In 1951 M&S was purchased by the Wayne Pump Company, who then moved all their manufacturing and headquarters from their Ft. Wayne, Indiana location to the M&S plant in Salisbury. For a short time after the sale of M&S, new gas pumps carried both the M&S and Wayne brands on them. But within just a few years the M&S was dropped and all the pumps manufactured in the Salisbury plant bore the Wayne brand name. These pumps became known as the Wayne 80 model.

The most collectible model of the M&S pumps is the model 80, shown here. This is a restored 1950 M&S 80 that has what is called the “Ad Glass top”, which refers to the illuminated inset on the top of the pump. The model 80 was also available as a “Script Top” with the oil company name stamped out of the metal with letters that were illuminated.

Manufactured by:
Martin & Schwartz Pump Company
Buffalo, New York

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

The Continental 2 is able to play up to 200 selections from either 45 or 33rpm records and features the AMi Stereo Round sound system. Still a relatively new concept, the first stereo jukebox was made by Wurlitzer in 1959.

AMi was founded in 1909 as the National Automatic Music Co., making coin-operated player pianos. AMi developed the first electric jukebox amplifier in 1927, greatly increasing the popularity of jukeboxes. They merged with Rowe Corp., a vending machine manufacturer, in 1959. Today the company is known as AMI Entertainment Inc. and is a worldwide supplier of digital entertainment, such as touch screen games and Rock-Ola jukeboxes.

Dimensions: 65”H x 30”W x 29”D
Weight: Approx. 350 lbs.

Automatic Musical Instruments, Inc.
Grand Rapids, Michigan

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

The Gilbert & Barker Manufacturing Company was located in Springfield, Massachusetts. They began manufacturing gas pumps around 1902. The company name was changed to Gilbarco in 1965. In 1966 they relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina where they operate today as Gilbarco Veeder-Root, a subsidiary of the Danaher Corporation. They remain one of the leading gas pump manufacturers in the world today.

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

This is a vintage Ford gum vending machine from the 1950s. This model was set up to vend gum for 1 penny. The glass globe has a flat top, because originally there was a metal frame positioned on the top of these gumball vendors that displayed the name of whatever local charity the vendor was collecting for. These machines had the capacity to fit 4 lbs. of gumballs. We restored this chrome gum vendor back when we were still in the restoration business.

Dimensions: 12”H x 8”W
Weight: 13 lbs.

Ford Gum and Machine Co., Inc.
18 Newton Ave.
Akron, New York

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

There were a huge variety of can and bottle openers made by Vaughan. They stamped their products with a brand name or advertisement to personalize them for a their customers. The openers were given interesting names too, like “Nifty”, “Dainty”, “Opens-All” and “Never Chip”. Vaughan was in business until 1984 and their products are very collectible today.

The second photo shows an ad for bottle openers made by Walden Inc. of Cambridge, MA. I was unable to find any history about this manufacturer but found some interesting information about bottle openers in general. The necessity for bottle openers followed the invention of the first successful bottle cap (or crown) design that was put into use in 1894. The first opener was made of cast iron by William Painter of Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed as a necessity while he was trying to make a better bottle crown.

Above are photos from a 1941 ad for a soda dispensing machine. It was a soda can vendor, able to dispense 3 different flavors of soda. The capacity and dimensions of the machine are unknown.

The vendor was made by Kalva Vendors, Inc., a company that was in business from 1937 to 1950. H. T. Larrimore started Kalva in 1937 in Chicago, Illinois. The company merged with the Searles Welding & Manufacturing Company in October of 1948. They continued to manufacture Kalva vendors until 1950 and then closed the factory permanently.

This is a unique machine, but we don’t know all that much about it. Please blog-in share whatever information you may have if you’ve ever seen one.

Manufactured by:
Kalva Vendors, Inc.
Chicago, Illinois

These items are not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

The second photo is of the Lubbock, Texas RC plant. It features classic 1930’s or 40’s industrial architecture. The building has a brick front and small windowpanes throughout. There’s an overhang over the door with a deco treatment to it. It’s hard to see, but another RC neon sign off is to the right. I wonder how many times Buddy Holly drove by the place?

The third photo shows a building with lots of glass blocks. There is no mistaking what the purpose of the building is by the size of their signs.

The last photo shows the entrance to the Charlotte, NC bottling plant. Again, another great neon sign welcomes all who visit the plant.

All the buildings appear to be small, which makes sense, given Royal Crown’s market share behind Coke, Pepsi, and probably, Dr. Pepper. We have some other great Royal Crown Cola blogs to check out. Just click on the links below.

http://www.vintagevending.com/royal-crown-cola-advertising-and-celebrity-endorsements

http://www.vintagevending.com/rc-bottle-shaped-fountain-dispenser-draft-arm

The Royal Crown Company had marketing pros that understood the value of advertising and product promotion. With the help of their marketing agency, BBD&O, Royal Crown Cola experienced incredible growth through the 1940s.

Starting in 1939, RC Cola became the sponsor for the CBS radio program “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” with Robert Ripley. The show was broadcast every Friday evening and both the program and the RC Cola commercials were heard from coast to coast.

