Jukebox History 1952-1998
The
Silver Age of jukeboxes is often described as the period starting with
the first 100-selection phonograph, Seeburg M-100-A and -B,
introduced by the J. P. Seeburg Corporation in 1948/49, and ending with the
last models with visible record changing mechanism in the early sixties.
However, it is interesting to note that the first real chrome Silver Age boxes were
introduced around 1952, one year after the death of the leading designer of the
Golden Age, Paul M. (Malt) Fuller. He died at the
In
the early years of the fifties the Seeburg Corporation (founded in 1902)
produced nice machines with pilastres and visible mechanisms, and none of the
models had names with the previously used Symphonola prefix. The first
one was model M-100-C of 1952, known from the M.A.S.H. series on
television, and after that came the somewhat similar HF-100-G and W-100
models of 1953. Very nice jukeboxes and after that a new style in design was
tried out. The models HF-100-R Bandshell and HF-100-J of 1954
had a boomerang-shaped top section, and beautiful as they were they became
quite popular in cafés and diners. In 1955 the Seeburg company introduced the
first American 200-selection jukebox, the model V-200 / VL-200
with Dual Music System, often nicknamed the Towel-rail. At
this point in the mid fifties the company was hit by litigation under the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act and found guilty of operating a closed network of
operators and distributors which was judged to impose unreasonable restraint on
other tradesmen. Anyway, none of the jukebox cabinets mentioned so far was ever design
patented, but it is obvious that they represented a new line after the Symphonolas
designed by Nels A. Miller. The next industrial designer to be
a well-known jukebox trend-setter for Seeburg was Carl W. Sundberg. It is quite clear that the KD-200
and the L-series of 1957 came from his drawing-board, but his first
patented design was filed in November, 1958, The cabinet of model 222
/ 220 was the first of a number of patented Sundberg designs in the
early sixties. In 1956 the Seeburg family sold out the company activities to
Delbert W. Coleman and the Fort Pitt Industries, and
in 1964 the Seeburg Corporation took over the Williams company from industry
investors, the Commonwealth United Corp. and the XCor International Inc., and
in 1977 the company itself was renamed XCor International (but still known also
as the Seeburg Industries). It seems that the Seeburg company was sold again
due to financial difficulties among the investors in 1979/80 to become the
Seeburg Division of the Stern Electronics Inc. (until March, 1984). Williams, by the way, was extricated at that
time. The founder of the Seeburg company, Justinus Percival Sjöberg (born 20th April, 1871), immigrated
to the States in 1887, aged 16, and took the name Seeburg when he was granted
American citizenship in 1892. Many people immigrated to the States during those days, usually
arriving by boat and
passing the Statue of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island. Today Ellis Island
and the Statue of Liberty are reminders that the United States is truly a
country of immigrants.
Justus P. Seeburg died on the 21st October,
During
the same period in the early Silver Age, after a difficult start with
the models 1432 Rocket, 1434 Super Rocket, and 1436
Fireball, the Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation tried to compete with the
Seeburg Corporation, and produced the models, 1442 and 1446,
that looked very much like the Seeburgs. They were not design patented, and the
same was the case with the nice models 1448, 1452 and 1454,
which were produced with minor changes until 1956. The three models were
together with the later Tempo series the high points amongst
Rock-Ola's output during the Silver Age. After the 1954-56
models came the non-patented models 1455-S and 1458, and
finally in 1959 the first and only 'new' David C. Rockola design patented
wall-mounted model 1464 was produced.
After
Paul M. Fuller left The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, and Joseph J. Clement (designer of Wurlitzer’s
smallest barbox, model 2140 nicknamed
Frogbox, with Harry C. Kline Jr. in 1947) had taken over the designing
responsibility, there were many new ideas how to catch up with the 100
selections offered by Seeburg. The company introduced several complicated
add-on bits to the Simplex mechanism (including the WurliMagic Brain system
for the model 1500 to play both 78 and 45rpm records), but most of the
models, 1250 of 1950 through 1650A of 1953, failed in the
competition. When the new 104-selection model 1700 was introduced in
1954, the company was at a turning point, and finally in 1956, the centenary
year of the company, a new elegantly styled 200-selection model 2000
Centennial, came out from the factory. None of the Silver Age
models from Wurlitzer were design patented, but it was difficult for
competitors to copy the cabinets because they were well matched with the
patented carousel mechanism. The company continued with the new elegant style
until late in 1957, when the less expensive model 2150 was introduced.
