Slot Machines We Buy

Caille BANKER

Produced between 1906 cud 1916

You gotta have a gimmick! Back in the days when everybody was vying for the same business and all coin machine makers were pumping out new ideas by the dozens and storekeepers were beseiged by offers for machines that would do more for them than any machine already on the market, it took more than having exactly what the other guy had to put a machine across. It took gimmicks, and lively salesmanship.

What the storekeepers wanted if they wanted coin machines at all was a rent payer. So the profit performance of a machine came first. That’s where Caille Bros. had a gimmick in the BANKER Take a good look at the machine. If you can keep from being dazzled by the nickel plated castings, the new name, and the other elaborate trim you’ll see it for exactly what it is it’s nothing more than an UPRIGHT PERFECTION. But with Canda first, and then Mills and Kelley on the market with the same machine, Caille Bros. decided not to play me-too and took the route of salesmanship. The BANKER mechanism is exactly the same one Caille Bros. used for the GOOK LUCK series (itself a renamed LITTLE PERFECTION), and the cabinet is the same as the UPRIGHT PERFECTION with the addition of elaborate trim so characteristic of Caille Bros. Literally, only the name is new.

BANKER came in four models, and examples of all of them can be found in collections. The BANKER line parallels Kelley’s THE KELLEY line, coming in either plain card, or card machine plus gum vender models. Caille took the machine a step further, providing both models with or without a swivel base, with the stationary models having small rubber feet so that they wouldn’t scratch the counter.

The final sales gimmick was pure Caille. Names like UPRIGHT PERFECTION or THE KELLEY describe the type of machine, or tell who made it. Caille elected to use a name that would help sell the machine and tell the shopkeepers what it would do for them; ergo, THE BANKER. Bankers, as we all know, make nothing but money. They sold a lot of them as the survivors testify.

Caille BASE-BALL Counter Single

Produced between 1911 and 1917

Good looks have a lot to do with the desirability and collectibility of an antique slot machine. Not all coin machines are worth thousands and thousands of dollars, even though it seems like they are. But the ones that look good are generally worth more than the others. In short, good looks often determine a value, often more so than rarity.
Then there are those machines that don’t look really bad, but frankly, ain’t no beauties. The Paupa And Hochriem ELK falls in this bunch for my money. It’s cast iron, exciting, mechanically clever and a coin machine classic that is akin to a mud fence. Then the BASE-BALL came along. Well, not exactly in that order. The Paupa And Hochriem ELK with its center pull play lever became the Paupa And Hockriem right pull play, to be picked up and copied by Mills, and then Caille Bros. and then Watling. At Mills, it also became the SPECIAL and a number of variations and over at Caille it became the TIGER and then spun off into a lot of TIGER, SPECIAL TIGER and export LE TIGRE models and by now the ELK had become a herd of other beasts and beings (not the least of which are the as yet maker unidentified GOOSE and DUCK models.). They all have 6-way coin heads (except the French LE TIGRE, which has a 3-way, and the super rare 5-way Caille SPECIAL TIGER with a side crank handle rather than the right front push lever) and they’re quite a bit alike. Until BASE-BALL.

The 5-way Caille BASE-BALL takes a different hit at things, and comes out of the box looking different and somehow nicer. It’s a penny machine and was made for cigar counters and ice cream parlors more so than the customary heavy-hitter saloon and pool hall locations. By 1911 and the teens soon to follow, the game of baseball filled out its shoes as The American National Game. It was bigger and even more popular then than it is now for there was little football and soccer had yet to rear its European head. Baseball was on everybody’s lips — and on candy and cigarette cards — and during the season robbed the headlines on the newspapers. Radio hadn’t yet come along as a public entertainment –it would take World War 1 and the immediate post war years to accelerate its development and open the doors to commercial broadcasting — and television wasn’t much more than a theory. But poster printing was booming and most big cities had ball clubs easily reached by street cars. So the expression “Play Ball” was common (meaning “let’s get started”) and most people had a favorite team (for which they’d be willing to fight for, if someone insulted it).

So Caille made a beautiful nickel plated adaptation of its SPECIAL TIGER called BASE-BALL with the words “Play Ball” on its front casting just below a cast iron baseball art element. New and colorful marquee, reward card and reel graphics make it a different machine. Payouts are in tokens from five payout tubes inside, spitting out checks worth 50 to 300. It was also made in nickel play, but the penny play model is the most prevalent. Even so, it’s a BASE-BALL only skin deep. Unscrew that cast iron baseball and you’ll find a tiger’s head. Keep digging and you’ll find other variations. Industry Novelty Company (later to be O.D. Jennings) modified Caille BASE-BALL machines and put their own name on them, and Silver King in Indianapolis stuck their reward cards on Caille models to operate them. The model varieties are enough to field a whole team.

Caille BEN HUR Counter Machine

Produced between 1908 and 1932

The Caille BEN HUR is a 5-way miniaturization of the upright automatic color wheel machine and its counter counterparts, such as the OWL JUNIOR. BROWNIE and the like. When Caille Bros. first introduced the machine in 1908 they called it the “smallest automatic money paying machine made”. Looking at it today, it doesn’t look so small, but when you compare it to an OWL or a BROWNIE you get the point.

It certainly was the smallest pluggable machine. True to the requirements of the day, the early BEN HURS have automatic percentage plugs behind the wheel. When the machine first came out it sold for $50 in nickel play and $60 in quarter play, going up ten bucks each in the teens. Perhaps the best looking small marquee in slot machinedom graces the top of many of the surviving BEN HURS, saying “Play Nickels” or “Play Quarters”. This marquee has been re-produced in bronze, ready for plating, and has shown up on a lot of restored machines in spite of the fact that it is strictly a BEN HUR item.

Caille Bros. named the machine after the popular biblical novel by Lew Wallace first published in 1880. The book was so popular the chariot race was just as exciting in print as it was in Technicolor four generations later—that the story remained constantly alive in print, on stage and in the earliest movies well into the Twentieth Century.

BEN HUR was sold new well into the twenties, getting a new lease on life with an improved model introduced in 1928. It was the last of the automatic color wheel machines to retain its popularity on slot machine routes all over the country, and as a result examples are located almost anywhere. Most of the BEN HUR machines that collectors believe to be Victorian pieces were actually made in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s. By that time, the prices had doubled, with new BEN HURS selling for Sl 10. in nickel play and $120. in quarter play in 1928.

The BEN HUR is a marvelous looking machine with its natural stained wood cabinet and gilded wheel. In spite of its long popularity it is one of the most Victorian looking machines that you can have in a collection. In its earlier models the cast iron trim could be had in nickel plate or oxidized copper. Most of the surviving machines are in nickel plate so the copper model is regarded as prime. ,There is no count of the surviving examples, but to judge from their collectible popularity somewhere between fifty and a hundred must be around. The number might

even go over a hundred if you count the non-collectors who have them in basement play rooms or bars, usually getting them as family heirlooms when they were saved after the dismemberment of Grand-pa’s drugstore or saloon.

Caille BIG SIX Floor Wheel

Produced between 1904 and 1916

When anyone came up with a new machine name and format that sold, everyone else copied it. Well, the big manufacturers did. So when Watling came up with a machine called BIG SIX it wasn’t long before Mills and Caille Bros. followed suit. And wouldn’t you know, they all had the same kind of wheel. While most collectors feel the Watling BIG SIX is worth more. The reason seems to be the simple fact that it’s a Caille. For one thing, it’s rarer. For another Caille jazzed theirs up a bit by adding their fabulous drilled center disc, permitting a plunger to enter from the rear to stop the wheel. It’s clever. Finally, collectors of the truly elegant Caille machines are generally restricted to the ECLIPSE and CENTAUR, so it’s nice to have something different that matches.

It can almost be said that the BIG SIXES were the forerunners of the liberal slot machines of today. In a day when the wheels were plugged and percentage clips or “bugs” kept machine payouts low, the BIG SIX machines paid 5-for-1 on every color. All you had to do was pick the right one twice in six plays and you were money ahead. If you consistently hit one out of three or four you could make a bundle. For that reason alone, and the fact that the stop action was in full view of the player, the BIG SIX machines were regarded as the most honest of them all. The odds aren’t any worse than they generally are in Las Vegas or Reno today, with the Caille BIG SIX returning 83% of the handle to its players. The question seems to be why aren’t there more around? You would think that a machine this popular would have survived in much greater numbers than it has. Unless, of course, it’s very liberal stance made it unpopular with its owners and operators so it didn’t sell too well.