Another major component of RC Cola advertising was their print advertising. Starting in 1940 they had color inserts placed into magazines such as “The Saturday Evening Post” and “Good Housekeeping”. They also had ads printed in nearly 600 daily newspapers across the U.S.

Beginning in 1946 they used celebrity likenesses as well as endorsements. The advertisements featured famous movie stars like Lucille Ball, Loretta Young and Joan Crawford. Other stars in their ads were Lauren Bacall, Gary Cooper, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, Gene Tierney, Barbara Stanwyck, Bing Crosby and Jerry Lewis. 1947 RC Cola ads featured the glamorous Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr. A nationwide campaign was begun to promote RC Cola as the best of all available colas, proven in independent taste tests. They started using the slogan, “Best By Taste Test” and the stars appeared in their ads declaring, “RC tastes best!” Unlike RC’s main soft drink competition, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the people at Royal Crown liked the idea of linking their cola to movie stars.

Other forms of advertising were billboards, point-of-purchase displays, metal signs, no-drip paper bottle protectors and bottle openers. Nancy Sinatra did two RC Cola commercials during her one-hour television special, “Movin’ with Nancy”, in 1967. In the mid-1970s Kelly Moran, sister of Erin Moran, was in an RC Cola commercial riding a skateboard while delivering pizza. This was part of the RC Cola ad series titled “Me and My RC”.

The Royal Crown Cola Company commemorated its 100th Anniversary in 2005. They are now owned by Cadbury Schweppes and continue to be very successful all over the world.

The Wurlitzer family had a reputation for purchasing and making very fine instruments dating back to the 17th century in Saxony (a German-speaking region that became part of Germany in 1945). In 1853, 22-year-old Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer emigrated to the U.S. to make his own way, rather than joining the family business as was traditionally done. Starting out in New Jersey and travelling to Philadelphia, he was unable to find employment until he found a job in Cincinnati as a door-to-door salesman. In 1854 he got a cashier job at a bank and was able to save enough money to contact his family back in Europe and request they send him some of their high-quality instruments. He sold a selection of woodwind instruments direct to local retailers that had previously gone through a succession of middlemen to import their instruments.

In 1856 Wurlitzer officially founded The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in Cincinnati, Ohio as a musical instrument import business. He started out operating out of 3 small rooms on a part-time basis while still working at his job as a cashier at the bank. Wurlitzer’s import business grew quickly and moved to a new building in 1858. He opened a retail store with a showroom in 1860. He supplied drums and other musical instruments to the U.S. Army during the Civil War and by 1865 he was the largest supplier of band instruments in the country.

Wurlitzer made the transition from importing to manufacturing, and in 1880, Wurlitzer built and sold the first American-made Wurlitzer piano. The manufacturing took place in a factory located in North Tonawanda, New York. In 1889, Wurlitzer’s son, Howard joined the business. In 1896 they introduced the first coin-operated electric piano, called the “Tonophone”. In 1901 the Tonophone won the Gold Medal Award at the Pan American Exposition. The next major innovation produced by the Wurlitzer Company was the Mighty Wurlitzer. This was an organ that was used in cinemas and theaters during the silent movie era, supplying some background music.

The combination of “talkie” movies and the onset of the Depression of 1929 created very hard times for Wurlitzer. Their stock had fallen from a high of $119 a share in 1928 to $10 in 1933 and the company was in serious debt. The Wurlitzer Company convinced Homer Capehart to join their company to serve as their general manager and bring with him his rights to the Multi-Selector record-changing system that he had bought from the Simplex Manufacturing Company. This device allowed customers to insert a nickel and select a particular record to listen to on a phonograph, rather than only being able to listen to the records play in the order in which they were stacked. The Wurlitzer Company knew that Prohibition would soon be coming to an end and there would be a huge demand for coin-operated music. By 1937 Wurlitzer had sold over 100,000 phonographs and they dominated the phonograph market. The jukebox became known as the “small man’s concert hall” and today the Wurlitzer jukebox will always be associated with the Big Band Era due to its great success during that time period from the 1930s to the late 1940s. This is referred to today as the Golden Age of jukeboxes.

In 1946 the model 1015 Wurlitzer jukebox was introduced and they sold 56,000 units in less than two years. But Wurlitzer lost their edge in the jukebox market with the creation of the 45-rpm record. Their chief competitor, Seeburg, released a phonograph that was able to hold 50 records as opposed to Wurlitzer’s 24. Also, Seeburg’s jukebox was capable of playing both sides of a record, making it the first 100-selection juke. Wurlitzer was not able to come out with a competitive mechanism and Seeburg succeeded in dominating the jukebox market throughout the 1950s.

By the early 1970s Wurlitzer had virtually given up all jukebox production. They had some success in the 1980s with a return to retro and the re-release of the Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1015 in 1986, it was released once more and called the “One More Time”. It was a unique juke, with 1946 styling and state-of-the-art music technology. The Gibson Guitar Corporation bought the Wurlitzer Jukebox Company in 2006 and they continue to produce jukeboxes today in their manufacturing plant in Hullhorst, Germany.

