Jukeboxen

In Pindigiland you also learn that not every jukebox is a Wurlitzer, and you get to know the specialties of the four big names Wurlitzer, Seeburg, Rock-Ola and Ami.

AMI – Jukebox

The National Piano Manufacturing Company was founded in 1909 and had a subsidiary company, the National Automatic Music Company, which bought and operated all of its equipment. In 1925, the two companies merged and became a branch of the Automatic Music Instruments (AMI) Company.

In 1926, AMI began producing jukeboxes with a very advanced selection mechanism. In the pre-war years, the “Singing Tower” was the top model.

In 1940, AMI focused on its “Automatic Hostess” Telephone System. It reached a central station in the disc jockey’s whole series of turntables operated by a coin microphone, which played music into the pub. By the beginning of the Second World War, the “hostesses with the angel tongues” had something else to do for industry and military and these systems disappeared.

After the war, AMI came out with the “A” (Mother of Plastics) model – the largest jukebox (1.75 m high) on the market. The old change mechanism (from 1930) was still one of the best and could play 78-iger and 45-iger records.

The new top “AMI” change mechanism, which is very similar to that of Rock-Ola, came in 1956 with the model “G-200” used. The most beautiful AMI AMI “I” and “H” with 200 and 120/100 Selections gabs from 1957/1958. With tactile dialing, the boxes were also suitable for the popular radio voters.
1959 to 1962 came the models J and K and the act. “Space technology” adapted the CONTI 1 and Continental 2 (STEREOROUND) to the market!

IMA – AMI

The boxes produced by JENSEN partly with original US parts under license were produced between 1954 and 1958. Then IMA – AMI concentrated on the production of televisions.

From the early 60-ies went downhill with the jukebox. There were many reasons – first in the US, probably the “Fast Food Generation” with pubs like Mc Donalds, Burger King – there was no time to throw a nickel in the jukebox or eat in peace. Television was one of the biggest adversaries and tied people into the house. Dance cafes became discos. Restaurants switched to loudspeakers from stereos.

Seeburg – Jukebox
….. always technology leader

Justus P. Seeburg (Sjoebert) Born in Sweden in 1871, emigrated to America in 1886. He first worked in piano factories and founded the J. P. Seeburg Piano Company in 1907. His first mech. semi-automatic instrument was an “orchestrion”.

From 1927 to 1934 the first machines were the “Audiophone” series. In 1938, his “Symphonola Classic” was the first glowing jukebox. In 1939, the first “Wall-O-Matic” was the first remote control device.

After the war Seeburg came with the P146 and the Freeborg 20f selection mechanism on the market.

In 1948 the M100A without any special design, but with the famous “Select-O-Matic”, in which the plates were lined up vertically.

Finally, in 1955, the legendary V200 became a true masterpiece. The first box with 200 options and as later with the KD 200 a rotatable title selection drum.

The Select-O-Matic was supplemented with the now magnetically storing “TORMAT unit”. With the 222 or CHANNEL 1 + 2 the first Seeburg stereo box 1959/60 came on the market!

In 1957, the Seeburg family retired from business.
The company continued to expand with coffee and cigarette vending machines and made in 1989 even CD Jukeboxes.

From the early 60-ies went downhill with the jukebox. There were many reasons – first in the US, probably the “fast food generation” with restaurants like Mc Donalds, Burger King – you had no time to throw a nickel in the jukebox or to eat in peace. Television was one of the biggest adversaries and tied people into the house. Dance cafes became discos. Restaurants switched to loudspeakers from stereos.

Rock-Ola – Jukebox

The hyphen in the name, we owe probably to the fact that the Canadian David C. Rockola annoyed that his name was sloppy. “Rockla” or “Rucko” did not come but Rockola.

At the age of 23, after Prohibition, he emigrated to the USA and began to fulfill people’s desire for music. Wurlitzer learned about this and filed a patent dispute at Litigation: $ 1 million

Rock-Ola on the other hand complained with $ 2 million. Rock-Ola cost this process, which lasted several years, nearly $ 0.5 million.

During the recession in the mid-40s, Rock-Ola also revised its pre-war models. Technically, what happened in 1950, where they introduced the “Rocket”, which played the first time the plates on both sides – to make up for the high choice of Seeburg models. It could also be switched to 33 1/3 and 45 rpm as a 78 player. The constant adjustment of the 2nd lower Tenarmes proved not optimal.

1952 came the “Fireball” with a carousel mechanism for 120 pcs. 45er singles. A gripper arm took out the plate and put it, depending on the desired side (A or B), on the turntable. This technique was then picked up by AMI. The open mechanism was an attraction.