After that the Wurlitzers, the models 2200 through 2250,
became less elegant in square cabinets. The company was ready for the next
decade, the sixties, with a lot of box-shaped jukebox cabinets. However, it is
important to mention that the German branch of the company, Deutsche Wurlitzer
GmbH, was founded in 1960, and that the European branch started production of
the Lyric in 1961. The Lyric was produced with modifications
until 1973. During the fifties and sixties Farny Reginald Wurlitzer (born 7th December 1883, deceased
6th May 1972) headed the main company as the last of the three brothers, who
had inherited the company after its founder, Franzis Rudolph Wurlitzer, born in Schilbach (Schöneck) in
Saxony (born 1st February 1831, deceased 14th January 1914). The other two
brothers in the second generation heading the company were Howard Eugene Wurlitzer (born 5th September 1871, deceased
30th October 1928) and Rudolph Henry Wurlitzer (born 31st December 1873, deceased
27th May 1948). Two important leading men, who deserve to be mentioned in
connection with the Golden Era of WurliTzer, were the general manager and
company president Reuben C. Rolfing (1891-1974), who joined the company
in 1934, and the plant manager and vice president Carl E. Johnson (1895-1971) at the North Tonawanda
Division until he retired in 1949.
In order to continue the line of the most important jukebox
manufacturers of the Silver Age it is now time for a few words about
the company AMI, The Automatic Musical Instruments Inc., in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Like the other
two big manufacturers AMI was caught a little off guard when Seeburg introduced
the 100-selection model in 1948/49, but it was somewhat easier to increase the
number of selections on the 'Model 500 Record Changer' up to a total
of 120 selections in 45rpm in the models E-120, F-120, and G-120
of the period 1953 until 1956, until a new carousel mechanism was introduced
for model G-200 of 1956. The 'Model 500 Record Changer' was
based on two original patents filed in October, 1946, by Anthony M. Kasnowich
and by Harry H. Vanderzee
and Robert A. McCallum.
Both rather important patents were assigned to AMI, and finally granted in
April 1953 and January 1954. The design patent for the model G-200 was
filed in September, 1955, by Melvin H. Boldt (1917-1981). Melvin H. Boldt
then carried on with the line of eye catching H-, I-, Jubilee-
and K-cabinets of 1957-1960 (the G-, H- and the Jubilee-models
were copied by European license holders). As the noted president of AMI, John W. Haddock
(1904-1998), who had acquired control of the company in May 1945, decided to
retire from the jukebox business in 1961, and the Automatic Canteen Company of
America took over the company administration, a new designer, Jack R. Mell,
was consulted. Jack R. Mell would soon come up with a strange but beautiful
patented cabinet design. When John
Wolcott Haddock took control in 1945, he was president of the Farrel-Birmingham
Co. in Ansonia, Connecticut, and formerly he was vice president of the Sullivan
machinery Co. in Michigan City, Indiana. After leaving the jukebox industry
John W. Haddock lived in Scottsdale in Arizona, and there he lost his wife
Gladys to cancer on the 30th January 1972 (Gladys Elizabeth Moffett, born on the
28th August 1898). Gladys (Baxter) had been a popular opera singer/actress in
the 1920s and early 1930s before she married John on the 2nd October 1935. John
W. Haddock passed away on the 15th March 1998 in La Jolla, California.
One
of the most remarkable manufacturers of the Silver Age, the United
Music Corporation, came up with a line of four models in the late fifties. The United Mfg. Co. was founded in
1942 by two former employees of the Exhibit Supply Co. founded 1901 by J. Frank Meyer in Chicago. Harry E. Williams, who
had been active as innovator and developer of gaming machines since 1934 was a well
educated engineer from Stanford University, Los Angeles, and during the working
hours at Exhibit Supply Co. at 4222-30 West Lake Street he met the mechanical
genius Lyndon A. Durant, who had been a radio salesman in his younger years in
Springfield, Massachusetts. Harry E. Williams became rather impressed by Lyndon
A. Durantˈs designs for gaming apparatus, and when the time was right they
both left the Exhibit Supply Co., and established their own manufacturing
facilities at 6123-25 North Western Avenue in Chicago to refurbish old games
and to obtain wartime manufacturing contracts. The first two United Silver Age jukeboxes, the UPA-100 and UPB-100,
and the carousel mechanism and finally the design for the Ultra Compact
Wall-Box resulted in four patents filed by Lyndon A. Durant. It is interesting that Lyndon A. Durant was personally
involved in thermal electronics research by partly funding the inventor and
pioneer in electronics Lee de Forestˈs experiments in his
Californian laboratory from 1950 until 1958. However, the studio of Raymond Loewy is often
related to the design of the United series, but the official name on the
patents is Lyndon Alfred Durant. The industrial design legend Raymond Loewy was one of the architects of the American
Streamline Movement, and his style surely influenced the design of the
United jukeboxes, and he actually owned one in his New York studio apartment.