This is a Glasco GBV-50 Starlet Soda Machine we restored. It was restored to original condition, but without the Glasco logo and we painted the cap catcher black, rather than red. We have replicated the classic Coca-Cola “fishtail” logo used from 1958 to 1965. Please note we are no longer in the restoration business.

Glasco actually began as the Glascock Brothers Manufacturing Company, a company that was founded in 1892 to build washing machines. In 1929 they produced their first Coca-Cola cooler. It was a cooler that held 72 bottles of Coke that was cooled with ice. It had space below to hold 3 additional cases of soda. The Standard, as it was called, was the first mass-produced Coca-Cola cooler. Because of this, Glascock is often referred to as the “grandfather” of all Coca-Cola vending machines. The company name was changed to the Glasco Corporation in the 1930s. Through the early 1960s, Glasco only made soda vending machines for the Coca-Cola Company. The Universal Match Company acquired Glasco in the 1960s.

The GBV-50 was a very significant vending machine for the Glasco Corporation. It marked their re-entry into the bottle vending business after dedicating several years to producing vendors that dispensed pre-mixed Coca-Cola into cups. The Glasco 50 was manufactured from the late 1950s to the early 1960s.

We’d also like to share these 1960 brochures we have for the Glasco GBV-50 Starlet. The Glasco 50 was built for dispensing bottles of Coca-Cola. This machine operated manually by opening the lid and sliding the bottle to the opening in order to remove it. The bottle was released once the coin was deposited into the coin box. This is a slider-style chest cooler that had the capacity to dispense 50 bottles and pre-cool 25. It was a dry cooler that used a compressor to cool the drinks. It was intended to hold a fair amount of product without taking up a lot of floor space as you can see in the brochure page. It was touted as being both compact and counter-high. It was also promoted as a soda vendor that could hold up to five different products. The slider had 5 rows that could each be filled with a different drink selection. It could hold regular or king-size bottles.

A very similar looking slider vendor had been introduced a few years earlier by the Ideal Dispenser Company. Where Glasco manufactured soda vendors exclusively for Coca-Cola, Ideal made machines for all the other soda manufacturers except Coca-Cola, with an exception. Ideal manufactured an Ideal 55 slider embossed with “Drink Coca-Cola in Bottles” in the late 1950s. It was the only machine they made for Coca-Cola, and therefore, is very rare. The Coca-Cola coolers were not embossed, while the Ideal 55B coolers were.

Dimensions: 37”W x 20”D x 41”H
Weight: 230 lbs.

Manufactured by:
Glasco
Muncie, Indiana

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby of collecting and restoration. We also enjoy sharing the photos of the many items we have restored over the years.

Found this interesting photo of a bunch of Coca-Cola Cavalier 51 soda machines on the production line at the plant in Chattanooga, TN. The Cavalier 51 was a widely produced machine from the early 1950s to the late 1950s. It is not the most collectible machine because it is kind of large and is a single selection machine.

For more information on the Coca-Cola Cavalier 51 visit our previous blog on this machine.

A much rarer machine is the Cavalier 102. It has two C-51 doors on a larger cabinet. In other words, it was like two Cavalier 51s back to back so it could vend from either side. Nothing was shared by the two machines; each had its own coin mechanism, vending system and refrigeration. It would have probably been freestanding in a location with lots of traffic like a factory floor. As far as I know, it is the only machine like it and very few were produced. We have included a rough photo of a 102 we once owned. We never restored a 51 or a 102.

Seeburg HF100R Jukebox

A Swedish immigrant named Justus P. Seeburg founded the J.P. Seeburg Piano Company in 1902. The company began as a manufacturer of coin-operated electric pianos. These pianos were equipped with a music roll that indicated the notes to be played. The rolls could be changed depending on what music was popular at the time. In 1910 instruments were added to the automatic pianos, like violins, a mandolin, flute, snare drum, triangle and other percussion instruments to add to the quality of the sound it produced. This new design was called the “Orchestrion”.

Amplification was introduced in the 1920’s and allowed for a great improvement in the quality of 78-rpm record sound. Unfortunately, this also made player pianos less desirable, and as a result, less profitable. In 1927, the coin-operated non-selective phonograph was introduced and Seeburg stopped making player pianos and organs altogether.

In 1928 the “Audiophone” was introduced, which was a coin-operated 8-selection phonograph that played 78-rpm shellac records. It had 8 individual turntables that were mounted on a “Ferris-wheel” mechanism that was turned by a pneumatic pump. The large wheel with turntables would spin, allowing the customer to choose their songs. The cabinet for this phonograph was rather wide, to allow for the “Ferris-Wheel” within.

Seeburg was prospering in early 1929 and their engineering department developed a smaller and less expensive version of the Audiophone called the Audiophone Junior. Unfortunately, the stock market crashed later that year and the U.S. entered in to the Depression. Seeburg sales were nearly nonexistent so few Audiophone Juniors were sold, making it a rare model today.

