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.

These photos capture Vendo Company in its earliest days. The Vendo Company was founded by two brothers, Elmer and John Pierson, who invented the first efficient coin-operated vending lid for chest coolers, known as the “Red Top”. They quickly became leaders in the vending machine marketplace.

Two views of the Vendo Company Building.

The Vendo Company Christmas Party 1939

Executives of the Vendo Company, January 5, 1940

Offices at Vendo Company outfitted with a Vendo Red Top Chest

Stages of Vendo cooler design, from concept to manufacture.

These two photos are of the lunchroom inside a Vendo vending machine factory lunchroom sometime in the 1950s. As you can see in the first photo, the lunchroom was fully stocked with Vendo vending machines of all kinds. These were soda, fresh food, ice cream, milk, juice and coffee machines.

The second photo shows a more humorous take on the assortment of food and drink vendors available to the employees. This room has been set up to look like a town in the old West. Instead of the words “Coca-Cola” over the vending machine, a rustic –looking sign with “The Cold Bottle” is displayed overhead, making it look more like an old saloon. Old storefronts have been painted on the walls. What a fun place to have lunch—“How ‘bout a nice cold Coke, Pardner?”

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.

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.

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

The Jacobs 56 Pepsi-Cola Vending Machine

The Jacobs 56 Pepsi-Cola Vending Machine is one of the most sought-after Pepsi machines ever made. Serious collectors consider it the “Holy Grail” of all soda machines. Having been manufactured for only two years, between 1952 and 1953, makes this a very rare machine. We are proud to have restored several of these machines, and you can see one of them in our Retro Museum at Retroplanet.com.

Collectors know this vendor as the “Pepsi Light-Up”. This is because the Pepsi “cap”, or logo on the front lights up, by way of two bulbs located behind it. Above the cap, to either side, are a red and blue (or sometimes green) lens. The red lens indicates when the machine is empty, and the blue reads “nickels only”. This machine vends 56 bottles of Pepsi and can vend bottle sizes from 10 to 12 ounces. It also has the capacity to pre-cool 37 bottles. This model, unlike the Jacobs Coca-Cola machines, uses slant-shelves to vend the sodas.

The shape of the machine is typical of Jacobs soda machines. They have a rounded top, resembling a mailbox. This makes for a very unique and appealing appearance. So in addition to its rarity, these machines are also very desirable for their style. It can be difficult to find an original Jacobs 56 that has the Pepsi “cap” intact and in good condition which can complicate the restoration of one of these models.

Every soda machine we restored at Vintage Vending followed the same process. First the machine was completely disassembled and all painted parts were sandblasted. All other parts were re-chromed, powder-coated, repainted or cleaned. The coin mechanism was re-plated and rebuilt. Automotive bodywork was performed on all of the sandblasted parts. The machine was painted with PPG automotive paint. Then the machine was reassembled with a new refrigeration compressor and all electrical was replaced.

Dimensions: 61” high x 27” wide x 21 ½” deep
Weight: 280 lbs.

Manufactured by:

F. L. Jacobs

Traverse City, Michigan

This item is not for sale. We show restored items in this blog to encourage discussion, prompt questions and further the hobby.

To view more pictures of the completed restoration visit the RetroPlanet.com Museum.

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

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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.

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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

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1941 Vendorlator 120 Soda Machine

We have seen a lot of soda machines here at Vintage Vending, and I would have to say that this one could be the ugliest. Seemed like a good idea at the time, I would guess. It vends up to 63 different flavors and holds any size bottles. “It is modern and handsome in design, easy to load, simple and almost 100% automatic in operation,” says the brochure.

Manufactured by:
Vendorlator Manufacturing Co.
4000 Railroad Avenue
Fresno, California

This 1950 model Fruit-o-matic fresh fruit-dispensing machine was touted as “A fully automatic fresh fruit merchandiser”. Made by the Fruit-o-matic Manufacturing Company, this machine dispensed chilled, fresh fruit. A coin was dropped in the slot corresponding with the row of fruit displayed in the window above the slot, and the fruit automatically dropped into the dispensing chute for it to be retrieved.

Features listed for the Fruit-o-matic are:
Hermetically sealed noiseless refrigeration unit
Standard coin mechanism with a slug rejector
Fluorescent light on front panel
Baked enamel finish

And in addition, the Fruit-o-matic incorporated “all the features that make Fruit-o-matic the ideal fresh fruit merchandiser for new fields, diversification and year ‘round profits.” The ad that appears here includes two testimonials regarding the popularity and dependability of these machines. One review is from the Executive Secretary of the YMCA of Hollywood, CA and the other is from the UCLA store manager. The photos here show the Fruit-o-matic being used in schools, at the Y and at bowling alleys. There is also an ad from a vending machine trade publication informing those who will attend a trade show to be on the lookout for the Fruit-o-matic in room 730!

A video of Jane Mansfield using the Fruit-o-matic can be viewed at YouTube:

Manufactured by:
Fruit-o-matic Manufacturing Company
5225 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

Have you, or anyone you know ever used a Fruit-o-matic? Email us and let us know. We here at Vintage Vending have seen many vending machines over the years, but have never run across one of these.

This Candy Mart candy vending machine looks to be a 1960’s model. The brochure touts its flexibility, that it could be mounted on a wall, placed on a counter or used as a console on the floor. The large capacity of this vendor allowed for between 3- and 400 candy bars, and 7 different selections. All that was necessary was to insert the proper coins, pushing the button for the selection, and the candy was deposited into the chute for the customer.

Manufactured by:
Alco-DEREE Co.
4200 N. California Ave.
Chicago, IL

These were probably more common, as I recall having one of these at in my college break area in the 80’s. Have you also seen one of these? If you have a comment, please send us an email.

1939 Pepsi-Cola Brochure PDFs at Retroplanet.com

We’ve added scans of a 1939 Pepsi-Cola brochure to our RetroPlanet PDF Library. This brochure was distributed by the Pepsi-Cola Company to celebrate more than 30 years in business. There is beautiful artwork done of their factories, including illustrations showing the soft drink production process. While you’re there, take a look at all of the Great Retro Pepsi items that we offer at Retroplanet.com.