The models, UPA-100, UPB-100, UPC-100, and UPD-100,
produced from 1957 until 1961 never became a success, as they were almost
unrivalled in the capacity to radiate absolutely nothing, and the Seeburg
Corporation finally bought the United company in 1964, and also about the same
time took over control of Williams Mfg. Co. originally founded by the pinball
innovator Harry E.
Williams.
Involved in the process were two experienced coin-op men,
the former owner of Williams and now president of the subsidiary, Sam Stern, and the vice-president in charge of
sales and marketing at Seeburg Corp., Bill Adair, who became elected president of
the corporation in 1966. Sam Stern was put in charge of the new United Games subsidiary,
and remained with the Seeburg Corp. until 1969.
A
few of the minor American productions in the early fifties can be added here.
The Ristaucrat company founded by Gustave W. Ristau and managed by his three sons
Alfred G., Harold W., and Arnold E. Ristau had been active in the very early thirties,
but the depression forced them to stop production and sell the Paul H. Smythe Jr. patented mechanism to the Rock-Ola
Manufacturing Company. Again in 1950 through 1954 they tried to find a market
for small inexpensive machines with the Ristaucrat 45 and S-45,
but like the Chicago Coin Hit Parade and the Williams Music Mite
there was no immediate nation-wide success although it seems they took the
largest share of the market. Later they even tried with a new concept and made
a limited number of 50 Ristaucrat 100 models for export. In the early
sixties they tried again with a new style Melodie-Vendor, made by
Vend-It Corporation in Appleton, but still without noticeable success, and they
ceased production of jukeboxes completely in 1964. The firm H. C. Evans &
Co. took over the phonograph division of the Mills Novelty Company in December,
1948, and continued to produce the Constellation model in 1951. After
that the company produced the models Jubilee, Century, Holiday,
and Jewel until March 1955, when the inventory of the phonograph
division was sold to investor José Tabachnik and Abraham Grinberg, head of the agency Mills Panoramic
in Mexico City, and the firm was liquidated. The machinery from the factory was
then moved to facilities two miles outside Mexico City to become the first real
jukebox manufacturing plant in the country,
Fonógrafos Automáticos Evans S.A., not to be confused with Casa Riojas founded
by José Riojas in Mexico City, that assembled thousands of Wurlitzer 1015 and 1100
models in the late 1940s.
The product names
Two series of jukeboxes from
Belgium deserve to be mentioned in this chapter. The first limited series to be
mentioned, the Tonecolor models, was manufactured by the electrical engineer
Louis Dilis, who founded the Dilis Algemene Televisie en Radio-onderneming in
1947 in Mortsel, and the cabinet maker Willy Toebosch, who was connected to the
furniture company s.a. Ameublement G. A. Toebosch in 1952 in Antwerp. Into the
company came the young Paul van Rompaey (1926-1997),
who was employed by the Dilis company as shop foreman, and he stayed with the
company in Mortsel for 35 years. The first "Tonecolor" jukeboxes were
planned in 1953, and soon the 100 selection model J-32 for magnetic tape play was produced and marketed, and then in
1954 followed by the almost iconic 50 selection model J-34 for 45rpm records. Later a model J-35 and a model Melodie
with 80 selections were introduced. The production of jukeboxes took place at
the Dilis facilities for about ten years until 1963 in the name of N.V.
Suggest-Toebosch. However, the name was changed in August 1956 to be simply
N.V. Suggest. The only known patent for the "Tonecolor" mechanism was
filed in Belgium by Louis Dilis, but also filed for patent by Willy Toebosch in
France in June, 1956. The patent was published in May, 1958. The other
important series of jukeboxes to be mentioned here came from the major
manufacturer Éts. Rennotte Selecteurs Automatiques de Disques founded on the
7th October, 1953, by Ernest Adolphe Louis Rennotte in Gembloux.