During the Depression, the J.P. Seeburg Company had to diversify into other areas of manufacturing. They created coin meters for washing machines and refrigerators. They manufactured arcade games like the 1936 Seeburg Ray-O-Lite that utilized a revolutionary new light ray technology, developed by Seeburg. This game was encased in a beautiful wooden cabinet, as were the early Seeburg jukeboxes.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Seeburg saw an increase in jukebox sales. They went back into production and introduced the “Selectophone” 10-selection phonograph. This new design had 10 separate turntables placed vertically on a spindle, each spaced so the tone arm could go up and down and between each turntable to play all of the records. This phonograph played 2 selections for a dime or one for a nickel. It was designed with an art deco-styled walnut cabinet that only needed 3 square feet of floor space.

In 1937 Seeburg introduced the “Symphonola” and the Melody King line of jukeboxes. This group consisted of the first machines with illuminated selection panels. In 1940 Seeburg added automatic record changers and phonographs to their line and became the largest supplier for companies like Stromberg-Carlson and RCA-Victor. Seeburg also manufactured their first bottle vending machine in 1940.

During WWII, Seeburg was dedicated solely to the development and production of electronics used by the US military. This earned Seeburg three Army-Navy “E” Awards (excellence awards). After the war, in 1948, Seeburg introduced “The Industrial and Commercial Music System”. It produced background music in offices, stores and factories with a 110-record automatic phonograph. The technology that made this possible was known as the Select-O-Matic mechanism. This was an impressive device that stored the records in a vertical position and was able to play both sides of both 78- and 45-rpm records. This technology was adapted and used in coin-operated phonographs as well, the first being the famous M100A. This very quickly made Seeburg the most successful manufacturer of jukeboxes. With improvements to record-making technology, the 45-rpm microgroove disc was introduced and Seeburg made the M100B that played 45-rpm records exclusively.

Seeburg M100C Jukebox

The years that followed brought many improvements to music systems that were copied by other manufacturers. In 1953 Seeburg was the first to introduce high-fidelity reproduction with a wide-range, low-distortion, multi-speaker instrument called the HF100G. In 1955 they came out with the first 200-selection phonograph.

Seeburg HF100G Jukebox

In 1956 the Seeburg family sold their company to Fort Pitt Industries and the Seeburg Company became a subsidiary of Fort Pitt. In 1958 a Seeburg phonograph was introduced with a 160-record selection. This proved to be the ideal capacity for a phonograph. It was also in ’58 that Seeburg returned to the manufacture of vending machines. They produced an electric cigarette vendor and in 1959 followed that with hot and cold drink vendors.

In 1961 Seeburg addressed the introduction of the 33½-rpm record by introducing two phonographs that could play both 45 and 33½-rpm records. They were the AY-100 and AY-160. The Select-O-Matic DS100 and DS160 followed these in 1962. Seeburg was active in promoting the 33 1/2 –rpm record as the next big-profit item for manufacturers.

Throughout the 1960’s, Seeburg, or one of its affiliates acquired various companies including those that made electronic organs, musical instruments and vending machines. They expanded their operations abroad. They also continued to make electronics at their industrial division for the US government. In 1968 Seeburg was sold to Commonwealth United and then in 1972 to Seeburg Industries. Again the company was sold in 1984 to a group of industry inventors that formed the Seeburg Corporation. In 1986 they introduced the first CD jukebox, called the Seeburg SCD1. The production of CD boxes led to the end of the Seeburg jukebox’s popularity, and by the late 1990’s the company was finally closed.

This brochure features another soda cooler designed especially for locations with limited floor space. It is the Westinghouse R-1 Coolerette, made for “home, office and store”. Introduced in 1957, the R-1 is essentially a small refrigerator. It has a 12-bottle capacity and came with a tray for making ice. These were made for the Coca-Cola Company and were usually all white.

Dimensions:

33¼” high x 14¼” wide x 17½” deep

Manufactured by:

Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Pittsburgh, PA

These were the first of the mini-fridges and are pretty rare today. Do you happen to have one? Blog-in and let us know.

A Coca-Cola Large Capacity Pre-Mix Soda Fountain Dispenser

The 1965 Cornelius Universal 400 soft drink dispenser was designed as a high-capacity, low-cost machine. Its intended use was at places that attracted big crowds like drive-ins, restaurants and bars, and even the beach. There was an optional wheel kit available to make the unit portable. It could also be used with 6-inch brushed chrome legs as a freestanding unit, or without the legs to fit under a counter.

The dispenser featured a prominently placed, illuminated panel printed with the Coca-Cola slogan of “Things go better with Coke”. There were 4 valves, allowing up to 4 products to be dispensed. The soft drinks were premixed and cooled and this dispenser could serve 400 cold drinks, figuring on 8 drinks dispensed per minute. There was a cooling recovery rate of 3 drinks per minute.