Great models came from the year 1955 starting with the 1448 as the “chrome” moved in and Rock-Ola also built revolving title wheels.

The “Tempo II” 1960 is one of the most beautiful with the great chrome sails on the speaker.

The 1961 Princess and Rhapsody 1964 ended the era of open boxes.

Wurlitzer – Jukebox

Rudolph Wurlitzer emigrated from England to the United States in 1853 and began producing pianos in 1880. In 1908 he acquired the Kleist factory, which also produced organs for the silent films. The best known was the “Mighty Wurlitzer”.

In 1914 Rudolph Wurlitzer died and his 3 sons took over
Factory. Homer Capehort met with Farny Wurlitzer and brought
the jukebox know-how and a good mechanism of
a small company simplex with.

In 1936, Wurlitzer had its first record sales of 44,397 units. In 1940, the 800 model was the first unit in which air bubbles rose in the backlit design.

During the wartime 1941 Paul Fuller had to use a wooden tonearm on the 950, as there was a shortage of metal. The company was engaged in the manufacture of aircraft parts and other parts for war equipment.

After the war, the illuminated model 1015 came with the beautifully illuminated round arch.

For the first time, the new “Cobra” sound pickup system from Zenith Corporation, which claims to be able to play shellac up to 2000x at 95% sound quality, was introduced in the 1080A model.

The Wurlitzer 1500, which came on the market from 1952, were mechanically very complicated and not reliable. The last models with the simplex mechanism were the models up to the 1650AF.

With the model 1700 in 1955, the Wurlitzer mechanism with a circular plate arrangement was used in a drum. Depending on the selected side, one of 2 arms pushed the plate into the vertical play position. The next attraction was the model 2000, which was the first Wurlitzer to play 200 titles (in 1956).

At the end of the 60s, Wurlitzer produced the market with cheap machines. In 1972, a final attempt was made with the model 1050. In late 1973, it decided to withdraw from the music vending business in the US. In 1960 they opened a branch in Germany, which built the “poetry” and continues to exist today.

From the early 60-ies went downhill with the jukebox. There were many reasons – first in the US, probably the “Fast Food Generation” with pubs like Mc Donalds, Burger King – there was no time to throw a nickel in the Jukeobx or eat in peace. Television was one of the biggest adversaries and tied people into the house. Dance cafes became discos. Restaurants switched to loudspeakers from stereos in STEREO.

Jukeboxes from Germany

The US occupation forces (GI’s) did not want to give up their jukeboxes even far from home. Thus, the jukeboxes were known in Europe – imported and later produced under license.

Here are some names that were developed and manufactured by yourself:

NSM

NSM – Apparatus boxes in Braunschweig founded in October 1952 the 3 gentlemen H. Nack, G. W. Schultze and W. Menke.

Menke was the designer, Nack and Schultze were the owners of the wholesale company “Löwenautomaten”. The company was very successful with the slot machine series MINT namely Triomint, Roulomint and the bestseller Rotamint (Record, Luxury and Super).

NSM jukeboxes were Fanfare 60 in 1956 and 2 years later Fanfare 100, which was slightly styled to match the V200 from Seeburg. After all, 30 fanfare could be produced daily in 1960 and exported to 27 countries.

The fanfare change mechanism was adapted to the home plate changer and the 100’s had up to 50 plates on the stack.

NSM welchselte in the 60-iger the mechanism on a “Seeburg-like” and built even transistorized boxes into the 70-iger.

Wiegandt

Wiegandt from Berlin was the first German manufacturer and started in 1952 with the first 40 selections Wiegandtbox as a forerunner of Diplomatboxen.

The Diplomat C120 Stereo was the first stereo box with light-flooded housing and also a preselection option.

GI’s = Gouverment Issue (son of the government)

Tonomat

The 2nd German company was Tonomat from Neu-Isenburg. In 1953 they introduced the “V102”. Then in 1955 came the “Telematic 200” to the Panoramic in 1958 and the Teleramic 200 as the first German “Großbox”. Tonomat and Telematic had as a typical dial a telephone dial.

Bergmann

The 3rd German company began in 1954 with the “Symphony 40”, later Symphony 80 and 1958 Symphony 200 as Großbox.

Miners’ boxes had simple simple housings, design was not looked at.

Favourit

The favorite box came in 1957 on the market and favorite – Hagen / Westphalia was proud to deviate from the US boxes in all.

The selection display was projected enlarged by a small film tape on a screen.

Jukeboxen

AMI – Jukebox

Seeburg – Jukebox ….. always technology leader

Rock-Ola – Jukebox

Wurlitzer – Jukebox

Jukeboxes from Germany

Seeburg – Jukebox
….. always technology leader