Automatic World

February, 1932
AUTOMATIC
WORLD
Pag.e Twenty-Nine
THE PENNY
ARCADE
This Arcade belongs
to A. H. Kruss, of
Portlail1d, Ore.
It i.
l'ocated at Sea sid e
Beach, Ore. Mr. Kruss
moves his Arcade to
Portland' after
the,
summer seasons.
It
contains about 1 0 0
mach.ines. His Arcade,
in Portland contains,
1 50 machines.
Mr.
Kruu is a wide-awake
manager.
The Penny Arcade
By GEORGE KENNEDY
Mr. Kennedy is an autbority 0111
Pellln'y Arcades. He operates one
of the most exclusive Arcades in
Kansas City, Missouri.
T
HE greatest problem facing the Penny Arcade op-
erator today is Public Opinion. Keen observance
is not required to see that a great majority of the
people consider the Penny Arcade a low and unwhole.-
some form of amusement, and lamentable as the fact
may be, it nevertheless is a fact that many of the so-
called Penny Arcades in operation at this time are not
of a very high type.
The American people are lovers of clean amusement
and since the modern Penny Arcade is nothing more or
less than a place of amusement, there should be no rea-
son why we should not have the good will of all the
people.
In an effort to overcome this public prejudice we in
our Arcades are breaking away from the old fashioned
Penny Arcade ideas. The old drop-picture machines,
along with the girls in tights, are being replaced with
new and more modern forms of automatic amusement.
Weare catering to the better classes and making an
effort to get as far away from the popular conception
of a Penny Arcad.e as possible. Neon signs call atten-
tion to the "Fortune Booth," "Gymnasium," "Game
ltoom" land so on. All attendants are in uniform
and the' patron is treated with courtesy. We find that
under these conditions our patrons spend more money
per capita and that we have a larger number to draw
from.
There are sound psychological reason why some auto-
matic machines hav.e, and will always have, a strong
public appeal. Man, for instance, is born a competitor
and lives his life in competition with his fellow man.
He schemes by day and dreams by night how best to
out-do the other fellow. He wants you to know that
he can hit harder, lift more, or squeeze tighter than
any other man. When the opportunity offers, he will
show you just what a big fellow he is. You bet he will,
and he will derive a world of enjoyment from it. And
that accounts fully for the lasting success of the auto-
matic athletic machine. We cater to these men by
placing at their disposal the finest athletic machines we
can buy. Now these men are not so deeply concerned
regarding future events so they do not contribute much
toward the up-keep of the "Fortune Room" but the
ladies-well that's something else. Woman has been
since the beginning of time the "creature pursued" and
as she is well aware of this fact she naturally presumes
that she will eventually be captured and it is only natur-
al and human that the Dear Girl desires to know by
whom and when. Will he be tall, dark and handsome?
Wealthy? Travel? And of whom shall she beware? The
Dear Girl must know these things in order that she
might properly steer her course through life. So we
provide an elegant assortment of predictors and there
is really no reason why the "creature pursued" should
not be properly and happily captured.
The underlying principle of the Penny Arcade is
sound but if we are to reap the full financial benefit, we
must overcome the existing public prejudice.