Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

The JFuture
and The Arcade
by H. E. GILLES~lE .
G illespie Games Co., Long Beach , Cal.
THE AUTHOR
H. E. Gillespie has been an operator for
a number of years and maintains his head·
quarters in Long Beach , Californ ia. His oper·
afions have covered half of fhe stale of
CaliJornia and in recent years he has special-
ized in Arcades until he is widely referred fo
today as the "Arcade King." In this brief
article Gillespie expresses some valuable
opinions concerning Arcades in the post war
years.
I believe that now is the time to start
looking forward to find what the future
holds for the Arcade business; considering
that the war will be over wi thin the next
two years or that it may be prolonged for
ten; putting; the husiness on an economic
basis; and facing the facts as to what lies
ahead.
Let us recall the cycle or history of the
business before the war. (In the . category
of Arcades may also be included bowling
alleys. ) We cannot deny that the business
is spasmodic or that it runs in cycles, as
does all amusement business. This is no
doubt affected by our economic condi·
tions. The answer to this is population or
percentage. In other words, Arcades are
permanent in largely populated areas, or
seasonal in resort centers. After the war
we cannot expect small cities now support·
ing Arcades to continue to do so wi th the
discontinuance of trade from servicemen
and defense workers.
I .personally would prefer defense cities
right now to ci ties that have large numbers
of service men to depend on for this
reason: the majority of the service men
that we have had have been men without
families. The majority of service men
that we will have in the future will be
men with families and they will 'lot have
the money to spend. I do believe that
large sea port towns will be an excep tion
to the above statement.
I do not mean to convey a pesslmlstlc
outlook on the Arcade business. Quite the
contrary, I believe the Arcade businees is
here to stay and has been greatly benefited
by the war as to educating the public to
a different type of inexpensive amusement.
In all probability the type of amusement
may not be guns after the war, but there
will always be that thrill for a penny
(no t a nickel ) regardless of whether the
thrill is a contest, a picture, a card, an
electric shock, or a game. The profits still
will be good and the business will have a
solid fo undation.
The equipment item shou ld also be
another fac tor to the Arcade man. Facing
facts, there has not been any great amount
of Arcade eq uipment manufactured for
some time and it is my opinion that rna·
terials to manufacture good quality Arcade
equipment will no t be available for at
least one year after the war.
I would therefore aclvise an Arcade man
to main tain his equipment accordingly and
not to sacrifice it at any time; to respect
it as better than money in the bank, as it
has a better earnin g power and has cer·
tainly not depreciated in value and will
not for some time to come.
* * *
"Where didja get the black eye, Cor-
poral ?"
"In the war!"
"What war?"
"The boudoir!"
Servicemen are av-
id Arcade fans as
evid e nced b y th is
photo snapped at an
early hour on Sunday
morning. In the ac-
companying article
H. E. G i ll es p ie
sounds a w a r n in g
about A rcades de-
pending on Service-
men patronage .
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COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
9
FOR
APRIL
1944