Coin Slot
Issue: 1980 October 068 - Page 7
Coin Slot Magazine - #068 - 1980 - October [International Arcade Museum]
We'd
Like
You
To
Meet
Dick
Bueschel
by Rosanna Harris
Has the question
ever crossed your mind, "How
When the paper route money could swing it, Dick and
does someone become an expert?" It crossed
his friends would go to a classy movie theater, The Lamar,
ours and we decided to go to the source and find
on Lake Street in Oak Park. They would pass a big square-
out. We've talked extensively with Dick Bueschel.
block house at Pleasant and Home and wonder at all the
He is recognized as a top expert in the field of antique slot
people coming and going. Years later he would come to
machines, but we also discovered that he is a recognized
find out that it was Mills' House.
expert in other fields as well.
Dick, it seems, was born into slot machines because he
was raised on the west side of Chicago. "It was a strange
and wonderful section of the city called 'Austin'; it had
been a small town, but when Chicago grew and grew in the
1890's the town of Austin was engulfed." Before that it had
been a showplace along with the neighboring town of Oak
Park. Although it became an "old" section of Chicago in
the twenties and thirties, the residents believed that it was
still the small town it had once been.
Dick, in fact, was born December 26, 1926 (Mao Tse
Tung was also born on December 26— a fact of no
particular relevance.). It was a time when children began
.com
m
:
u
work early in their life and m
Dick was no
exception. He
us all e over
fro route
started his career with
a paper -
Austin. "I
m
d
e
e
d Some c of a my
d
a
started at 5:30 l A.M.
customers
were.
. . Tom
o
r
n Pine,
.a old
ow North
w
NNatling D on
man Mortimer Mills with his
w
//w the street from Merrick Park (well
garden right
tp: across
t
h
known for its Indian trail marker elms; still there when I
was a kid) and a much younger Bert Mills on west
Washington."
OCTOBER, 1980
© The International Arcade Museum
From the paper route Dick graduated to machine shops
and then to a hobby shop where he learned to build model
airplanes for collecting enthusiasts. One avid collector,
having over 100 models in his collection, later donated his
collection to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
During the war years Chicago (and its western suburbs)
was coin machine nirvana. The Jennings plant was batting
out scab SILVER CHIEF and BRONZE CHIEF Bell
machines. Mills built plant #3 for war work, while on west
Fulton at the Watling Plant the lights were on night and
day. The largest employer in the area was Mills and to the
young
Dick Bueschel
it seemed that everyone in his
neighborhood either worked for Mills or had a relative who
did. Even so it didn't really seem to be such a "big deal."
The summer of 1944 found Dick and a few of his buddies
biking around Lake Michigan. At the end of two weeks
they were flat broke and took any work available which
Continued on page 8
THE COIN SLOT — 7
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
We'd
Like
You
To
Meet
Dick
Bueschel
by Rosanna Harris
Has the question
ever crossed your mind, "How
When the paper route money could swing it, Dick and
does someone become an expert?" It crossed
his friends would go to a classy movie theater, The Lamar,
ours and we decided to go to the source and find
on Lake Street in Oak Park. They would pass a big square-
out. We've talked extensively with Dick Bueschel.
block house at Pleasant and Home and wonder at all the
He is recognized as a top expert in the field of antique slot
people coming and going. Years later he would come to
machines, but we also discovered that he is a recognized
find out that it was Mills' House.
expert in other fields as well.
Dick, it seems, was born into slot machines because he
was raised on the west side of Chicago. "It was a strange
and wonderful section of the city called 'Austin'; it had
been a small town, but when Chicago grew and grew in the
1890's the town of Austin was engulfed." Before that it had
been a showplace along with the neighboring town of Oak
Park. Although it became an "old" section of Chicago in
the twenties and thirties, the residents believed that it was
still the small town it had once been.
Dick, in fact, was born December 26, 1926 (Mao Tse
Tung was also born on December 26— a fact of no
particular relevance.). It was a time when children began
.com
m
:
u
work early in their life and m
Dick was no
exception. He
us all e over
fro route
started his career with
a paper -
Austin. "I
m
d
e
e
d Some c of a my
d
a
started at 5:30 l A.M.
customers
were.
. . Tom
o
r
n Pine,
.a old
ow North
w
NNatling D on
man Mortimer Mills with his
w
//w the street from Merrick Park (well
garden right
tp: across
t
h
known for its Indian trail marker elms; still there when I
was a kid) and a much younger Bert Mills on west
Washington."
OCTOBER, 1980
© The International Arcade Museum
From the paper route Dick graduated to machine shops
and then to a hobby shop where he learned to build model
airplanes for collecting enthusiasts. One avid collector,
having over 100 models in his collection, later donated his
collection to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
During the war years Chicago (and its western suburbs)
was coin machine nirvana. The Jennings plant was batting
out scab SILVER CHIEF and BRONZE CHIEF Bell
machines. Mills built plant #3 for war work, while on west
Fulton at the Watling Plant the lights were on night and
day. The largest employer in the area was Mills and to the
young
Dick Bueschel
it seemed that everyone in his
neighborhood either worked for Mills or had a relative who
did. Even so it didn't really seem to be such a "big deal."
The summer of 1944 found Dick and a few of his buddies
biking around Lake Michigan. At the end of two weeks
they were flat broke and took any work available which
Continued on page 8
THE COIN SLOT — 7
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).