The first Rennotte jukeboxes made in 1956, the model CM-30 with patented mechanism had 30 selections, and in 1958 two
first-rate jukeboxes with 80 selections were introduced, the CM-80 floor and wall-mounted models. The
series of Rennotte jukeboxes of Belgian origin based on patents filed in France
in 1954 and 1959 stopped around 1960/61, and Ernest (Bob) Rennotte moved to Madrid in Spain around 1964, after divorcing
his wife Anne Andre, to continue as designer in cooperation with Juan Paredes Hernández at
PETACO (Procedimientos Electromagnéticos
de Tanteo y Color SA). A company founded in 1958, and licensed in
1963, manufacturing a line of
jukeboxes, pinballs, and arcade machines until around 1982. The parts for the
mechanisms of the Rennotte styled jukeboxes (1962-1969) were produced at the
facilities in Gembloux in Belgium, and then assembled with Spanish cabinets in
Madrid. Ernest Adolphe Louis Rennotte died aged 72 in Madrid in 1984, and Juan
Paredes Hernández unfortunately died aged only 59 in Sevilla in an automobile
accident on the 11th September, 1987. The "Tonecolor"
and "Rennotte" jukeboxes are considered to be some of the best and
typical of the era designed jukeboxes of the Silver Age, and loved by collectors
in Europe.
Moving
on to the sixties the design of music machines became quite different, and a
lot of design patents were filed in order to protect the models in competition
with the few other big manufacturers on the American market. Especially AMI,
now also by the name of Rowe/AMI, and Seeburg used the right to design patent
the cabinets. At AMI the two distinct designs for XJ Continental and XJ
Lyric were filed for patent in August, 1960, by Jack R. Mell. The XJ Continental is
often referred to as the Radar, and both the Lyric and the
Continental are much loved today by collectors and enthusiasts. After the
two models designed by Jack Robert Mell (patents granted in 1962), Melvin H. Boldt took over the trend-setting again
at Rowe/AMI, and design patented the following models through the sixties: JAL-200
and JEL-200 (1963), JBM Tropicana (1964), JAN Diplomat
(1965), Wall-ette (remote control unit, 1965), MM-1 Music Merchant
(1967), CMM-1 Cadette (1968), MM-2 Music Master (1968). After
the Music Master the official name of the product line was simply
Rowe, and Melvin H. Boldt design patented the following models from 1969 until
1973: MM-3 Music Miracle (1969), MM-4 Trimount (1970) named
in honour of Rowe's New England dealer team, MM-5 President Line
(1971), the RI-1 line and the TI-1 line (1973). After that
Melvin H. Boldt designed the following models around 1980/81: R-82 Woodhue
(1980), R-83 Claremont (1981), and finally the R-84 Prelude
(1981). Year in parenthesis indicates the year the patent was granted. One Rowe
design of the era, however, had other names attached to it: The front panel for
the CDII Cadette de Luxe Violetta was filed for design patent by Walter L. Koch and Robert P. Franklin in 1971 and the patent was granted
in 1973. Most models of the eighties clearly show the lines from the
Boldt-designed boxes. Some trendy styles were the R-85 Starlight
(1981), R-86 Blue Magic (1982), and the Sapphire series (R-87
through R-92) leading to the new compact-disc era of jukeboxes that
started around 1987.
At
Seeburg the following models were design patented by Carl W. Sundberg in the
very early sixties: Q100 and Q160 (1960) plus the 3W100
Wall-O-Matic (remote control unit, 1960). James (Jack) Cameron Gordon (sales president) and Theodore A.
Dobson (1919-1995), however, designed the DS100 and DS160
(1962). Mahlon W.
Kenney
(principal engineer for decades) and Carl W. Sundberg designed the following
remote control unit, the Consolette SCH-1 (1963), and Carl W. Sundberg
and Theodore A. Dobson designed the LPC-1 and
LPC-1R phonograph cabinets (1963). The following model, the LPC-480,
was designed by William C.
Prutting
(1964). William G. Broman and Theodore A. Dobson designed the PFEAIU Electra
and APFEAI Fleetwood (1965/66) and after that Carl W. Sundberg
designed both the SS-160 Stereo Showcase (1967) and the S-100
Phono-Jet (1967). It is interesting to note that the Phono-Jet
model came out as a mirror image of the patented design. After the 1967 models
Raoul E. Rodriguez and Carl W. Sundberg designed the LS1 Spectra (1968),
and Carl W. Sundberg alone designed the following two models, the LS2 Gem
(1969) and LS3 Apollo (1970). The Golden Jet (1970) was
designed by William G.
Broman.
