1937-10 Coin Machine Review pg 6. Full page color advertisement for Rock-Ola's pitch-and-bat game World Series (1937) and Rock-O-Ball.

1937-10 Coin Machine Review pg 3. Intro page for the Rock-Ola multipage ads.

1937-10 Coin Machine Review pg 4-5. Advertisement for two models of Rock-Ola jukebox, the Imperial 20 and the Rhythm Master 16.

An absolutely gorgeous set of pages advertising Rock-Ola's 1937 equipment - including two of their latter-30s hit games.

Part of the wonderful scans being done by @cpi.pinball.horse

archive.org/details/coin...

A restored cabinet of Sky Fighter by International Mutoscope. https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/lot-281261.aspx

1941-08 Coin Machine Review pg 18. People play a Sky Fighter at a Sportland Arcade in Ocean Park, California.

The front of an International Mutoscope Sky Fighter, showing the peep hole display and the backglass with a scoreboard represented by a radial dial. https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/lot-613578.aspx

A beautiful game from just before the U.S. involvement in WWII - Sky Fighter by International Mutoscope.

While less iconic than Keeney's machine gun, its self-contained design would presage the likes of the Dale Gun and Periscope in years to come.

A cabinet for Deluxe Winter Book by H. C. Evans & Co. https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/lot-447832.aspx

Close-up of the Deluxe Winter Book artwork. https://auctions.potterauctions.com/_H_C__Evans___Co__Deluxe_Winter_Book_Horse_Racing_-LOT48133.aspx

A view of the coin mechanism for the Evans Winter Book, which had five separate slots to indicate which horse is being bet on. https://www.proxibid.com/lotinformation/46427124/antique-hc-evans-winter-book-horse-race-5-cent-slot-machine

Out there to red rid of the snow and ice... Why not treat yourself with a visit to the Winter Book?

Sure, it may just be a horse race roulette machine, but when else could I talk about it?

Cabinet of Set-Shot Basketball of Richman Corp. https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/10__richman_corp__set_shot_basketball_arcade_game_-lot461699.aspx

Set-Shot Basketball not on its legs. https://pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2024/04/niche-mechanisms-007-basketball-ball.html

1953 Mike Munves Catalog pg 02. Catalog page for Set-Shot Basketball. https://archive.org/details/mike-munves-1953/page/n1/

Basketball always needs a good-sized cabinet. Here's a beaut from Richman Corp, Set-Shot Basketball.

Image of a restored Tilt Test machine by Atlas Games. https://www.fontainesauction.com/auction-lot/5-cent-atlas-tilt-test-skill-ball-game_e72fa4e373

Flyer for Atlas Games' Tilt Test machine. https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/arcades/show/7779

A classic early "maze" type game, the well-named Tilt Test from Atlas Games.

There are some concepts that no modern technology can really improve.

Promotional photo of a child sitting atop the Obake no Q-Taro kiddie ride, based on the character from the popular manga.

An existing example of the Nakamura kiddie ride for Obake no Q-taro.

Advertisement by Nakamura Seisakusho for their Obake no Q-Taro kiddie ride, featuring the mangaka of the original story on left.

Among the first coin-op amusements ever with an official media license, Nakamura Seisakusho's Obake no Q-Taro kiddie rides established the company as a force to be reckoned with in Japan's rooftop amusement scene.

Front page of the Clawson Company Composite Catalog.

Two pages from the Clawson Company catalog, explaining their history and demonstrating illustrations of dice throwing machines.

Two pages of the Clawson Company catalog of coin-op machines: Showing the penny drop game Carlo, the strange trade stimulator The Newark Rainbow, and the penny drop trade stimulator Lively Cigar Seller.

A 19th century coin-op machine catalog from the long-forgotten Clawson Company.

A wide variety of novelties, trade stimulators, and vending machines right at the dawn of the penny arcade.

Panzer Attack by Midway flyer. https://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/panzer.htm

A Panzer Attack machine. https://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/panzer.htm

Control panel for Panzer Attack. https://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/panzer.htm

Panzer Attack by Midway rolls into position!

A sophisticated EM game from the post-video era bringing the WWII thrills.

The Seeburg Symphonola Model H jukebox. https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/seeburg_symphonola_model_h_phonograph_jukebox_-lot257963.aspx

So that's the start of the story - as best as we know right now.

But while AMI was struggling to find its footing, one of their player piano competitors was making their own contributions.

Next time, we see how the jukebox takes SHAPE.