Speaking of selling well, there’s a very surprising twist to the story of the Caille BIG SIX. Caille Bros. produced it up until World War I, and then stopped. Twenty years later a machine rebuilding outfit in Providence, Rhode Island, bought up as many of them as they could find, fixed them up, and sold them as good as new machines. Their ad, appearing in the December 15, 1934, issue of THE BILLBOARD, had a nice picture of the old Caille BIG SIX floor wheel. The copy said: “Slot Operators. Good times are here again. Caille BIG SIX. 5/25/50 cent. An ideal machine for clubs, inns, taverns, road houses. An old timer, but a proven money maker. Rebuilt and thoroughly overhauled like new.” That would make the Caille BIG SIX the last and longest lived floor machines to go on location. So where are they?

If you feel lucky and want to track these down, look up the ad. Who knows, you might find a restored machine. Restored, that is, almost half a century ago.

Caille CENTAUR Floor Machine

Produced between 1907 and 1916

It is perhaps fitting that the last floor machine to be included as a prime collectible is the 6-way Caille Bros. CENTAUR, one of the richest looking and most colorful floor machines ever made. The CENTAUR is a direct development of the Caille ECLIPSE. Just as the Mills DEWEY had been developed into the DEWEY JACKPOT with the addition of a large glass covered jackpot over the payout cup, Caille Bros. modified their ECLIPSE to accomplish the same thing. They gave it the name CENTAUR which, while not as descriptive as using the word “jackpot” in the machine identification gave it an aesthetic quality that was so often characteristic of Caille machines. The Centaur of legend was a man with a horse’s body and legs, in essence a mixture of two successful beings. So was the CENTAUR: It didn’t really matter though. Most buyers, with a pragmatic turn of mind, usually ordered the machine as the “ECLIPSE Jackpot”.

There are probably more CENTAUR machines around than DEWEY JACKPOTS, so it seems that Caille Bros. might have pulled out ahead of Mills in at least one area. Perhaps the answer lies in the construction of the jackpot feature. Many of the DEWEY JACKPOT machines are found with the jackpot window smashed, suggesting that enthusiastic players found a more direct way to go home with the jackpot money. The Caille CENTAUR, on the other hand, put the visible jackpot behind bars, making it extremely difficult to break into the coffers.

CENTAUR cabinets are a marvel of markmanship, with the natural stained wood finish offset by a variety of great castings that were originally available in nickel plate, bronze or “Roman Gold”, a golden or molu finish. In the latter case, the results are just short of garish, with the machine practically visually jumping out of a dark room.

The 1912 price for a CENTAUR was S180. in nickel play; higher for quarter or half-dollar play, with each model S30. higher for music. Throughout its service life the CENTAUR sold for and was worth more than the DEWEY JACKPOT. The CENTAUR was also produced in an export model called GRAN PREMIO, or “Grand Prize,” a name that was retained by Caille for a later line of counter-top slot machines in the thirties.

Caille BIG SIX-ECLIPSE TWIN

Produced between 1904 and 1916

The biggest maker of TWINS, or TRIPLETS for that matter, was The Caille Brothers Company in Detroit. It was a Caille specialty. Lucky for us it was, for the Cailles are the flashiest machines in collectordom. Just look at this fantastic thing! It’s value as an antique reflects this desirability. In fact, everything reflects in it. There’s so much nickel plate on the cabinet, wheel faces and coin heads this machine must have almost glowed in the dark in any dimly lit saloon.

More than anything that’s what this machine is; a saloon collectible. Few of the larger and more professional antique price guides the ones that cover any and all antiques and collectibles list slot machines (or even coin machines, for that matter) as a separate collectible classification. But if you look under saloon collectibles you’ll find the old floor machines and, in the better guides, doubles like these. They are unique, big, beautiful and expensive. But so what! If you can afford one and want one you’d be nuts to pass it by for the simple reason that class tells. I can’t help but believe that no matter what happens to the collectibles market a good piece will always be a good piece and a good investment. A double like this sitting in the corner is like money in the bank at 15% interest. When other prices stabilize, as they say, a prime piece like this will always bring what the traffic will bear. I only wish I had been smart enough to see this years ago. But in the antique business slots in particular you can’t look back (or you’ll shoot yourself!). So if you’re into advice I just gave you some.

If you’ve followed these guides you know the Caille BIG SIX; it’s in Volume 2, Page 70. Ditto for the Caille ECLIPSE, Volume 1, Page 29. Put them all together and you spell awesome. This particular machine has been sitting in a collection for years, has the Caille serial 147 and a piece of paper dated 1909 inside the cabinet. The play is 25¢ ECLIPSE and 5¢ BIG SIX but it could have been the other way around and was indeed preferred that way. Caille also made it in 25¢/50¢ play but I’ve never seen one. It takes a lot of reading of Caille catalogs and sales literature to get a real picture of what goes on here for the combination is tricky as hell. For some reason it was never all written up in one place. That in itself is reason enough for a slot paper collection for such printed knowledge is your only way of knowing what the machine itself can never tell you.

So here are some excerpts from Caille literature.

From Booklet M, 1912: “Great combination. ECLIPSE has percentage which plugs high colors when played and leaves them open when low colors are played. BIG SIX has no percentage but is a sure winner. Trimmings nickel, antique or Roman Gold. Casters on legs. Equipped with music if desired.”

From Caille Catalogue 509, 1909: “The ECLIPSE is an extremely popular machine and when coupled to the BIG SIX the result in an irresistible combination machine that will get a big play in any location. Separately and together, as shown, these have stood the test and have always filled all requirements. The ECLIPSE has the automatic percentage regulator but has a “fixed” system that is always sure of making good. It is advisable to have ECLIPSE for nickels and BIG SIX for quarters.”

Caille BULL FROG Floor Pocket

Produced between 1900 and 1902

Things sure change fast in the field of antique slot machines. As these words are being written exactly two full years have passed since the volume 1. “An Illustrated Price Guide to the 100 Most Collectible Slot Machines” was published. Two years and six days to be exact. Yet in volume 1, under the description of the Mills CRICKET on page 31, these words are carried: “Caille Bros. made an almost exact copy of the CRICKET, coming out less than six months after the Mills model. They called it the BULL FROG. There have been a lot of rumors to the effect that collectors in Texas, Georgia, Minnesota and elsewhere have BULL FROG machines, but to date none have been confirmed”.

The ink was barely dry on volume 1 when the BULL FROGS began to show up. A collector in Utah had one all along. Then, before the year was out, one of the rumored BULL FROGS surfaced in Texas. In 1979, two more showed up in Wisconsin. So there are four confirmed, and maybe two more, or four more, if the rumors about Georgia, Minnesota, Northern Michigan and that same barn in Wisconsin are true. Instant inventory!

The most interesting part of these finds is that they seem to indicate that the BULL FROG was a line of machines, not just one model. Of the discovered models there seem to be two distinct variations primarily, the coin heads are different with both different than the BULL FROG machines depicted in the old Caille Bros. Co. catalogues.

The Caille BULL FROG, like the Mills CRICKET, is a super overgrown coin drop. But what a drop! They are like enormous TARGET machines (see the trade stimulator volumes) with the added kicker of visible jackpots. If your coin goes into one of the proper holes the jackpot below it can be dumped by turning a handle and you get all the money you see. One interesting feature of the BULL FROG is the ability to regulate the payout percentages. You can set the jackpot gates practically shut so the player has a really tough chance at hitting a pot. If you aren’t careful you can tighten the payout off to zero, leaving you with a no-payout machine. Maybe the old operators did that, and maybe that’s why BULL FROG machines are rare.

The Caille has another unique distinction and that’s the origin of its name. Back in the early 1900’s the motto “Watch us Jump” was known across the country. It was for a new gold mining town in Nevada named BULL FROG. So when Caille made a payout floor machine with coins that jumped, they named it after the gold mine. There’s one thing about that original volume 1 description that did hold up. Comparing the Caille machine to the Mills CRICKET we said “Because of its rarity BULL FROG values, if such machines do exist, would be half again or even twice as high”.

Caille ECLIPSE Floor Machine

Produced between 1904 and 1916

The 6-way ECLIPSE is the crown jewel of the Caille Bros. line of floor machines. It was created as a direct competitor to the already successful Mills DEWEY and virtually paralleled the DEWEY line in modifications and advanced developments. There aren’t as many ECLIPSE machines around as there are DEWEY’S, but its large surviving population makes it the second most numerically important floor machine collectible next to the DEWEY.

The ECLIPSE has a tube payout and a wheel with 92 spaces. There aren’t quite as many variations in the castings and the glass as there are with the DEWEY, but quite a variety is known. Probably the most outstanding features are the castings which are rich in flowing robes, swirls, and detailed trim. But it’s the coin head that first catches the eye. It’s magnificent, and big. The Caille ECLIPSE was made in nickel, quarter and half-dollar models, all 6-way, with music available with any coinage as the MUSICAL ECLIPSE. In 1909, the machine sold for $120 in the nickel model; $150 with music. By 1912, the prices had gone up to $145 plain and $175 musical. CHECK ECLIPSE and MUSICAL CHECK ECLIPSE models were also produced, as well as twin and triplet models. Cabinets were natural stained wood with castings and trim available in nickel plate, bronze, or “Roman Gold”, the latter an artificial golden finish. Most of the surviving machines have been found in nickel plate with bronze running a far away second, so it would seem that most ECLIPSE buyers were somewhat conservative after all.