In 1971 Carl W. Sundberg finally assigned the patent for the Seeburg Apollo
Consolette (a wall mounted selector unit) to the production company Walter
E. Heller & Co. in
None
of the models from the other two big jukebox companies, the Rock-Ola
Manufacturing Corporation and The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, were design
patented in the sixties and seventies. It seems strange because there were so
many models produced at both companies. It seems that the major manufacturers
including Rock-Ola and Wurlitzer were slightly behind the current design trends
in the late sixties and early seventies. It was obvious, however, that the
cabinet design was considered an important component of the complete product
when sound transmission really was a factor. Plastic, that had been at first a
novelty, was in the sixties a necessary component material, but jukeboxes were
moved from one location to the other, and literally had to be built to
withstand the beating they were constantly subjected to during transport. At
Wurlitzer it was simply a matter of building a cabinet with or without plastic
that enhanced the tone, protected the mechanism, was durable, attractive, and
that would blend with any location decor, and still allowed the finished
jukebox to be sold at a reasonable price. In the sixties Wurlitzer produced
several box-shaped machines, for example models 2600 through 3000,
the 3100 Americana, the Satellite, and finally 3600
SuperStar and 3700 Americana III. The last try by Wurlitzer came
in 1973/74 with the unique limited edition revival of vintage phonograph
styling, the model 1050 Nostalgia using the electromechanical selector
unit, known as Wurlamatic, developed by Frank B. Lumney and Ronald P. Eberhardt around 1967 (patent filed 1st
March, 1967). The 1050 Nostalgia is often referred to as the 'swan
song' for the American Wurlitzer (production run of 2,000 ended in December,
1973), and the company finally stopped production with the model
Rock-Ola,
however, never stopped production although the cabinets became very discreet,
designed to blend into the background rather than be the focus of attention.
During the sixties, through the seventies, and into the eighties the company
produced a lot of models. The 418 Rhapsody II of 1964 was the last one
of the era with visible mechanism through the front glass. After that came the
following models, all with the new Mech-O-Matic mechanism: 426
Grand Prix, 429 Starlet, 431
The
history of the audio/visual jukeboxes of the sixties is also rather
interesting. There were a few registered and patented designs in the States and
in
There
were also a few other important patented European jukebox designs of the
sixties and seventies. The first one that deserves to be mentioned here is the
design for the Chantal Panoramic (also called Enigma or Météore)
by André Alexandre Deriaz of Morat (Murten) in
In
In
the latter half of the eighties, in 1986/87, the Deutsche Wurlitzer GmbH tried
again with the Paul M. Fuller nostalgic design, marketing the Wurlitzer
1015 OMT (One More Time).
The reinvention of the old Fuller design was a brainchild of the general
manager Hans Domberg, and the new model became an
immediate success. The OMT-model was introduced with a new compact-disc
mechanism in 1989. In the late nineties the American main office of the
Wurlitzer Jukebox Company moved to Gurnee in Illinois, but the production
facility was still located in Stemwede-Levern in Germany. Rock-Ola, however,
tried in 1987 as mentioned previously with a new version of the 1973 Wurlitzer
1050 design and called it the Rock-Ola Nostalgia 1000. Although
the 160-selection model was introduced late autumn 1986 as a 'truly
sense-sational' model, the cabinet was still too heavy and did not have the
elegance of the classic Wurlitzer 1015 of 1946/47. Today several
manufacturers in Europe and
The
editor will conclude this short historical survey by mentioning, that a rather
interesting design patent was granted in England in the 1994. Stephen Kenneth
Joynes (1950-) from Cheltenham used
the rear of a Morris Mascot (the Mini) as the cabinet for a jukebox, probably
well inspired by the Songbird jukebox introduced in 1989 by the Carson
City Parlour Enterprises in Shakopee, Minnesota (a copy of the tail section of
a classic Ford Thunderbird of 1957). The historical survey has of course not
yet been completed, and it is interesting to note that only a few years ago in
America the Seeburg Manufacturing & Supply Company was rocking the planet
with the newest hi-tech jukebox, the Seeburg Millennium for
the year 2000, and in Europe the British Sound Leisure Ltd. produced an
interesting line of timeless, wall-mounted, high-quality jukeboxes like the Star
Dust, Nite Scene, and Lime Lite models with 21st Century
Mechanism. The mechanism was introduced in 1997 as the simplest commercial
compact-disc mechanism in the world. The other manufacturers of commercial
jukeboxes in both
Considering
the above mentioned models and designs, the following question might still be
asked in the early morning hours among operators and patrons in the
juke-joints: Will there ever again be a really new, revolutionary era in
jukebox design? It is the editor's opinion that one of the first steps towards
a new design era was taken in 1998 by Christian Bökenkamp in
Gert J. Almind