Coin Slot

Coin Slot Magazine - #040 - 1978 - May [International Arcade Museum]
The Mills CHERRY BELL and VENDER
by Richard M. Bueschel
(c) copyright 1975
What do you do when you've got a hot line of bell machines and your dis
tributors keep asking for something new? That was the problem that con[
continually faced the Mills Novelty Company in the "Golden Age" of slot
machines: the 1930's. Once the mighty Mills Novelty Company had bro
ken the bonds of bell machine design with the pace-setting Mills SILENT
of 1931 (also called the "War Eagle" or "Yellow Front") the clamor for
"something new" was unending. It was an age of conspicuous consumption
that demanded new ideas and new models. The concept of the annual mod
el change took over the automotive industry ... and also slot machines.
It got so that the weeks prior to the annual Coin Machine Show in Chicago,
each January were ones of hushed rumors and open excitement. Sure,
there were other manufacturers. But Mills was the IBM of the coin
machine business. "What's Mills got?"; "Did Vince (Shay) tip his hand?";
"Let's visit Mills when we're in Chicago.": Mills was the talk of the town.
And they never-consistently never-let the operators down.
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