The Caille ECLIPSE was also the basic component for the best selling line of multiples in the industry. The ECLIPSE TWIN was generally available in two models, mixing 5 cent-play and 25 cent-play and, for the high rollers, 25 cent-play and 50 cent-play. In 1909 these machines sold for $250, and $280, respectively, plus $30. additional for music. By 1912, they were $300. and $335., plus $35. for music. ECLIPSE TRIPLET machines mixed nickels, quarters and half-dollars in a 600 pound device that sold for $480. in 1912, or for $520. with music. If you want a heart breaker, a Duluth operator was selling ECLIPSE TWIN machines in 1946 for $150. to clean out his storage.

Caille ECLIPSE machines are distinctly different than virtually all of the other collectible floor machines, as are the similarly trimmed Caille Bros. LONE STAR, FORTY-FIVE and later CENTAUR floor models. These beautiful machines almost draw a line between “Mills Collectors” and “Caille Collectors”. They do have one drawback for the uninitiated; they are devils to work on.

Caille GLOBE

Produced between 1906 and 1912

You’re looking at the last of the heavy cast iron card machines, and what a beautiful swansong it is to a departed class of chance mechanisms. The cabinet casting alone is a work of art, and machines like this should be in museums of contemporary and early twentieth century art. Curators haven’t yet caught on to the fact that the public arts are the true art forms of their times. Sure, buildings and monuments and post office murals are public arts, and many are preserved as such. But it is “everymans art” that is missing: the art and graphics of automobiles, advertising, radios, cameras, appliances, pinball games, vending and slot machines. They sold, or attracted play and use, because they looked as good or even better than the promise of their performance. Sure, there are private and even some public exhibits of automobiles, sewing machines, old store and other similar artifacts, but to this day there is no publicly funded open museum of vending machines, slot machines, pinball games or trade stimulators. If it wasn’t for the private collector all these treasures would be lost. The first museum staff that convinces its stodgy board that there’s something in coin machines will have the best chance of building a unique collection and will find themselves with an exhibit so exciting that it could draw visitors from all over the country. They might even be able to charge admission and make money at it. Logical homes for such an exhibit are San Francisco, the home of the three-wheeler; Chicago, long the “Coin Machine Capital of the World,” Detroit, where Caille was located; Cincinnati; the Victorian capital of coin machines; or even the nationally oriented Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. But will they see these words, and would they consider them? If you feel strongly about this, send a copy of this page to your local museum.

The Caille Bros. GLOBE is a more than likely candidate as an exhibit machine because it is so typical of its genre. Cast iron, nickel-plated, heavy, with large card playing symbols, the Caille GLOBE was one of the last machines to be marqueed “Free Cigars.” It’s origins go far back into coin machine history, being based on a very early Card Machine made by the firm of Lewis & Strobell in Philadelphia in the early 1890’s.

Caille GOOD LUCK

Produced between 1902 and 1916

Old “Round Top” rides again, only under a different name this time. As vociferous as Mills, and fighting neck and neck with the Chicago producer to be the largest coin machine maker in the country, The Caille Bros. Company of Detroit also rapidly built their business and their line through acquisition and outright copying. When Canda sold off their chance and trade stimulator machines around 1901 in order to concentrate on arcade, picture and vending machines, Caille picked up some of the same machines Mills did, as well as some Mills didn’t. The Caille touch was typical; in order to make the machines uniquely their own, they changed the names whereas Mills retained the names of their pickups. When made and sold by Caille Bros. the Canda CARD MACHINE became the Caille QUINTETTE; and the PERFECTION CARD the GOOD LUCK. Caille Bros. also changed the cabinet trim, adding castings and decals to create flashier machines, and as a result the Caille models are distinctive.

Caille started unloading the Canda stock of the small counter card machine in 1902 as the PERFECTION, soon calling it the GOOD LUCK PERFECTION. By 1902, with Caille production, the familiar machine was being sold as GOOD LUCK with the adjustable coin slot for penny, nickel, dime or quarter play. Caine called it the “most popular card machine ever built.” which indeed it is when you consider all the models by various producers.

Caille Bros. made a whole line out of the basic machine, and examples of all of them can be found in the hands of collectors. GOOD LUCK came in a countertop model as well as a swivel base model in either poker or “Figaro” numbered reel strips, with the card machine model the most numerous. A much more elegant swivel base version with a simulated inlaid wood cabinet and added trim was put on the market around 1905 as the GOOD LUCK SPECIAL, also available with playing card or numbers reel strips.

Caille sold the various “Round Top” GOOD LUCK models until World War I, leaving the business to Mills after the war. But in the early thirties the name came back when Caille Bros. made a five-reel modern all-metal ball gum counter game vendor with poker symbols called GOOD LUCK. Strangely, the 1933 machine is far rarer than the older wooden GOOD LUCK Card Machines of the past.

Caille LION Floor Wheel

Produced between 1901 and 1906

It’s fairly common historical knowledge among slot machine collectors, but a brief recap is in order. The Caille-Schiemer Company in Detroit, makers of floor machines, and The Caille Company in Detroit, also makers of floor machines, joined forces in July, 1901, to become The Caille Brothers Company when brother Adolph Caille of Caille-Schiemer and Art Caille of Caille Company decided to simplify things and be a big company and make a lot of money. They did both, and for the next twenty years or so they and the Mills Novelty Company in Chicago were the two largest makers of slot machines in the country.

Back in the early 1900’s and up until World War I, they were neck and neck, and based on the surviving floor machines around it’s hard to say who sold the most. The competition survives today, but in the antique field. Some slot enthusiasts are dedicated Caille (meaning Caille Bros. Co.) collectors, while others are Mills freaks, with everything else falling in between, or outside of, depending on how you look at it.

Whatever Mills did, Caille matched, and vicey-versy, so if there was a cheap, 5-way Mills floor machine (which there was in the JUDGE!) there was a Caille model to match. And the model was the LION. Sure, Caille-Schiemer and later Caille Bros. made a JUDGE selling new for less than a hundred dollars, the Caille’s reacted in kind with their LION.

The LION was originally made by Caille-Schiemer. so when the two firms got together the LION was one of the first machines made under the Caille Bros. Co. banner. Elsewhere in this book you’ll find the first full page ad run by The Caille Brothers Company, and if you look close enough you’ll find the LION in both the “plain” and “musical” models. Caille Bros. Co. called their machine the “King of all five way play getters.” In later years, at the end of the production run and after they had hyped the coin head to prevent cheating, Caille said: “While we do not recommend 5-slot machines we recommend the IMPROVED LION as being the best 5-slot produced. It is cheap in price only.”

So why should a “cheap” machine be so valuable? Because it’s so damn good looking and because it’s so rare, that’s why. The photographed machine is the original MUSICAL LION from 1901, including an eight tune Swiss music box. Music adds a lot of value to a floor machine, and when good looks go with it the price goes off the top. Just imagine what a TWIN LION would be worth if one could be found. Caille made ‘ern and sold ’em in 1905.

Caille MUSICAL PUCK Floor Machine

Produced between 1900 and 1916

If you know your Shakespeare you know that Puck was the mischievous young hobgoblin that kept pulling pranks in the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He got everybody all screwed up. In a way the Caille PUCK with a big floor slot machine life second only to the Mills DEWEY did the same thing. When somebody says they’ve got a PUCK, or a MUSICAL PUCK, the more you know machines the more you wonder what they’ve got.

Caille-Schiemer came out with PUCK as the first 6-way machine, in a tall skinny cabinet with bathtub type cast iron legs, as we have seen. In August 1899, a Swiss music box was added below the wheel so that the machine could be run in closed towns. A “Musical Cabinet” nameplate was screwed on to the cabinet. The musical feature didn’t work too well, so at the end of the year, barely making its appearance in January, 1900, Caille-Schiemer replaced it with an improved model in which the music could by turned on and off, and called it the IMPROVED PUCK MUSICAL CABINET. While all this was going on Art Caille, younger than brother Adolph of the Caille-Schiemer Company by four years and much more promotion minded, formed his own The Caille Company in Detroit, and in 1900 was makin you guessed it the PUCK, in both “Plain” and “Musical” models in a somewhat different cabinet. By the next year, the two Caille brothers came to the conclusion that they were running off in too many directions, so they got together and formed The Caille Brothers Company in Detroit in July, 1901, with their first model guess which one? The PUCK and MUSICAL PUCK. The cabinet and castings were changed again. Jacob Schiemer and Robert Yates, both involved in The Caille-Schiemer Company, weren’t part of the deal, so they formed their own Schiemer-Yates Company in Detroit the same year, and started making their own PUCK machines. The only way to tell these models apart is to check the castings and any paper inside the machines. Caille-Schiemer machines have “C-S” castings; Caille Company has “The Caille Company” on its castings and paper; The Caille Brothers Company has “C-B” or “Caille Bros.” castings and paper; and Schiemer-Yates machines have “S-Y” castings. The long term survivor was Caille Brothers, making musical PUCK machines in a variety of cabinets, castings, and colors for many more years. If all that isn’t confusing enough, a dozen other producers copied the PUCK name. So if somebody asks you “What’s a PUCK?”, sit them down for a long conversation.