The AMI FR jukebox, their first refined and widely available model. https://www.jukeboxhistory.info/ami/jukeboxes_1927-1942.html

1931-05-09 The Grand Rapids Press pg 5. Notice of the inventory sell-off of AMI's player pianos at bargain prices.

After jettisoning their player piano inventory, AMI managed to turn itself around and fully embraced the new market category.

They would become the first of the Big Four jukebox companies who soldiered the War years and defined a new era in publicly-played music.

An illustration of the AMI factory in Grand Rapids in their 1930 investor document.

1930-05-09 Dangor Daily Commercial pg 5. Stock price chart for AMI as of early 1930.

1931-02-10 The Grand Rapids Press pg 20. New story about AMI entering receivership.

What's up with the original release? Why did AMI never offer this revolutionary product more broadly?

Whatever the case, AMI was lucky to have this new product. After many good years, the player piano business collapsed in the Depression and forced them into receivership.

An image (source unknown) of the branded National Automatic Selective Phonograph. https://www.jukeboxhistory.info/ami/jukeboxes_1927-1942.html

US Patent for the "Automatic sound reproducing instrument" filed by AMI engineers. https://patents.google.com/patent/US1879693A/

Snippet from AMI's 1930 "History, Organization and Personnel of the Automatic Musical Instrument Co." covering their coin-operated phonographs.

Shortly thereafter, AMI engineers filed a patent for their method of such a device.

By 1930, AMI claimed ownership of the device, which would go down in history as the National Automatic Selective Phonograph - after one of the predecessor companies.

1927-05-05 La Cross Tribune and Leader-Press pg 16. An advertisement to the public to come see the Automatic Selective Phonograph.

1927-05-06 La Cross Tribune and Leader-Press pg 6. A story covering the Automatic Selective Phonograph.

From here, things are a bit murky.

In May 1927, news stories started appearing about the Automatic Selectic Photograph, a device that could play two sides of ten individual records with selection capability.

No company is attributed to it at the time, and it quickly disappears.

The AMI factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. https://www.jukeboxhistory.info/ami/factory.html

An ad for the Virtuolo player piano by the National Piano Manufacturing Company.

The other claimant to the throne was far more committed.

Automatic Musical Instrument (AMI) was the merger of two closely-related companies in its eponymous business.

They were a major supplier of multi-roll player pianos; the company was soon exploring the potential of the phonograph.

1928-08 The Talking Machine World pg 61. An ad for Electramuse with illustrations and photos.

1929-09 Electrical Merchandising pg 118. One of the later model Electramuse jukeboxes.

But breaking into a new business was always going to be risky - doubly so at the onset of the Depression.

Holcomb & Hoke reportedly lost half a million dollars from its phonograph business. They released a few Electramuse models, yet did not stick it out to see the success of the jukebox.

A model of Electramuse with a lit-up sign.

1928-06 The Talking Machine World pg 129. Earliest known ad for Electramuse.

A restored Electramuse machine.

Electramuse first shows up in June 1927; by the next year it was advertised as a product for the coin-op industry.

It's very classy exterior was even more impressive it had a sign which was backlit - a soon to be increasingly common technique in coin-op machines.

The Deca-Disc mechanism in motion inside of an Electramuse machine. http://myvintagetv.com/Carsten/Electramuse/Deca-Disc%20Electramuse.htm

A supposed "prototype" of Electramuse - likely actually a later model. https://www.jukebox-world.de/Forum/Archiv/USA/Electramuse.htm

Many of their products were at the edges of the coin-op industry though, so they were plenty familiar with the player instrument business - and presumably the Automatic Entertainer.

They decided to use the Deca-Disc as the basis for this new concept of coin-op phonograph.

1927-01-28 Pawhuska Journal-Capital pg 8. A display counter for meat created by Holcomb & Hoke.

1914-10 The Moving Picture World pg 264. The Butter-Kist popcorn machine by Holcomb & Hoke Mfg.

1913-09-20 The Billboard pg 70. A Box Ball game manufactured by Holcomb & Hoke.

Unlike most of the companies who became involved in this nascent market, Holcomb & Hoke had absolutely nothing to do with music.

They were a turn of the century manufacturer who dealt in a variety of products, both coin-op and not. Their big claim to fame was a popcorn-maker.

Illustrations of two models of Electramuse players. http://myvintagetv.com/Carsten/Electramuse/Deca-Disc%20Electramuse.htm

We still lack some information to definitively say.

However, what is clear is that in 1927, at least two companies started offering multi-selection phonographs with an electric speaker attached.

The first we'll examine is the Electramuse by the company Holcomb & Hoke Mfg.