Manufactured by:
The Cornelius Company
2727 North Ferry Street
Anoka, MN 55303

Weight: 138 lbs.
Dimensions: 38”H x 16 3/8”W x 16”D (without legs)
44”H x 16 3/8”W x 16”D (with legs)

The VMC 27 was made for Coca-Cola from 1948 to 1951. This tabletop vending machine had a unique mailbox-type shape that attracted customers, so these were very popular among storeowners. There was an optional stand made by Kay Products for this machine that had additional storage space below. The VMC 27 was capable of vending 27 cold soft drinks, and pre-cooled 10. This machine was a friendlier size for use in Mom and Pop establishments where space was at a premium. These places wouldn’t have had any use for the gargantuan Vendorlator Master and Jumbo models that were made during the war for use in factories. (The Master could vend 84 bottles and pre-cool 80 and the Jumbo could vend 124 bottles and cool 104!) Unfortunately for the 27, the Coca-Cola Company wanted something that could vend more drinks than these were able. In the early 1950’s Vendorlator made the upright Dual 27 for Coca-Cola that was an improvement with the capacity to vend 27 and pre-cool 27 more. As the competition between the soft drink manufacturers grew, Coke felt the 27 still wasn’t big enough. The answer was the VMC 33 that could vend 33 bottles and cool 27. These replaced the model 27 product line and were manufactured from the early to mid-1950’s. And the vendors got larger still, with very popular models like the VMC 81 that was made for dispensing Royal Crown, Pepsi-Cola, 7Up and Dr. Pepper. These classic machines were produced from the mid- to late-1950’s and are very collectible today.

In 1956, Vendorlator merged with its former rival, the Vendo Company of Kansas City, Missouri. Prior to the merger, Vendo worked almost exclusively with the Coca-Cola Company, so the combination of the two companies made them the primary supplier of vendors to the soft drink market. Within two years, the companies were completely consolidated and operating out of the Fresno location. In 1988 Vendo became a subsidiary of the Sanden Corporation of Japan. Vendo moved its headquarters to Dallas, Texas in 2005 and the name changed to SandenVendo America Inc. They still operate today as a manufacturer of vending machines, in addition to commercial freezers, and automotive air-conditioning systems.

The Vendorlator Manufacturing Company
4000 Railroad Avenue
Fresno, California

1929 Hazeltine & Perkins Drug Co. Soda Fountain Supply Catalog

We just posted PDFs of a 1929 Soda Fountain Supply Catalog in the Retroplanet.com PDF Library. The catalog was put out by Hazeltine & Perkins of Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is filled with all kinds of great soda fountain items like glasses, dishes, stools, mixers, straw holders and lots more. It could be a great reference piece if you are planning to build your own soda fountain. Also, it could possibly come in handy if you are trying to put a date on some items in your soda fountain collection.

The F. L. Jacobs Company, A Soda Machine Company

F. L. Jacobs originally specialized in manufacturing home appliances like the Jacobs Launderall washing machine out of Detroit, Michigan. They began manufacturing soda vending machines for Coca-Cola in the 1940’s from a plant in Indianapolis, Indiana. Their machines have a unique shape referred to by collectors as the “mailbox” shape. They are believed to be one of the few manufacturers that the Coca-Cola Company authorized to continue making Coca-Cola soda vending machines in limited quantities through the course of WWII. Like all machines made in that time, they had large capacities for serving the workers in the wartime factories. One of these was the enormous J-144. It weighed 580 lbs. without any soda in it and measured 65”H x 34”W x 35”D.

In contrast, the smallest, most sought-after and fortunately, most common of Jacobs soda machines is the Jacobs 26. The 26 was produced in the late 1940’s and measures 54”H x 19”W x 26”D. Like all Jacobs machines, it has the classic mailbox shape. This design is to accommodate the interior drum from which the soda is vended. The drum rotates to dispense the bottles. Like all the Jacobs Coca-Cola models, it vends from the narrow side of the machine and the bottles are loaded from the wider side.

Other postwar machines include the Jacobs 50 and 56 manufactured in the early 1950’s. The Jacobs 50 was a 50-bottle model that used decals to advertise Pepsi-Cola. On the other hand, the model 56 is a slicker looking machine, with an illuminated Pepsi-Cola soda “cap” on the door. Collectors have given this model the name “Pepsi Light-Up”. The Jacobs 56 was made for only two years, from 1952 to 1953. Due to its short production time and the scarcity of models with the “cap” intact, this is one of the most sought-after soda machines and is a rare model to find today.

In addition to the models already mentioned, Jacobs made the model 35, produced in the late 1940’s to the early 1950’s. It is identical to the 26, except that the drum was redesigned to hold nine additional bottles and there was room in the machine to cool 41. Jacobs also produced what turned out to be their final model, the 108, proclaiming it the “fastest loading medium cooler made”. The F. L. Jacobs Company moved to Traverse City, Michigan around 1950. Unfortunately, there weren’t to be any more Jacobs soda machines coming down the production line. It seems that in 1951 the F. L. Jacobs Company was encouraged by the U.S. Department of Justice to repay $15 million “in excess profits from producing necessities and munitions of war during World War II”. They voluntarily paid back the money, and it obviously put a strain on the company. They closed their doors in 1953.

F. L. Jacobs Company

1100 W. 21st Street

Indianapolis, Indiana

Originally starting as a sawmill, the Tennessee Furniture Company of Chattanooga opened in 1865. It began as an offshoot of the sawmill, in order to sell off the flawed pieces of wood that wouldn’t have sold otherwise. Gaston Raoul was the second owner of the furniture company. He bought an additional enterprise, the Odorless Refrigeration Company, in 1905, which enabled the Tennessee Furniture Company to rapidly become the largest manufacturer of ice coolers in the country. They chose the name “Cavalier” in 1923 for their line of cedar hope chests and soda coolers but they continued to make furniture in the division known as the Tennessee Furniture Company until 1960.