Caille NEW CENTURY PUCK Floor Machine

Produced between 1901 and 1917

If you thought that we had run out of collectible PUCKS, you’ve got another think coming. Actually, the NEW CENTURY PUCK models and their successors, made by The Caille Brothers Company in Detroit, are the best known and most highly collectible machines in the PUCK series, and carried the PUCK name to the end of its production history. The name “New Century” meant the advent of the Twentieth Century and was in great vogue for virtual every thing the moment December 31st, 1899 turned into January 1st, 1900. For the next two or three years the expression got to be as over used and boring as the tag lines of our lifetime, such as “Space Age”, “Computer”, and other handles that have been stuck on product names. Caille Bros. completely reengineered and redesigned the 1898 PUCK mechanism, glass and cabinet to make the machine more competitive with the Mills DEWEY, sticking the play lever on the front. It was the beginning of the characteristic elaborately trimmed casting and cabinet look that would make Caille machines stand out for years to come. The new color-coded coin head and heavier legs makes the machine look bigger and stronger than the earlier models. The mechanism is also easier to work on, as the filigree parts of the earlier models are replaced with components that are heavier, simplified and fewer. The new machine carried a nameplate saying THE NEW CENTURY PUCK, with original iron castings in either nickel plate or antiqued copper. Nickel and quarter models were produced and later a half-dollar model.

One of the great features of the newer PUCK is that the more the machine is used, provided the parts aren’t worn out, the better they run. A musical model was produced as THE NEW CENTURY MUSICAL PUCK which has nine inch cylinder music box playing eight different short selections. In fact, the top PUCK collectible is this machine with its original music. As the years went by, the straight and music models became known as the CENTURY PUCK and the CENTURY MUSICAL PUCK, available in “plain” or the more elaborate cabinets. By 1906 or so the “New Century” name had been dropped and the machine once again went on to its destiny as PUCK, getting flashier in its old age with a bright green painted cabinet, and in some cases, ormolu castings. Many collectors, believing that richly rubbed natural grain wooden cabinets offset by the patina of antique nickel plated trim are the norm are sometimes shocked by the painted PUCKS. But that’s the way they were.

Caille OPERATOR BELL DELUXE Bell Machine

Produced between 1912 and 1916

You’re looking at the king! Of all of the cast iron cabinet “Iron Case” Bell machines of the 1906-1916 period with the exception of the original Fey LIBERTY BELL, of course this is the one collectors want most. One look will tell you why. The machine you’re looking at hasn’t been restored; it’s just been cleaned. It’s Caille OPERATOR BELL serial 4,566 (the serial number is die stamped on the front at the bottom, just to the right of the payout cup) and only the second such machine to be found.

As late as July 1977 no Caille OPERATOR BELL machines were known. It was assumed to be a “lost” machine, although collectors knew that quite a number were made as a variety of cast iron models were catalogued and advertised between early 1911 and 1916. But where were they? Literally, the whole country was looking. In the middle of that hot climate of anticipation your author had all but given up on ever finding anything again. It was the steamy summer of 1977 and the date was Friday, August 19th. Worse, even if I found something I couldn’t do anything about it. I had thirty bucks in my pocket and a holiday weekend to get through. I had been at a client sales meeting in Menasha, Wisconsin and had to give the ad agency advertising presentation late Thursday night, then drive for ten hours all the way around Lake Michigan to join my family in Shelby, Michigan the next day. One of the client salesmen said: “Don’t drive. Take the boat over. They book reservations months ahead, but I’ll bet you get in on stand by”. So at 7:00 A.M. on Friday, I pushed the car half way across the state to Manitowoc, got to the boat by 10:00; was first on the waiting list and had an hour to kill before we sailed at 11:00. What to do for an hour? Actually, only 45 minutes as I’d need 15 minutes to get my car on the ferry and buy a ticket. So zip into town to check antique shops. There were three; only one was open. Nothing. By 10:15 the second one opened. Interesting stuff, but nothing. So I drove back to the boat at 10:35, and passed shop No. 3. Open. Nothing. I asked the lady if she had any “vending machines or coin machines”. No answer. I started out the door at 10:45. Late. Half way out she said, “We had one, but we sold it”. I asked; “When?” She said, “Next week”. Next week? I said, “Do you still have it?” She said, “Yes, but it’s too late. We have an offer on it”. I said, “Can I see it”, expecting a Mills “Hightop”. She said “Sure”, and took me into the basement. In a far corner, under a throw rug, was a lump. Sticking out of the corner was a nickel plated cast iron foot. My heart stopped. It was 10:49. I was sure it was a Mills “Iron Case”.

She pulled off the rug. Caine! Keys and all. She asked, ” What do you think of it?” I slowly, unemotionally said, “That’s nice”. She asked, “Well, will you make an offer?” I didn’t answer. She said “Make me an offer!” I asked, “What’s been offered so far?” She said, “Oh no, I won’t play that game and get chiseled. Make me an offer!” My heart stopped again. Thirty bucks in my pocket. 10:52! So I said, “Okay. Eight hundred”. She said, “It’s yours”. So I shook her hand, promised to be back with money in three days, raced to the boat, got on as the last call whistle blew and sat for six hours going nuts as we plowed across the lake. On Tuesday, August 23rd I was back with the money. She was a lady of her word, and the first and oldest Caille OPERATOR BELL yet found was in my station wagon. The serial is 3,210 and the castings are marked “Caille BDL” for “Caille BELL DELUXE”. Since then at least three more have been found.

Caille PEERLESS Floor Roulette

Produced between 1907 and 1922

PEERLESS is its name. Peerless is its fame. And fortune, because that is what it’ll take to own one of these machines. As it stands today, this is the top of the line in slot machine collecting. There are rarer machines a lot of one-of-a-kinds. There are even more valuable machines whatever the Caille PEERLESS is worth an original Fey LIBERTY BELL would go for at least 20% more these days. But if you’re a “Major Collector” (that’s usually anyone that owns any form of early 1900’s automatic payout roulette floor machine) this’ll be the machine you brag about.

It was never any different. Even back in 1978, when the first volume of this series of price guides was printed, the Caille ROULETTE and Fey LIBERTY BELL were neck-and-neck in value (see pages 30 and 33 of Volume 1). Volume 1 featured the Caille ROULETTE, an 80-pocket 7-way automatic payout roulette floor machine first made in 1904. This time around we’re featuring the Caille PEERLESS, a T-way 60-pocket machine of 1907 that has major mechanical improvements over the earlier model. Both machines are of currently equal value rank, but the PEERLESS is a bit more fool proof in its play.

As originally delivered, both of these machines had an elaborated trimmed, silvered and gilded glass with the Caille Bros. and machine name on it. But you can just imagine how long that lasted as a flat glass top that people leaned on to watch the play. El Cracko! Even the short nickel plated fencing around the covered wheel designed to protect the glass from abuse didn’t solve the problem. In a way it created one. The old saloon players yearned to set their steins on the top of the machine but couldn’t because of the rails. So players and observers balanced their brews in their hands, and often dropped bottle, beaker, whiskey glass or schooner smack dab in the middle. As a result, most of the surviving machines are already on their third or fourth glasses, by now crystal clear sans graphics. A few of the original have survived the years and will probably be reproduced in quantity to bring all the other old machines up to snuff, but to date the generally missing glass graphics don’t seem to have hurt the values a great deal.

The way the PEERLESS works is astounding. Little fingers below each pocket await the reception of the free spinning ball. If the ball falls into a pocket for which the color has been played there are seven possibilities: Black pays 2, Red 2, Yellow Crescent 4, Single Star 10, Double Star 14, “0” pays 20, and “00” pays a whopping 40 the payout is automatic, from 10(C to $2.00 on the nickel machine and 50(C to $10.00 on the quarter machine. Caille called the PEERLESS “The only large successful roulette made” adding that “This machine represents years of careful study and work”. It shows it.

Caille also made a CHECK PEERLESS model that had an extra payout cup and dispenser for trade checks. Only two of them are known. Caille listed the standard PEERLESS in its 1915 Catalogue 311 as a”Discarded Machine”, selling them off at low prices. That doesn’t seem to have worked, because they were back in a Caille catalogue and direct mail flyer in 1921. Seems they had a hard time unloading them. They wouldn’t today.

