Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

JULY, 1947
OFFICE O F PUBLICATION : 111 5 Ve nice Blvd •• Los Angele s 15. Calif . Paul W . Blackford. Editor and
Publisher; Walter W. Hurd. Executive Editor; Clarence G. Beardslee . Advertising Manager; Louis
Karnofsky. Associate Editor. Fttzroy 8269. CHICAGO OFFICE 11 I : C . J . Ande r son . 35 East Wacker
Drive . CENtral 1112; NEW YORK OFFI~E 1171 : Ralph P. Mulligan. 441 Lexington Avenue. Murray
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Manufacturers Vote for
Annual January Show Date
CHICAGO-A big majority of the memo
bers of Coin -Machine Industries, Inc.,
voted to keep January 19, 1948 as the date
for the next annual convention, and also to
keep that week as the regular annual show
week, according to James A. Gilmore,
secretary·manager of the association.
£ince the dates of January 19 to 22 had
been announced as the time for the next
annual convention, a number of suggestions
had been received from members and
others that the show be changed to a
December date. Most suggestions men·
tioned that if the convention date be
changed to December, it should be as
l\mg before the holidays as could be
obtained.
In order to pass on the suggestions, eMI
sent ballots to all manufacturer· exhibitor
members and requested their vote on the
following three questions:
1. Do you favor the next show week of
January 19, 1948 as now sch~uled,
and to establish that week as the
regular convention week for follow·
ing years?
2. Or, hold next show the 'Week of Janu.
ary 19, 1948, as now scheduled. Then
schedule following shows for week
of December 13, 1948 and corres·
ponding week of December, 1949?
3. Or, hold next show the week of
January 19, 1948, as now scheduled.
Then hold no show' until third week
in December, 1949 and establish that
week as the regular show week for
the following years?
When ballots were returned to CMI
headquarters the board of directors met in
Chicago to consider the results. A com·
(See SHOW DATES, Page 12)
Call
PR. 7351
For Automatic Equipment,
Ports and Supplies
PAUL A. LAYMON
DI5nIBUTOR
1429·31 a nd 1503 W . Pica
Travel Heavy, Spending Light
As Tourist Season Starts
by WALTER W. HURD
CHICAGO-The 1947 tourist season got
off to a slow start and the coin machine
trade had to look forwafd to the hot
weather of July to see what the summer
season would actually mean in machine
patronage. Memorial Day as a preliminary
tipoff on summer business was a complete
washout in a literal sense. An unusually
late spring hit more than half of the'
country, including the entire north central
section.
All who cater to summer trade looked
forward to July 4 as the next trade index,
when bad weather spoiled the holiday in
May.
Manufacturers of amusement games
were cheered by an increasing demand for
games which started in April and was
credited to the desire of operators to
get new machines ' ready for summer loca-
tions. Operators find their games used
during the war now pretty old for ap·
pealiJIg to people out to enjoy the summer
months. But manufacturers could not meet
the demand for many of the new games
now on the market, since shortages of
parts and materials still handicap the
output of machines.
Since the war, established operators have
been inclined to hold on to good locations
in the cities and towns and the percentage
of shifting of amusement machines may
be smaller this year. Some of the northern
resort areas, including Minnesota and Wis·
consin, have set up legal barriers and bells
and payouts may not be so readily avail-
able for summer customers in these areas.
While amusement and diversion is the
chief object of summer tourists, they do
not look for games and music machines
alone. Manufacturers of soft drink and
ice cream vendors made every effort to
get as many machines out as possible this
summer to capitalize on the season. This
might have been the summer of great
expansion for such machines but for the
fact that shortages delayed output. The
industry will have to wait for another
summer to see fully what the refrigerated
dispensers can do in catering to summer
trade.
Early reports suggested that most of th~
soft drink dispensers were sent to southern
states in order to cash in on the long
summer season. Some of the most modern
types of vendors, with money changers and
all, could be seen in small southern towns.
Reports from some of the northern states
said a postwar model of a soft drink
vendor could hardly be seen. If anyone
guesses that games operators are the chief
ones who place their machines to cater to
the traveling public, he needs to take note
of where the soft drink vendors are placed.
Bus and railway stations, gas stations and
highway eating places are getting the drink
dispensers as fast as they can be made
and all with the idea of serving the traveler.
Baseball parks have already assumed new
meaning to the coin machine industry and
this includes the deluxe machines, like
photo machines and voice recorders, and
elaborate vendors. Makers of the coffee
vendors say ball parks will bring business
for these dispensers.
The present summer is very likely to
emphasize the fact that tourist travel
spreads its benefits to a much wider variety
of machines than merely amusement de·
vices.
Summer travel shifts the scene of busi·
ness activity in the same city as well as
in different sections of the country. For
years operators of playrooms and arcades
in some of the suburban stations in Chi-
cago have noted as much as a 40 to 50 per
cent increase in business, while at the
same time operators of arcades in shop-
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