Here is a brief history of how Rock Ola muscled in on the world of Jukebox manufacturing and went on to make some great 45rpm vinyl record playing machines.
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Believe it or not, the name Rock-Ola is actually
derived from the name of the company's founder Mr David C. Rockola.
It also happens to be a real cool name for a jukebox, implying a "rock
'n' roll' play on words. David C. Rockola was born in Canada and as
a young boy worked as a mechanic in a shop that repaired coin-operated
devices. By 1926 he had his own company manufacturing coin-operated
scales.
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In the 1930s Rockola moved into pinball games and
many other devices. As the demand for coin-operated phonographs increased
so did the temptation to enter the jukebox arena. Rockola purchased
the rudiments of a jukebox mechanism from a man named Smythe. Rockola
then reengineered this 12-select mechanism and started making jukeboxes
in a big way, one of their first successes being the 1935 Rock-Ola
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Farny Wurlitzer who had succeeded his father and
was dominating the jukebox world viewed this a huge threat to his business
particularly as Rockola had been so successful with other coin-operated
machines. Wurlitzer's first tactic was to try and convince David Rockola
that there was no room in the industry for another jukebox manufacturer.
But when this failed Wurlitzer then resorted to filing a $1 million
lawsuit claiming patent infringement on the Smythe jukebox mechanism.
Rockola eventually won the suit but not until he had spent half a million
dollars in legal fees. This hurt Rockola but didn't kill him. He continued
manufacturing and in 1939 introduced a series of very successful jukeboxes
called "Luxury Light-Up".
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During World War II, Rock-Ola led the industry
in telephone-line music transmission systems. This was very popular
because it allowed for many selections to be offered at a time when
jukebox manufacturing was nearly halted because of the war effort. After
World War II, the jukebox industry was booming. Boys were coming home
and it was party time. Wurlitzer came out with the model 1015, probably
the most popular jukebox of all time, and Rock-Ola introduced the "Magic
Glow" series of jukeboxes. These were models 1422, 1426, and 1428.
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In the 1950s and '60s Rock-Ola was a formidable
competitor on the jukebox field. The company came up with many new ideas,
including a full-featured jukebox that was so small it could be hung
on the wall! As the demand for jukeboxes went down in the '70s, Rock-Ola
wound down the business to almost nothing. In the early 1990s Rock-Ola
sold the business to Glenn Streeter, owner of Antique Apparatus Co.
In Torrance, Calif. Streeter has taken the Rock-Ola name and given it
new life, making it now one of the top jukebox manufacturers in the
country, featuring a full line of commercial and home jukeboxes.
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