Caille PUCK Floor Machine

Produced between 1898 and 1901

In the slot machine business it was always impossible to keep a good idea to yourself. It wasn’t long after the Mills OWL began to run away with most of the sales in the industry that a company half a mile away began to crank out a similar machine with a 6-way coin head. The first PUCK was made by The Illinois Machine Company at 147 Fifth Avenue, (now it’s called Wabash Avenue) in Chicago early in 1898. Adolph Caille and Jacob Schiemer from Saginaw, Mi., already in the store and saloon fixtures business, formed the Caille-Schiemer Company in Detroit to make the machine and take over a big piece of the booming gambling machine business.

Where the OWL had a crank on front, the PUCK had a heavy push down wooden arm. Instead of a 5-way coin head, with a top payout of a dollar, the PUCK could take up to six coins with double the top payout. The result was instant success, and led to the same form of flattery Mills’ experienced; everybody else started making PUCKS.

It was on July 15, 1898 that Caille-Schiemer started using the name PUCK on their machines, even getting a registered trademark for the name and logo style. If you want to frame one on the wall behind your machine look up trademark 32,567 issued on March 7, 1899. The machine name was taken from a popular humor magazine called PUCK WEEKLY to pick up on an already wellknown name, and to suggest that the machine was fun to play.

It’s fairly easy to tell the early PUCK machines apart. The Illinois Machine Company model has the lettering “IMCO” on its front casting while the Caille-Schiemer version has “C-S” all over it, inside and out. There are quite a number of surviving early PUCKS around, with the Caille-Schiemer model outnumbering the Illinois Machine Company version by about four-to-one. They face the same problems the OWLS do; the coin heads are often cracked or missing. If the head is cracked, the problem can be solved, but it takes a careful welding job. Missing heads are a bigger problem as there’s not enough to go around. Some times a correct head will cost almost half as much as a machine, but if you want a complete machine it’s worth the money, otherwise you’re stuck with an “Incomplete”. Someday, someone will make a good business out of recast and properly machined reproduction coin heads. As of now, it hasn’t been done, at least not in volume.

The PUCK is the oldest form of six slot floor machine made. It was also the first popular floor machine to sport a music box in its PUCK MUSICAL CABINET model of 1899.

Caille SILVER CUP Counter Machine

Produced between 1912 and 1917

Perhaps the greatest asset the gambling machine industry of the early 1900’s had going for it was the imagination of Charlie Fey. Sitting at the workbench in his San Francisco shop with new, old, unfinished and recently modified slots of all kinds and surrounded by a small army of young boy apprentices to run the routes, do the hard metal filing, and generally learn the coin machine business from the ground up, Fey batted out machine after machine, with just about every idea brand new.

Fey created the 5-way cast iron SILVER CUP around 1910 or so, as an advance development of an earlier machine he made called THE DUO, and ran it on his routes in nickel and quarter play. Boldly displayed in its cast iron case was the name “Chas. Fey & Company”. Two or three of the machines are known, with one of them unearthed as late as 1977.

Fey must have made some sort of deal with Caille by that time Charlie Fey and Adolph Caille were old buddies—because Caille Bros. came out with the same cast iron machine around 1912, with the only visible change in the front casting nameplate. Now it said “Caille-Detroit”. No one else made anything like it. Caille also made a side vender model called SILVER CUP VENDER. Until the early nineteen-seventies only two or three of the Caille models were known to exist. But in a blaze of discovery another four or five suddenly came out of the woodwork in as many years, and they keep showing up. No venders yet, but who knows what’s out there? Caille also made a similar machine called LOVING CUP, including a vender model. Not to be outclassed, Mills jumped on to the double-dial idea by converting its BROWNIE into a two disc machine, splitting the power drive of the wooden boxed DOUBLE DIAL BROWNIE mechanism to spin two smaller color wheels. The idea apparently didn’t take hold, and only one of the machines survives. So far, that is! By 1915 Mills had given up on this direction and was selling the machine as the SILVER CUP. Not to be outdone, Mills also converted its CHECK BOY cabinet into a SILVER COP, sticking two color wheels on top of the already massive cast iron cabinet. None are known.

Caille SILVER CUPS retained a long. period of active use. There was an active market for used and rebuilt machines for operators in the early 1930’s, and SILVER CUPS may well have run on location until World War II. Why not it’s a great looking little machine, and a lot of fun to play.

Caille TOURIST Counter Single Reel

Produced between 1912 and 1916

Does it seem logical that a single reel counter machine made after 1912 can be worth a lot more than a substantial number of the older color wheel floor machines? It certainly is to the collectors that favor the Caille TOURIST, and one look at the machine will go a long way to telling you why this is so. The problem is, it’s difficult to see.one as they never seem to make it to the open market. This is a machine that is traded and rarely sold. Apparently only two or three of them are known to exist. There might be more, because it is the kind of machine that “secret” collectors like to hide.

In appearance the Caille TOURIST is splendiferous. It’s cabinet is an exact match to the Caille OPERATOR BELL of 1913, the only difference being that the TOURIST is a single reel machine while its counterpart has three reels. Both of the machines are heavily nickel plated, and literally glow in the dark once they are cleaned up and polished. The heads, sides, backs and feet are practically duplicates, and side by side the two machines look like twins. But there the similarity ends, for the TOURIST is completely different from a Bell in concept. It works practically the same way as the Eagle SQUARE DEAL GUM VENDER. The single reel has 31 spaces, divvied up into five countries: United States, Germany, Ireland, England and France. Some countries have more reel stops than others, permitting a variety of payouts of from 2 to 20 coins. The player sets the lever at the color for the country he wants to play for when the coin is dropped. Pushing down the coin plunger at the top and pulling the handle locks the selection and the reel spins. Hit a winner and the coins spit out just like a regular three-wheeler. It’s a terrific show.

It’s interesting to know that the Caille TOURIST was a collectible before any example of the Caille OPERATOR BELL had been found. Looking at old catalog sheets didn’t reveal the fact that the two machines were so much alike; it took the discovery of an OPERATOR BELL to make the point. Hopefully more TOURISTS can be found. Caille also made it with city symbols in place of countries, with the selections including Detroit (where Caille was, of course), Boston, Toronto, Chicago and Denver. Both versions were also made with side venders. But the real treasure, if it can ever be found, is the cabinet vender model. It had a music box in the cabinet.

Callie MIXED TRIPLET Floor Machine

Produced between 1903 and 1916

Speaking of “Triplets!’, there is a group of machines that are available in some numbers, although their trading prices belie their existing population. The whole idea of a double or triple floor machine was to get around the growing tax laws and slot machine licensing fees. With a double or triple you could get two or three machines licensed for the price of one. When music was added, the customer always got something for their money, win or lose.

There are more Caille triplets around than any other kind, suggesting that Caille Brothers made most of them, probably because they did a good selling job in putting them over. A few Watling and Victor triples also survive, but the big trading is on the Cailles’. In the early seventies only five Caille triplets were known to exist. Since that time, more have been found at the rate of about one every two years. Most of the surviving examples are Caille MIXED TRIPLET machines, both plain and musical, in which a variety of Caille floor machines of the same basic size are joined together. A typical mix consists of Caille CENTAUR, ECLIPSE, and LONE STAR machines in 5 cent and 25 cent play, with nickel play models at each end, although these were generally later models made after 1907. Earlier triplets mixed PUCKS in 5 cent, 25 cent and 50 cent play models, while later triplets included the CENTAUR TRIPLET, ECLIPSE TRIPLET and a variety of MIXED TRIPLETS.

The Caille triplets are nowhere near as large and heavy as their Mills and Watling counterparts. A Caille MIXED TRIPLET weighs in at around 600 pounds and is sixty-two inches wide. According to the Mills catalogue sheets the DEWEY TRIPLET was eighty-five inches wide and nine inches taller than it’s Caille Bros. competition. That may be another reason why the Caille models were more popular. A typical re-action to advance notice of a police raid on resorts or saloons with gambling in the early 1900’s was to turn the face of the floor machines to the wall. Moving 600 pounds was probably tough enough; but 900 pounds, that’s all but impossible. The sheer bulk of the triplet machines suggests you won’t find them in attics or basements. They probably never left the ground floor, and that’s just where most of them have been found.

CailleTWIN Floor Wheel

Produced between 1911 and 1915

A number of Caille “doubles” were covered in Volume 3 of this series of books, with the TWIN DETROIT of 1903-1916, TWIN ECLIPSE of 1904-1916 and TWIN CENTAUR of 1907-1916 getting the treatment in its pages, all highly rated for their elegance. But here comes the capper, the Caille Bros. TWIN of 1911-1915. What makes the TWIN different is the fact that it is made up of two different machines.