In 1935, during the Depression, the Cavalier division of the Tennessee Furniture Company began a long-standing relationship with the Coca-Cola Company. Under the name “Cavalier”, they made soda machines, coolers and picnic chests to the exacting specifications of the Coca-Cola Company. In 1938 the company name was officially changed to the Cavalier Corporation. Some of the early coolers made by Cavalier include the Junior, Standard, Master and Giant model chest coolers. Cavalier made products exclusively for Coca-Cola right through the 1960’s. In 1958 Cavalier advertising proclaimed they had sold “more than half a million coolers since 1935”.

Post-WWII most vendor manufacturers were focusing on the production of upright machines, but Cavalier continued to concentrate on coolers. In 1945 they introduced the model FD-2, or the dry office cooler. It was designed for low-traffic areas like offices and retail stores. Cavalier joined other manufacturers in producing upright coin-operated vending machines in 1953 when they introduced the C-51. It had a very similar appearance to the Vendo-39; only it was larger and able to vend 51 bottles, as opposed to the Vendo’s 39 bottles.

One of the most popular Cavalier models of vending machine is the CS-72 that was produced from 1958 to 1959. This is still a very desirable machine, since it is able to vend up to nine different flavors of soda. It holds eight bottles on nine slant shelves, instead of using a conveyor system that was capable of vending only one type of soft drink. This innovative model was the first to be designed without the crank handle on the outside. Instead, once the money is deposited, the “Have a Coke” lens lights up, indicating the door is ready to be opened and a bottle of soda pulled out. Cavalier was responsible for many “firsts” in the vending market. The Cavalier Corporation was also the first to introduce a vending machine that was able to dispense either bottles or cans of soda. This was the “square-corner” C-55D vendor introduced in 1959. In the 1960’s Cavalier was taken over by the Seeburg Corporation. In turn, Seeburg was taken over by a succession of companies. In 1987 the Cavalier division filed for bankruptcy and was spun off as an employee-owned company. In August of 2000 the plant was closed for good.

Cavalier Corporation

1105 East Tenth Street

Chattanooga, Tennessee

New Soda Fountain Blog at Retroplanet.com

Check out the new Bastian-Blessing Soda Fountain blog at Retroplanet.com. It features photos and facts about one of the finest soda fountain manufacturers. There are additional photos in our RetroPlanet PDF Library. Be sure to take a look and send us your feedback, memories or anything you’d like to share. You could even send us a link to your photos of vintage soda fountains.

Mobil Oil
“At the Sign of Friendly Service”

In 1870 the oil tycoon, John D. Rockefeller and his partner, Henry Morrison Flagler incorporated the Standard Oil Company. By 1878 Standard Oil had control of $33 million of the total $35 million refining business in the United States and in 1882 Rockefeller reorganized his company into the Standard Oil Trust. This was the first “trust” in business history in the United States. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed, in a reaction to this trust, making it illegal for any company to run a monopoly.

In 1892 the Standard Oil Trust was sued, and as a result the trust was dissolved. It was divided into 34 smaller companies. One of the companies to be broken out was the Standard Oil Company of New York that used a Pegasus for a logo. Another of the resulting “Baby Standard Oils” was the Vacuum Oil Company that sold petrol using the brand name of Mobilgas. The two companies merged, combining the Pegasus, or flying horse symbol, and the Mobilgas name.

In 1955 the company name changed to Socony Mobil Oil, and in 1966 it became the Mobil Oil Corporation. Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999, creating the Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Historical events worth noting:

● In 1903 the Wright brothers used fuel from Jersey Standard and lubricants from Mobiloil in their airplane during their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

● In 1927 Charles Lindbergh used Mobiloil in the “Spirit of St. Louis” during his solo flight across the Atlantic.

● In 1928 Amelia Earhart used Mobiloil in her airplane, “Friendship”, when she made her historic solo flight across the Atlantic.

● In 1958 the first trans-Atlantic flight, made by Pan American Airways from New York to London, used fuel produced by Mobil.

ExxonMobil

5959 Las Colinas Blvd.
Irving, Texas

Do you have any feedback or anything to add to this blog? Please use the form below and share it with us.

Gulf Oil “Stop at the Sign of the Orange Disc”

Gulf Oil was established in 1901 by a group of investors after a discovery of oil at Spindletop, Texas. The largest investor in the company was William Larimer Mellon, who became the head of the corporation and continued in that position for 45 years. In 1907 several oil companies combined to form the Gulf Oil Corporation.

Gulf Oil opened up the first ever drive-in service station in 1911. In addition to offering complimentary road maps, Gulf was a pioneer in the early days of product branding by selling gasoline from gas pumps with their logo on them. It not only helped to create a brand identity, it also assured the customer that the gas they were purchasing was a quality product. This was at a time when many businesses were offering gasoline of an inconsistent quality, or that was possibly even contaminated.