A demonstration of the Deca-Disc mechanism. http://myvintagetv.com/Carsten/Electramuse/Deca-Disc%20Electramuse.htm

1922-08-02 Harrisburg Telegraph pg 2. Advertisement for the Deca-Disc.

Among these switching formats was one called Deca-Disc.

As the name implies, it could switch between ten different records with a mechanism far less complicated than that of Gabel.

From these two threads come to origins of the jukebox.

But who did it first?

A 1927 home record player by Victor which could automatically change disks. https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1crjc54/in_1927_victor_offered_to_the_public_the_first/

Another technology starting to flower at this moment was a sophisticated, non-proprietary disc-changer for records.

Such a device was advertised for the home, but it hardly made sense in that context. Far better for a rival of the Gabel-style coin-op player, no?

A 1920s era phonograph using the standard acoustic-style cabinet speaker. http://www.canclockmuseum.ca/gallery/OLD_RECORD_PLAYERS_TO_HEAR_AT_THE_MUSEUM/2872.html

A 1920s era radio console. https://www.sparkmuseum.org/portfolio-item-category/radio-enters-the-home-1920-1927/

Part and parcel with this was also the ability to create electrical speakers to harness the new fidelity of that sound.

This is where coin-op machines had an edge: Though people were buying radios for their homes, a tabletop phonograph could only have pretty minuscule speakers.

1910 recording by the Victor Salon orchestra.

A 1920s era recording using an electric microphone.

Up until the mid-1920s, all musical was recorded in the same way: Blowing sound into a microphone directly onto an acetate.

Then came the advent of the electric-powered microphone. Not only did this open up many new possibilities for recording, it also drastically improved sound quality.

Perhaps I was a bit cheeky in defining the Automatic Entertainer as the "first jukebox".

The jukebox means more than a multi-selection phonograph, and it grew out of a very specific set of technologies in the 20th century.

This time, we'll be more specific: How electric sound created the jukebox.

1996-12 Next Generation pg 8. David Rosen.

David Rosen and his wife Masako, circa 1980s.

1969-07 VT Music & Games pg 18. David Rosen.

David Rosen, who helped create Sega and changed the coin-op industry forever, has passed away.

www.replaymag.com/segas-dave-r...

An absolute titan in video game history. May he rest in peace.

1965-12 Automatico Espanol pg 20. A woman plays imported pinball tables in Spain.

1959-10 The Canadian Coin Box and Vending pg 2. Advertisement for the Seeburg Stereo jukebox system.

Off-duty soldiers play at amusement machines in the U.K, circa 1950s.

A Happy New Year to all! May you find amusement - in all its forms - just around the corner.

1935-02 Pacific Coin Machine Review pg 49. Main office of the National Amusement Company in Los Angeles, CA.

1934-06 Pacific Coin Machine Review pg 14. Advertisement for the California Games Co. pinball Parade, as distributed by National Amusement Company.

1935-02 Pacific Coin Machine Review pg 49. Inside of the National Amusement Co. showroom, loaded with pinballs.

One of the companies that popped up at the dawn of the pinball boom in California was distributor National Amusement Co.

A restored cabinet of the original Automatic Entertainer model. https://www.jukebox-world.de/Forum/Archiv/Gabel/Gabel-Entertainer-1906.html

Photo of John Gabel, circa 1928. http://juke-box.dk/gert-gabel.htm

Close-up of the sign on a Gabel's Automatic Entertainer machine. https://www.rickcrandall.net/diary-disclosures-of-john-gabel-a-pioneed-in-automatic-music/

This was an intro to the topic of the jukebox, which hopefully will put what we discuss afterwards into context.

Though the revolution in the late 1920s may not have been the first of its kind, the era of the Automatic Entertainer was a prelude to an explosion of coin-op music.

1920s era penny arcade.

This level of insight for a coin-op pioneer is still basically unprecedented.

It makes you think not only what we've lost, but what we might still find if we look.

Could there be testimonies from others just waiting to be found?

Photo of John Gabel. https://www.jukeboxhistory.info/gabel/history.html

Coin-op historian Richard M. Bueschel. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5993087/richard_martin-bueschel

1984-05 Antique Phonograph Monthly pg 1. Cover page of the first printing of John Gabel's story.

However, there's a lot more to this story I could have gone into.

In the 1980s, coin-op historian Dick Bueschel tracked down John Gabel's memoir.

This was later excerpted in an article by Rick Crandell in Antique Phonograph Monthly.

www.rickcrandall.net/diary-disclo...