Caille “doubles” are rated as the prime double machine collectibles. It’s their flash and detail that makes this so. Never let it be said that Caille couldn’t take the same class of machine made by half-a-dozen other makers and gussie it up so completely that its owners and players thought they were working something completely different than the competition offered. The casting details are so excessive and the appointments so lush that the Caille floor machines almost looked bathed in light even when they were hiding in the dark corner of some old pre-prohibition saloon. There was always enough flickering light to make a Caille visible. This was doubled when two machines were put together as one. The result was even greater flash covered by one tax stamp.

Caille’s standard “double” was two models of the same machine with different coinage, usually stepping a nickel up to a quarter for modest players and heavy hitters alike. Playing two bits on a single spin of the wheel back in 1912 must have been scary because it was a lot of money then. But the step up from nickel play to quarter play was easy and comfortable as both machines in the same cabinet were generally alike. It was just a matter of moving a little bit to the right, taking the bigger coin out of your pocket and going for it.

But not the Caille TWIN. It wasn’t two of a kind at all; it was two diverse machines of the same frame size, and often of higher denominations. Generally, the base machine was Caille CENTAUR or ECLIPSE at the left and a more unique machine at the right so players could move from the conventional and comfortable to a higher risk or more complicated machine. The models were seemingly endless, with CENTAUR-ECLIPSE TWIN, CENTAUR-BIG SIX TWIN, CENTAUR-LONE STAR TWIN, ECLIPSE-BIG SIX TWIN and even LONE STAR-FORTY FIVE TWIN and BIG SIX-LONE STAR TWIN models known. Caille Bros. sometimes catalogued these machines as MIXED TWINS and even had “THE CAILLE TWINS” glass on some. They were all offered in both plain and musical models, the latter having only one music box, left or right, to avoid conflicting tunes.

The machine shown here is a Caille Bros. CENTAUR-BIG SIX TWIN in ” Quarters” (CENTAUR) and ” Half Dollars” (BIG SIX) play, making it a big money machine

indeed. At the time this photograph was taken around 1968 by the late Dan Adams the machine was owned by Roy Arrington, subsequently to be auctioned. The detail and condition is marvelous. The jackpot model CENTAUR is covered on Page 37 of Volume 1, although the jackpot, front castings and coin head on this CENTAUR differ considerably from that earlier version. The BIG SIX is covered in detail on Page 70 of Volume 2, with cabinet, castings and coin head identical in both models.

There is another interesting point about this machine. The CENTAUR at the left uses the elaborate MUSICAL CENTAUR front castings, yet no music box had been fitted. A similar 25(/50 machine in the Jonas Silber-stein collection, it may even be the same one carries the serial 120/2-3-45. The Caille Bros. Catalogue 509 of 1909, describing the CENTAUR-LONE STAR TWIN, provides an insight into the location popularity of the Caille TWIN machines when it says; “The leading operators admit that ‘Twins’ will take in more than three single machines and we have seen this demonstrated time and time again. Operators must have them.” Time has proven the point in an altered manner, for today a Caille TWIN is still worth more than three single machines.

Caille TWIN CENTAUR Floor Wheel

Produced between 1907 and 1916

Double your pleasure. Double your fun. And more than double your value. Here’s a super hot collectible that until now has never been touted in print. In fact, floor machine “Doubles” have been sadly ignored with none appearing in either of the first two volumes of the “An Illustrated Price Guide to the 100 Most Collectible Slot Machines” series. But we’re making up for that in one big rush in this volume with four doubles in one presentation. And there’s more coming up in later volumes, so we can meter them out in print now that we’re caught up.

The Caille TWIN CENTAUR is…gorgeous! The only thing that tops it out is the Caille MIXED TRIPLET described on page 27 of Volume 1 in this series. Actually, that’s a misnomer, for the machine illustrated in Volume 1 is really the Caille CENTAUR TRIPLET, with all three machines in the cabinet sporting CENTAUR jackpots. So here it is in a double as the TWIN CENTAUR, and showing off something you rarely see on a Caille TWIN. Look at the cast iron and nickel plated nameplates above the wheels on the cabinet. They both say “Caille’s TWIN CENTAUR”, a point of detail missed on many of these machines and one that hypes the value of the examples that carry it. All the things that make Caille collectors drool over their machines are here, only doubled. The elaborate coin head, fantastic wheels, and unmatched front plates. There’s quite a bit of variety in these machines as they were made long enough to mix and match and modify their parts and trim.

The dating of the Caille TWIN CENTAUR is fairly precise, something that can’t be said for a lot of floor machines. The intelligence comes out of the 1909 The Caille Bros. Co. Catalogue No. 509 which does a good job of describing the machine, to wit: “This fine machine has been on the market only about a year and has met with a very large sale. The jackpot feature is an attraction that is sure to take and persons who ordinarily do not play will be induced to try their luck. The pots fill automatically after a winning is made. An automatic percentage device, similar to that of the ECLIPSE, is embodied in the CENTAUR and has proved a great feature because of the Jack Pots. Cabinets can be had in quartered oak or mahogany finish. We furnish the ornamental parts in nickel plate, Roman Gold (Note: To date collectors don’t know what that color is as it doesn’t seem that any of the so called Roman Gold plated machines have survived the years) or Antique ( Second note: this is assumed to be antiqued copper).

Poking around old catalogues tells us other interesting things. A 1915 Caille price list No. 311 quotes the TWIN CENTAUR at $375 for 54/250 play and $405 for 250/500 play. But the interesting item was the “Discarded Machines” list that says that “Twin machines equipped with music box” would no longer be available, thereby precisely dating the time when the major makers discarded music for floor machines. Incidentally, the values below are for the MUSICAL TWIN CENTAUR Without music, subtract $3,000 across the board.

Caille TWIN DETROIT Floor Wheel

Produced between 1903 and 1916

As long as we’re on the subject of twins machines (most collectors call them “doubles”) lets keep the wheels spinning with that idea for awhile. These are machines that hardly anybody sees unless you’re a “friend of the collector” or something. They don’t move around the country much because they’re just too big to move a lot. Finally, their written history and pictorial record is scant because most of them seem to be in the hands of “secret collectors”. You’ve got to remember that just a little over four years before this writing it was illegal to own an antique slot machine in every state of the union except Nevada. The fact that thirty states have legalized antique slot machine ownership since then (the exciting story of this collector movement is carried in detail in volume 2) hasn’t affected the doubles much. Their owners, for the most part, got them when they were illegal and have just kept them ever since. Therefore, if you’re a slot machine historical nut you can’t just go out and look for the doubles; they’ve got to find you!

That singular fact of life put your author on “doubles duty”. Everybody was asked “Who’s got a double?” and once that was determined a trip to see the actual machine was made, or the owner was asked to send a photograph. And oh how the doubles rolled in. There’s a lot more doubles out there than you’d guess, and the variety is as surprising as hell. We won’t plop them all in this volume but we will throw in enough to give you an idea of the variety of this genre.

The Caille TWIN DETROIT is just about the oldest form of double we’ve run across. The DETROIT is an exposed-stop variety of the Caille PUCK named after the home city of Caille Bros. Co. products (just as the Mills CHICAGO is an exposed-stop version of the DEWEY and named after its home city). At least two examples are known. This model in the hands of an anonymous collector and has an enormous casting over a covered area that could be used for a music box. A second MUSICAL TWIN DETROIT model was sold at auction at Harrah’s in June, 1975.

Caille made the machines in 5(C/250 play, as this PRICE GUIDE example is, and in 25(C/50(P play. None of the higher denomination machines are known.

Caille TWIN ECLIPSE Floor Wheel

Produced between 1904 and 1916

The Caille floor machines are probably the ones most collectors across the board want the most. It’s the trim, castings, colors and carvings that make them the things of beauty that they are. They don’t look as utilitarian as Mills machines do, as weird as the Watlings, or as potently plain as most of the off-brand models. The Cailles have a distinctive sit and vista. In short, they’re smashing.

That claim to fame goes double for doubles, and redoubles for music. So you’re looking at a super prime machine. And its always been that way. Caille TWIN ECLIPSE machines were collectibles long before slot machine collecting was a fad. In fact, the man that had the first slot machine collection, if you can believe those in the know and old coin machine industry hands, had a TWIN ECLIPSE. His name was Alden Scott Boyer and he had a small cosmetic chemicals company on the near south of Chicago in the 1930’s and 1940’s. In a write up on the Boyer collection (you’ll learn a lot more about Boyer and his collection in volume 5 of this series) in the March 1940 issue of AUTOMATIC AGE, one of the two major trade publications of the coin machine industry when slot machines were in their prime, the TWIN ECLIPSE was mentioned. In an article entitled “Another Group of Boyer’s Old Timers” they said “Of particular interest is the Caille twin console. Mr. Boyer….was so impressed with the beautiful woods used in the cabinet of this machine that he cheerfully spent about one hundred dollars to enhance the original appearance by having the cabinet rubbed and polished and having all external metal parts replated in gleaming, lustrous bronze”. Imagine that! A restoration for a hundred bucks! Everything was a lot cheaper then.