In 1917, the Gulf Oil tanker fleet went into military service during WWI. In 1928 Gulfpride Oil was first introduced. Gulf Oil had become a major US corporation by the early 1930’s. In 1934, with British Petroleum (BP) as an equal partner, Gulf formed the Kuwait Oil Company.

Gulf Oil continued to grow and expand into new ventures. In addition to oil refineries and exploration, Gulf Oil produced plastics, and agricultural, industrial and household chemicals. In the 1960’s the Gulf logo was redesigned to make it easier to identify. Around 1970 Gulf Oil reached the peak of its success. But a downturn occurred in 1974 when the Kuwait National Assembly acquired 60% of the Kuwait Oil Company, with Gulf Oil and BP sharing the remaining 40%. By 1974 Kuwait had total ownership.

Gulf Oil merged with the Standard Oil Company in 1984 to protect itself from a buyout. The newly formed company became known as Chevron. This was the largest corporate merger to have occurred up until that time. In 1985 Chevron sold Gulf’s gas stations, a refinery and some of their international operations to BP and Cumberland Farms of Canton, Massachusetts. Both still use the Gulf name on their gas stations, as do some independently owned stations. The Gulf Oil Limited Partnership in Massachusetts bought the rights to use of the Gulf brand from Chevron, although Chevron still owns the Gulf brand.

Gulf Oil Company Limited Partnership
275 Washington Street
Newton, Massachusetts
At Retroplanet.com we offer reproduction Gulfpride motor oil cans and a vintage-style steel Gulf sign. We also have loads of other automotive signs and other products to add to your garage, home or office.

Please share your feedback with us by blogging-in.

Cities Service “For People Going Places!”

Cities Service Company was started by an oilman, Henry Latham Dougherty, in 1910 to supply gas and electricity to small public utilities. The next three years saw enormous growth, including the purchasing of the Quapaw Gas Company, much of the Barnsdall Properties, and in addition, the Empire Gas Company. In 1914 the Empire subsidiary discovered oil in Kansas. By 1915 Cities Service Company possessed 98 subsidiaries and had its headquarters on Wall Street.

In 1916 Cities Service bought their first oil refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. By 1918, or the final year of the First World War, Cities Service was the supplier for half of the oil used by the US and its Allies. In 1928 a Cities Service subsidiary discovered oil in the Oklahoma City field which, at the time, was one of the largest oil fields in the world.

In the 1960’s, the Cities Service Company realized the need to modernize its corporate identity. The name CITGO was introduced in 1965, using the word “GO” to promote the company as one with “power, energy and progressiveness.” With the name change came the introduction of the famous red triangle, known as the “trimark” logo. In 1982, Cities Service was sold to Occidental Petroleum. The following spring, CITGO was incorporated, and in August of the same year, was sold to Southland’s 7-Eleven. In 1986, Petróleos de Venezuela bought 50% interest in CITGO, and in 1990, Venezuela’s national oil company bought the remaining half, for total ownership of the CITGO name.

CITGO Petroleum Corporation

1293 Eldridge Parkway
Houston, Texas

Do you have a story to share about Cities Service, or Citgo? Please blog-in and let us know.

The Vendo V-81’s and VMC-81 Soda Machines, Similarities & Differences

The Vendo Company eventually merged with its rival, the Vendorlator Manufacturing Company in 1956, but originally they were two separate entities building some very similar soda machines. In the mid 1950’s the Vendo Company was manufacturing the Vendo 81 exclusively for The Coca-Cola Company, and the Vendorlator Manufacturing Co. was making VMC-81’s for competing brands like Pepsi, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper and Royal Crown. Once the two companies merged, they continued to make machines under the two product names as before, making The Vendo Company the primary supplier to of the soft drink market.

There were three V-81 models manufactured by the Vendo Company from the mid to the late 1950’s. There was the Vendo V-81A, V-81B and V-81D. Up until 1956, Coca-Cola machines were painted a solid red, like the Vendo V-81A. Beginning in 1956 with the V-81B, The Coca-Cola company painted their machines red and white to emphasize Coke’s “clean and refreshing” image. The “Coca-Cola” logo that had been smaller and positioned closer to the bottle door was repositioned to be centered on the space to the right of the bottle door and the logo was enlarged. The logo was also made more prominent by being embossed in red on a white background, instead of in white on a red background.

The Vendorlator Manufacturing Company’s competing soda machine was the VMC 81. The Vendo 81 and the VMC-81 both held a total of 81 bottles for vending. Space inside the machine allowed for the pre-cooling of 17 additional bottles. Both machines had nine interior shelves, allowing them to vend up to nine different soda flavors. They used “slant shelves” that could be adjusted to accommodate different bottle sizes ranging from 6 ½ to 12 ounces. That flexibility makes these machines very popular today, since you are able to fill them with almost any soda, beer or wine coolers. These soda machines have the classic upright, “round-cornered” cabinet design of the 1950’s. Both the V-81A and V-81B are referred to as “small door” models, and the V-81D is called the “large door” model. This came about because the V-81D had a different coin mechanism that necessitated a larger door. The coin mechanism was redesigned to give change back, where previously the coin boxes only took nickels. The bottle doors in both the Vendo and VMC-81’s had lights placed within them to illuminate the bottles.

