Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

50
COIN
MACHINE
IIEVIEW
Corporation with Fred Pollnow, has gone
into a new partnership with Walter Gum-
mersheim er in th e newly formed Public
Sound Service, which will specialize in am-
plified music for dances a nd outdoor affairs.
Beckman will continue his phonograph op-
eration under his own name, with routes
through every part of th e city, as an inde-
pendent. Fred Pollnow, with over 600
phonographs, remains as still the largest
operator in th e midwest.
Another chan ge was dissolving of th e
partnership of Wiley Richards and Bill
Lorhman, co unty operators with routes sur-
rounding St. Louis southern residential dis-
tri cts. Richards has gone to Alton, Illinois,
where he will open a new phonograph com-
pany, and Lorhman remains in University
Ci ty, Missouri.
Operators are still grinning through
August over the novelty weekend trip which
Martin Balensiefer, Wurlitzer operator, and
eight friends, all members of the Optimists
Club, lived up to their name by renting a
trailer and going on a weekend tour in th e
southern part of the state in it. While the
trail er bumped precariously along uncertain
roads, Balensiefer and his friends played
con tract bridge and cooled off with beer.
Over the whole trip, the group was scarcely
out of the trail er, a nd managed to make
the trip successfully by usin g a heavy truck
for motive power.
According to Pete Brandt, Wurlitzer dis-
tributor and operator for downtown St.
Louis, there has been no ti'me in hi s re-
membrance when operatc!rs were so busy as
during this summer. Proof of the fact may be
had by noting that although th e summer is
on the wane, almost no ops have taken time
out for a vacation of any sort. Bill Marks,
blond "kid" operator, has been proposing a
trip to Minnesota for weeks, but cannot
make it until business slacks off. Bob Coe,
who run s a strin g of Mills machines in the
northern part of the city, snatched a week
away for fishing in th e Ozarks, and directed
hi s business by lon g-distance telephone
daily while th ere.
Ed Eller, Wurlitzer operator, is blissfully
feelin g th e elevation of fatherhood these
days. Mrs. Eller presented him with a nine
pound baby boy early in July.
St. Louis music men welcomed Larry
Cooper, Wurlitzer district manager in Illin-
ois, Michigan and Missouri, to St. Louis
late in the month on his first official trip to
the city since he replaced Wilbur ·Bye, who
shifted to the West Coast last month.
Cooper call ed on all phonograph operators,
and congratulated them on the excellen t
record of the year. He will continu e to
headquarter in Chicago.
Visiting St. Louis to buy 11 new Rock-
Olas, operator Phil Hanna of East St.
Louis, Illinois, announced that he has
bought the routes and all lo cation s of Lo-
renz Williams, rural Illinois operator, who
died last month following an attack of
pleurisy.
Another visitor to the Associated Phono-
graph Opera to rs headquarters was Ralph
Denton of Cuba, Missouri, who has so far
this year recorded one of the largest expnn-
sions of any operator i'n the_state-increas
ing his strin g from 30 machines to 13(/ in
one year. Business in Cuba and surrounding
towns has grown suffi ciently to allow this,
Den ton informs, and there has been a
commensurate demand for more and newer
pin tables.
Newest firm to enter the phonograph field
is the Royal Novelty Company at 1528 Mar-
ket, headed by Sam Singer, makin g his first
venture into th e business. With a modern ,
attractive office done in black and s ilver,
Mr. Singer has added an eye-pleasi ng note
to "Coin Machine Row" along Market
Street. Sam immediately subscribed to the
REVIEW; proof that he's on his to es.
Betty Balensiefer, daughter of Mr. a nd
Mrs. Martin Balensiefer, is spend in g two
months at Rollinsville, Colorado, in summer
camp.
The pinball field is equally active, with
th e accent on new tables one of the out-
standin g notes. Most of th e boys were on
hand at th e Turner picnic, with the excep-
tion of Jimmy Carmody, still ill in th e
hospi tal, where he must remain for another
six weeks, accordi'n g to Mrs. Carmody.
Jack Rose, route manager for Ideal Nov-
elty Company, has returned to St. Louis
after several weeks in Little Rock, Arkan -
sas, where he got off to a belated vacation.
Carl Trippe, Ideal's energetic president, will
head for California during August, driving
his new Buick.
Bill Wieniske, pintable and vending ma -
chin e operator, is in Minnesota for two
weeks. He sen t back a disgusted letter to
friends reporting th at th e heat if anythi ng
was worse in th e resort land than St. Louis.
A real disappointment has cast gloom
over the members of Abe J effer's Cigarette
Merchandisers group. The supreme co urt
at Jefferson Ci ty, aft er a 35,000 name peti-
tion for repeal of th e two-cent tax on cigar-
ettes had been presented to them by tobacco
associations and grocers groups in St. Louis,
upheld th e constitution ality of the tax fin-
ally. Thus, the two cent tax will con tinu e
to keep operators up late at night. With the
new federal tax, cigarettes are now 17c in
all machines, and con tain three pennies
under the cellophane wrapper which th e
purchaser receives after depositing 20c. ♦
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