This characteristically precollection boom naive approach to TWIN ECLIPSE values hung around a lot longer than you might suspect. As late as 1971 antique columnist Joel Slater, in his copyrighted column “Antiquing With Joel Slater”, wrote; “Caille Double, originally with music, 1906 (is) valued at over $2,500 and can be seen as part of the decor at The Handlebars Saloon, Pasadena, California”. By 1975, at the Harrah’s auction, a TWIN ECLIPSE went for $5,600, and by the time of Roy Arrington’s 5th Annual Victorian Casino Antiques auction in Las Vegas in February, 1978, one went for $37,500. From $2,500 to $37,500 in seven years? What other form of investment has appreciated that fast? The values are somewhat stabilized since then, and the prices for a musical model at current values are shown. For a “standard” model, sans music, subtract 10%.

Caille VENUS Floor Wheel

Produced between 1907 and 1910

Here it is, the top of the slant front line, and the quintessence of Caille collecting to many “Advanced Collectors” (If you ever wondered what that meant when you saw it in ads or auction lists, it means people with a lot of money that are willing to drop a big chunk of it on a single piece) across the country. Part of the super turn on of the VENUS is the over abundant plated trim, particularly the lightly draped ladies above the columns on the front.

VENUS is a VICTOR, plus. The glass is almost the same, only now the Caille name has been clearly added, as well as the VENUS name on both the glass and nameplate. Both VENUS and MUSICAL VENUS models were made, with the “Plain” VENUS shown with pricing for the musical model. Current values are the same for both VICTOR and VENUS, yet the VENUS is the preferred model. You can get approximate current values for both without music by subtracting $3,000 from each listed price range.

Alden Scott Boyer of Chicago, the first true slot machine collector (Long dead! Machines dispersed!) had a VENUS back in 1940. He said, in the February 1940 issue of AUTOMATIC AGE, that the “VENUS 6-way color wheel machine (was) manufactured by Caille Brothers in 1897”. That started the dating screw up. It wasn’t straightened out until Catalogue No. 509 of the Caille Bros. Co., dated 1909, was discovered. In it, at last, was the VENUS, with some interesting comments about the machine. Caille calls it “A six Slot.The only single nickel or quarter machine. Adjustable for either nickels or quarters”. That’s a pretty unique comment, so the catalogue goes on to explain: “The VENUS is a decided departure in slot machine construction. Besides being the original bevel cabinet (Note: Aha! They weren’t called slant fronts. They were “bevel fronts”), it is the only machine that can be changed in a few minutes into a 25-cent play or vice versa (i.e. back to nickel play). But another reason why we designed the VENUS (Note: Pure puffery. They didn’t design it; Schiemer-Yates did!) was to have a machine with a cut out that throws out one coin at a time. In all the preceding machines in this catalogue (i.e. the Caille-designed machines.) the coins are cut out in lump sums. This is approved by our patrons, but the VENUS principle serves to satisfy those who prefer the single payout method. The coin detector of this machine is also different from any other. It has a shutter which closes the coin chutes when the front is unlocked. No chance to rob it. Nickel and quarter play (Note: Only one basic model for both coins. Neat.) $135.00″.

So that’s what makes the Schiemer-Yates and Caille machines so different! The convertible playing coin feature, the one-at-a-time payout mechanism and the anti-stealing lock and shutter. Then your author had a hunch. If Caille Bros. made both the VICTOR and VENUS were they advanced developments of the GIBSON GIRL, or were they picked up from Schiemer-Yates whole cloth? So I had a number of VENUS owners take a close look at their machines to check their castings. Some were standard “CB” with the Caille Bros. Co. name all over them. But two VENUS machines, one in the John Herman collection in California, and a second found in Louisville, Kentucky by Pete Hansen of Illinois have “S-Y” castings. Schiemer-Yates! So we have three possibilities: one, Schiemer-Yates made the VENUS first; two, Caille Bros. sold VENUS machines originally made by Schiemer-Yates; or three, Caille Bros. used up old “S-Y” castings on their VENUS production. More likely it’s all of the above.

Caille VICTOR Floor Wheel

Produced between 1907 and 1910

Shades of Schiemer-Yates! Back up four pages and compare this Caille VICTOR with the Schiemer-Yates GIBSON GIRL. Now if they just ain’t like two peas in a pod. Same basic cabinet with frilly wooden trim and corner insets, right down to the lower front castings, legs and coin head. These machines are just short of look alikes and run alikes. If it wasn’t for the VICTOR nameplate, the unique glass, and the fact that the wooden trim and cabinet panel work is slightly different you’d swear that this was a Schiemer-Yates machine. Hold that thought for a while; we’ll get back to it on the next page. When the first slant front Caille VICTOR showed up years and years ago — known examples were in the hands of a few pioneer slot machine collectors even before the 1960’s, it was thought to be a very early example of a Caille Bros. Co. floor machine, and dates like 1897 were freely quoted. At the time it was thought that the slant front came before the tall, straight up and down floor machines. It wasn’t until historical tracking by the author at the end of the 1960’s revealed the fact that The Caille Bros. Co. wasn’t formed in Detroit until July 1901, that a previous company called The Caine Schiemer Company started making a machine called the PUCK on July 15, 1898, and that yet another company called Schiemer-Yates Company was formed at the same time The Caille Bros. Co. was founded with both Schiemer-Yates and Caille Bros. Co. making the PUCK (Are you lost yet? It gets confusing. This whole historical track is explained in greater detail on pages 14 and 19 of Volume 1 in the “100 Slots…” Price Guide series) that the idea that slant fronts came first was blown sky high. So, if the slant fronts weren’t first, went the popular logic, they had to be last. That led to a lot of thought-to-be knowledgeable comments that the slant fronts (by that time yet another Caille slant front called the VENUS it’s described next had been recognized) were the last floor mamachines made by Caille as the final and ultimate development of the automatic color wheel. The truth of the matter is hardly as glamorous as that. The real answer is that they came in the middle. Where they came from wasn’t known until the fairly recent discovery of the Schiemer-Yates GIBSON GIRL. In one lucky find a collector came up with a truly unique machine, and taught the rest of us that the 1907 acquisition of Schiemer-Yates by The Caille Bros. Co. gave Caille its slant front line. With that bit of knowledge everything else falls in place, so you can see that the machines themselves can often tell us a lot if we know what we’re looking for and how to use the information.

Caille made the VICTOR in both “plain” and MUSICAL VICTOR models, with the musical version shown and priced. Back in 1969 an antique dealer in Lexington, KY put a plain VICTOR on the market for $1,000 and took months to unload it. One of the dumbest things I ever did was pass it at that price because I thought it was too high. In November 1977, at the famous Kruse Auction of the S.H. Mitchell collection, conducted on a mountaintop in Vesta, Virginia, a VICTOR minus its legs went on the block at $11,000 and people thought the buyer was nuts. Like a fox! That machine taught us something, too. It carries a red decal that says: “B. Sicking. Manufacturer of Slot Machines. 1931-1933 Freeman Ave., Cincinnati”. A lot of people thought it was a Sicking machine some still do but obviously Sicking jobbed it as a distributor or ran it on his own routes. The small detail of that decal confirmed the dating of the VICTOR at 1907, because that’s the first year Sicking ( See the first “Blue” volume of “An Illustrated Price Guide to the 100 Most Collectible Trade Stimulators” for more details about the Sicking Manufacturing Company in Cincinnati) started to use the double-number address.

Caille VICTORY Bell Machine

Produced between 1920 and 1925

You have to be pretty sharp of eye and keen of wit to tell the difference between the Mills, Caille, and Watling Bell machines of the late teens and early twenties. They all have their distinctive qualities, but once the oak cabinet came into fashion, the machines began to look a lot alike. The Great War, that early and optimistic name for World War I, had a lot to do with it. Mills started the oak cabinet in 1915, Caille Bros. in 1916, and Watling by the end of the year. 1917 was a non-production year, because America was at war, with the 1918 Mills OPERATOR BELL looking a lot like the 1916, only it had a redesigned mechanism. To help identification out, each year for a decade most of the Mills machines had the. model year in the front casting. By then, Watling machines looked like Mills machines, and a bunch of new post WWI producers made similar Bells.

Only the post war Caille Bros. machines looked different, and how! Caille had a hard time getting back into production after the war. Losing momentum and trying to break away from the pack and come to grips with the staggering head start competition from Mills, Caille Bros. tried a trick. By that time, the Bells had a ten year history of side handles. So Caille put the pull in the middle. They did it by attaching an upside down “U” shaped piece of steel to the handle shaft on the right side and added a bearing on the left. A handle was welded to the center of the bridge with the shaft coming out of the front of the machine at the top of a tall pull slot. No other Bell before or since was put together the same way. The machine had a modest success when it came out, but not nearly the success it now has over half-a-century later. Because it is so different from other Bell machines it is regarded as an eminent collectible.

