
machin e operations at the present time."
The Observer related that Calcutt "now
operates 128 trucks, each carrying two
salesmen and each servicing, and collecting
from around 100 machines. As of June 1,
the effective date of the new law, 112 of
these 128 trucks were operating in North
Carolina, the others being scattered over
six or seven States.
"During the two years the Flannagan act
was in operation, Joe Calcutt was giving
full proof of his own 'flexibility.' Music
machines and weighing machines were of
unquestioned legality. With them he main-
tained his locations and also increased his
profits and furthered his n;lations with the
proprietors of those locations, with whom
the profits of the games are divided, by
selling vending machines operated by slots.
That type of machine Calcutt sells outright.
"A visit to his home city of Fayetteville
showed the kind of reward sometimes
reaped by persistence. It was not necessary
to leave the principal street of the city to
find in operation not only the more modern
' pin ball' games, which with variations are
the 'amusement' machines in 1939, but the
'one-armed bandit' machines, the kind that
pay off with a jack pot, were also in
operation."
Joe Calcutt builds good will wherever he
operates. In Fayetteville he is one of the
leading citizens and takes an active part in
the town's social and business life. He has
in his organization only the highest type of
men he can employ. He prides himself on
having the highest paid stenographers, 18
of them, in the State·and on paying a mini-
mum wage of $17.50 a week, which is re-
ceived by his Negro porters. He contributes
substantially to churches and all charitable
causes.
The Calcutt pay roll is approximately
$300,000 a year- not including commissions
which go to make up his vast expense. He
is the largest user of telephone and tele-
graph wires in North Carolina as well as of
stamps and other mailing facilities. It is
indeed a big business operated in a modern
manner, with every indication that it is
there to stay.
All of these points are covered in the
Observer's article dealing with Calcutt, and
the man himself is not neglected. Of Cal-
cutt, the paper states, "He is quite a differ-
NAME
AND
ent person from the type one might expec.
to find. He is 43 years old, but looks
younger, is smiling, courteous, and at times,
slightly embarrassed. If he answers ques-
tions at all, he does so frankly, althoug;h
there are some subjects he prefers not to
discuss.
"But the most casual meeting with the
man would leave any stranger with one cor-
rect impression of him. He is a born sales-
man and shows it in any sort of contact.
Perhaps the reason he is selling slot mach-
ines instead of insurance or automobiles
or something else is due to accident. Per-
haps it is due to the excitement attendant
upon vast but uncertain gains.
"Legends have been built up about Joe
Calcutt in Fayetteville. But none of them
involve any rough stuff! He prides himself
upon not knowing any gangsters, although
he is in a business in which gangsters have
played important roles in other sections of
the country."
How Calcutt got into the coin machine
business is related to some extent in the
Observer article. Calcutt's father operated
a livery stable in Hope Mills, a village near
Fayetteville. Joe began driving for his
father at an early age. According to re-
ports, one of the regular patrons :was an
itinerant slot machine operator. In time Joe
developed into an assistant, then a proxy
and finally a principal. Later, in Hopewell,
Virginia, he developed a slot machine busi-
ness that proved very profitable.
From Hopewell, he drifted to Charles-
town West Virginia, where he was even
more' successful. After working for a while
in the industrial plant he entered the slot
machine business in Danville, Virginia.
Later Calcutt returned to Fayetteville and
went into the coin machine business on a
big scale. Definitely established, he now
leads a quiet life. His son and daughter
are. in college and his family is his greatest
interest.
Calcutt's reputation today is national.
It definitely extends beyond slot machine
circles. He is conceded to be the largest
distributor of slot machines, although oper-
ating principally in North Carolina. As
noted in the Observer, Calcutt's standing in
big business is shown by the contacts he
has with the largest manufacturers of coin
operated machines. He handles everything
operated by slots and has dealings with all
of the larger companies.
That Calcutt's influence goes beyond the
State of North Carolina and outside of the
coin machine industry was shown recently
when Grover Whalen, head of the New
York World's Fair, appointed him to act on
the advisory committee for his State. At
first Calcutt declined the offer but later ac-
cepted and has played a large part in the
representation of North Carolina at the
World's Fair.
No doubt slot machines were Joe Cal•
cutt's first love, but when and if slot mach-
ines disappear entirely there is little doubt
but that the Vending Machine Company of
Fayetteville will still be in the coin machine
~~-
♦
NUMBER
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