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The Wurlitzer family started buying and selling musical items in Saxony as far back as 1659. Rudolph Wurlitzer came to the United States in 1853 and started an import business selling instruments to the U.S. government during the Civil War. Soon he became the largest instrument supplier in America and through a chain of retail stores in Chicago he started marketing a line of pianos that he manufactured. It wasn't long before Rudolph Wurlitzer attached a coin slot to a player piano and literally started the coin-operated music boom of the late 1800s. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, Wurlitzer became famous for the large theatre organs that created sound for silent films. These large organs and many other types of automatic instruments were manufactured at a large facility in North Tonawanda, N.Y., where the jukebox factory still stands today. |
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Rudolph Wurlitzer died in 1914, leaving the business
to his three sons. As the demand for theatre organs and automatic pianos
weakened, wurlitzer went through some difficult times. The depression
of 1929 nearly put the company out of business. In 1933, Rudolph's youngest
son, Farny, entered into a deal with Homer Capehart. Wurlitzer would
manufacture a coin phonograph engineered by "Erickson" called
the "Debutante". The repeal of prohibition was imminent and
the demand for coin-operated music was about to explode. It did, and
by 1937, Wurlitzer had sold over 100,000 phonographs.
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Rudolph Wurlitzer (Part time Abraham Lincoln Impersonator) |
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Wurlitzer dominated the coin-operated phonograph
business until the introduction of the 45 rpm vinyl record. At that
point, Wurliter's mechanism could handle up to 24 vinyl records, playing
only one side. Seeburg introduced a new mechanism that held 50 45rpm
vinyl records and could play both sides, yielding a true 100-select
jukebox. Wurlitzer made many attempts to compete with this by engineering
new mechanisms for its jukebox machines, but never really caught up
with Seeburg's domination of the jukebox market. Operators in the early
1950s considered the new Wurlitzer jukebox mechanisms overly complex
and not particularly reliable. After nearly giving up on jukeboxes in
the early '60s and early '70s, Wurlitzer gave one last gasp in 1973
and tried to make a nostalgic-looking jukebox called the "1050".
With only 1,600 units produced, the effort wasn't enough to bring back
what was once the greatest jukebox manufacturer ever. Wurlitzer held
on into the '70s but then when demand for 45rpm vinyl record playing
jukeboxes faded, so did the Wurlitzer factory, eventually going out
of business.
A new company in Germany has purchased the name Wurlitzer and is manufacturing bubbler CD jukeboxes called "One More Time". |
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Here are some pictures of some
classic Wurlitzer jukeboxes.
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· 1937 Wurlitzermodel 616 |
1940 Wurlitzer model 71 countertop jukebox
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1941 Wurlitzer model 750
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· 1941 Wurlitzer model 850
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· 1954 Wurlitzer 1700
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· 1973 Wurlitzer 1050
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