1958 was the last year of production for round-cornered soda machines made by The Vendo Company, with the exception of the Vendo 44. All of the Coca-Cola Company Vendo 81’s and the various brands of VMC-81’s are very collectible today. The Vendo 81’s are the most desirable of all the different models of Coke machines manufactured throughout the 1950’s. Fewer VMC-81’s were produced than Vendo 81’s, and of all the brands embossed on the VMC-81’s, Royal Crown soda machines are the most rare and collectible with the 7-Up machines close behind. Any of these soda machines would be quite a statement in any gameroom, den or office.

Dimensions: 53.75 in. high x 25 in. wide x 17.5 in. deep
Weight: 286 lbs.

Please blog in and tell us about your soda machine collection. We’d love to hear about your acquisition and restoration stories. If you have questions about your restoration, blog in and ask us as we’ve done many ourselves and would enjoy being of help to you.

The Vendo Company History

The Vendo Company is known worldwide as having been a leader in the manufacture of vending machines for more than 50 years. Vendo was founded as a small company in 1937 in Kansas City, Missouri as a manufacturer of bottled soft drink vending machines. Prior to this, early vendors had not been coin operated machines, but rather self-serve coolers packed with ice. This system relied on the customers’ honesty.

The first coin-operated vending machines appeared in the early 1880’s. They were first used to dispense postcards and books. These early models did not work well, often jamming. They also did not have the necessary safeguards and could not distinguish between a coin and a slug.

In the late 1930’s, two brothers named Elmer and John Pierson saw a need for improvement to the earlier designs and took out a patent for a vending lid that could be added to existing coolers. This lid called “The Red Top”, was simple, reliable and inexpensive. The lid was locked on top of the cooler and could be opened after a coin was inserted. The lid rotated to the next available bottle, eliminating the need to dig through the ice. At first the lids were added to Frigidaire and Westinghouse coolers that were already in use. Vendo then began buying coolers from Westinghouse and outfitting them with The Red Top and selling the resulting vending machines under the Vendo name. Early examples of this were the Vendo Junior and the Vendo Master (both from the late 30’s to early 40’s). In the 40’s, a compressor was added to soft drink bottle coolers, eliminating the need for ice altogether.

Red Top lids went to war during WWII, after the US War Department declared that soft drinks were necessary to the morale of military personnel. 5,000 Red Tops were made to be placed in military training camps and wartime factories. Vendo also manufactured radar detection systems which aided in the war effort. After the war, Vendo went back to designing soda vending machines, and produced the V-83 in 1946. The V-83 was Vendo’s first mass-produced upright coin-operated machine. A nickel was inserted, and then you simply had to lift the small door to get your bottle of Coke. This model’s great success was followed in 1949 by another highly successful vendor—the V-39.

In the 1950’s Vendo diversified its product line and produced machines that could vend other items like hot food, ice cream and milk. They also experimented with fully automated restaurants, convenience stores and drive-ins that were served only by vending machines. Vendo merged with its competitor, Vendorlator in 1956. They had, like Vendo, been founded in 1937. But where Vendo worked mainly with Coca-Cola, Vendorlator had been working with both Pepsi-Cola and Royal Crown. The merger of these two companies made Vendo the primary supplier to the soft drink market. Vendo also went public in 1956 and their stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961 and continued to for the next 20 years. Vendo also expanded internationally, working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan starting in 1962, where they manufactured Vendo beverage coolers. They also licensed operations in England and Mexico. In 1964 they opened new facilities and contracted out to Belgium, Australia, Italy, Germany, France and Canada. The 60’s also brought Vendo’s introduction of the canned soft drink dispensers.

In the 1970’s, due to the energy crisis, vending machines were determined to be nonessential and the vending industry began to suffer. Vendo left Kansas City and sold its snack vendor division. In 1988 Vendo was bought by the Sanden Corporation of Japan. This infused new life into the Vendo company, and led to many innovations in vending machine design. These include programmable electronic vending machines, high-capacity vendors that can hold plastic bottles in many shapes and sizes, and machines that will take a debit card. Today Vendo is expanding into territories like Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Not only has Vendo produced many highly collectible vendors in their past, but they also continue to be a significant presence in the manufacturing marketplace.

Blog in to add to the information presented here. We’d love to hear from Vendo machine collectors or anyone who remembers using them.

Promoting their products as “The Nation’s Finest Vendors”, in this ad the Automatic Products Co. is advertising their “Sodashoppe”, “Smokeshop 612” and “Refresh-o-Mat” vending machines. The Automatic Products Co. has been in business since 1949. Today they are owned by the Crane Company and are the leading manufacturer of glassfront snack, hot and cold beverage and frozen food vending machines. These 3 different 1950’s era vending machines illustrate the diversity in machines that evidently date back to the very beginning of this company. Note the Art Deco design and chrome detail that are part of the sleek design in all 3 of these models.

Manufactured by:
Automatic Products Co.
250 West 57th St.
New York, NY

Factories:
Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota

Have you ever come across a Sodashoppe, Smokeshop 612 or Refresh-o-Mat vending machine made by the Automatic Products Co.? Blog in and let us know.