Caille called it the VICTORY model, then a popular expression because of the victory of the Allied Powers of England, France, Italy, America, Japan, and the others over the Central Powers of Germany, Austria, Hungary and Turkey in The Great War of 1914-1918. Two basic models were produced: The VICTORY BELL, with an elaborate cast iron cabinet front on an oak case showing lightly clad women in swirling robes; and the VICTORY GUM VENDER holding packaged gum in vending columns. By 1923, the VICTORY BELL, was being called the OPERATORS BELL because that’s what everybody else called their straight gambling Bells and the vender model had been redesigned to hold rolls of mints in two vending columns instead of gum.

A variety of reels  specifically fruit, fortune and card symbols were used on the machines. By then, the Vender was called simply VICTORY and was known as the “Victory Mint Vender” or “Victory Counter Vender”. The machine was being sold until the end of the twenties, later models having cast aluminum fronts. Some examples of all models are known.

Caille- Schiemer DETROIT Floor Wheel

Produced between 1898 and 1901

If you’ve studied the history of slot machines at all you probably know that the first popular mechanical floor model automatic color wheel machines were the 5-way Mills OWL and the 6-way Caille-Schiemer (out of the Illinois Machine Company) PUCK, both brought out in 1898. After that, whooshl All sorts of people jumped into the act and mechanical floor machines were being cranked out by the bunches. You’ll see soon, for this volume touches on a lot of these machines from the well known to the oddball.

This brief review of floor machines will also prove a point: to the winner goes the spoils. The fact that the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago was first in the field, and The Caille-Schiemcr Company of Detroit was a hot second, literally made the future of both companies. Ever afterward, for the next third of a century, the names Mills and Caille were the big ones in the business. When Caille conked out in the depression, Mills even kept that top rank for another third of a century after that.

These two big outfits got that way because they started out with a good machine, and then added to it. Both Mills and Caille pumped new models into their line as fast as they could once it was obvious that their first floor machines were off and running. Suddenly, the slot machine business was a tale of two cities, with Mills and a growing list of imitators in Chicago facing Caille-Schiemer and a smaller but similar cadre of copy-cats in Detroit. Even the city names ultimately had meaning to the slot machine buyers. If a floor machine was made in Chicago it was presumed to be a practical, hardworking device probably made by Mills. . .and the price was right. If it was made in Detroit it was probably very ornate with a lot of decoration and trim and was made by those Caille fellows and cost more.

The Caille-Schiemer Company went right along with the act and revamped their PUCK to create a new 6-way machine called the DETROIT, adding a new feature that had a lot of player appeal. As Caille described it in their catalog: “The pay wheel of a DETROIT actually stops dial and causes the payout works to operate. On account of the DETROIT being the original machine showing the pay wheel in full View of the players, it became known far and wide as ‘Honest John’. Everyone believed it could not be plugged whereas it actually has a percentage regulator of unique design that is only found on the DETROIT machine.”

Caille-Schiemer BUSY BEE

Produced between 1899 and 1916

The BUSY BEE introduced what would become one of the leading names in the slot machine industry to the field of trade stimulators. The Caille-Schiemer Company of Detroit started out by making the PUCK automatic color wheel floor machine in 1898, adding the countertop BUSY BEE trade machine the next year. Looking like a roulette wheel the disc of the BUSY BEE spins Vertically giving it the appearance
of a miniaturized color wheel in a highly omamented, nickel-plated cast iron cabinet. BUSY BEE is 5-way play, permitting the player to pick a color to win 2, 5, 10 or 20 cigars for a nickel, with red, black, green, yellow and the “Busy Bee” having the same reward rates as a larger floor model 5-way color wheel. When Caille-Schiemer dissolved and the Caille Brothers Company was formed in Detroit in the summer of 1901, BUSY BEE became a Caille Bros. machine, continuing in a series of follow on developments. Caille Bros. BUSY BEE NO. 2 is a 3-way machine for penny play, with players getting 3 cigars on white, 2 cigars on yellow and 1 cigar on green, or just losing outrigit. The apparently good chance of winning a nickel cigar for a penny kept up the play, with Caille advertising saying that “one of these little machines on your counter will sell as many cigars as a salesman back of your counter,” not mentioning the fact that the salesman had to be there anyway to make good on the winners

Probably the best seller was BUSY BEE N0. 4, a 5-way nickel play machine that gave at least one cigar for every nickel played, with a chance to win a total of 2, 3 or 4 cigars on each play. It’s promotional literature claimed that “the use of one of these trade stimulator machines will stir up your business to a degree you cannot appreciate until you actually get one,”

BUSY BEES are regarded as classic cast iron pieces. As such, they command high collector prices, with the Caille-Schiemer models regarded as the most valuable.

Watling DERBY Floor Race Game

Produced between 1911 and 1916

It is said that this is the most valuable antique slot machine in the world. It probably is, and should be, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is its beauty and playbility. But its intrinsic value goes far beyond that for the Watling DERBY you see here is the fulfillment of a single collector’s dream. It’s a super story.

Back in January 1969 Bill Gersh, editor and publisher of The Marketplace, a coin machine industry newsletter read by virtually everybody in the business, ran some historical pictures of Caille and Watling slot machines that he had in his personal collection. Gersh had been a coin machine reporter, advertising man and columnist since 1929 or thereabouts. The Watling piece he reproduced was from an old advertising flyer given to him by old Tom Watling himself in the early 1930s. It showed a fantastic token payout floor machine called the DERBY. Gersh dated it 1898.

Just about that time budding coin machine collecter Burton A. Burton of Pasadena, CA, was just starting to upgrade his collection from gum machines to heavyweight slots years before they could legally be collected. A smart cookie, Burton put down his $25 ( big money for a collector in those days) for a subscription to The Market-place to get closer to the business and look for machine leads. He saw the DERBY picture and knew he had to have the machine. Except there wasn’t one. No one had every seen such a thing.

But Burton, just about the best early tracker in the hobby, refused to give up. As luck would have it, in that same year of 1969, Burton tracked down the aging but still interested John Watling in Chicago, the last of the coin machine pioneers. Among other things Burton repeatedly asked about the DERBY machine, getting no answers. Then, on one of Burton’s business and collecting trips to Chicago, old John Watling took him out to his brother’s semi-elegant walkup flat on North Pine Street in the West Side Austin neighborhood of the city (strangely, the apartment was on your author’s Austinite paper route as a kid; I remember the man) and produced a DERBY mechanism and one horse — and that’s all, no cabinet, coin head, cabinet castings or marquee. Burton was excited, but all he had was a bushel basket full of junk

Not to worry. By 1972 your author had found a duplicate of the old Watling advertising flyer showing the DERBY. The address on the sheet was 727-729 Jackson Boulevard in Chicago, plus the copy “Old No. 153-159 W. Jackson Boulevard” precisely dating the machine at 1911 as the Chicago street addresses were changed (to number streets on precise grid rather than using the meandering Chicago River as a zero-baseline which meant that 200 North on one street might be 600 North on another) in the summer of 1910. The DERBY flyer also

carried the Patent No. 870,473 which, when tracked down, proved to be a large countertop token payout race game with an elaborate 4-way coin head and operating crank issued to premier coin machine pioneer Gustav F. W. Schultze and the Schultze Novelty Company of San Francisco, California, on November 5, 1907 after Schultze applied for the patent on September 17,1906. At last some rudimentary coin-head-to-mechanism data was available, even though the later and larger Watling DERBY was a 6-way machine. In the meantime Burton had found an old racing print virtually identical to the one on the DERBY marquee in the old picture.

That really did it for Burton. As a Californian he had about 25% of a California-created Schultze machine upgraded by Watling. Now he wanted the rest. It became an obsession. In 1973 and 1974 Burton ran ads any and everywhere that current coin machine operators and vintage machine collectors might see them offering $1,000 for the cabinet alone. Then $2,000. By late 1974 your author had made a Business Reply Card direct mail piece for Burton showing the DERBY with the headline “$10,000 CASH For This Machine”. Burton sent out almost a thousand and didn’t get a single bite. That was the end of the line. Now he knew he had the only one known. Or a small part of one, anyway.

The rest of the story is incredible. Starting with nothing but that one old catalog picture, the patent papers and the racing scene print Burton commissioned Gary Taplan to restore — reconstruct literally — the machine. Alfred Gottfield recreated the castings and metalwork from the pictures and drawings, Gordon Entler produced a cabinet from the same sources, and Taplan served as the project chief and put it all together. Burton won’t say what it cost him, but it’s up there.

Watling DETROIT Floor Wheel

Produced between 1902 and 1912

There was a certain crude charm to the way the Watling Manufacturing Company did things. On one hand they loudly touted the fact that they made “the original and only” version of just about every machine they made, and on the other they copied the hell out of everything on the market. Sometimes it got ludicrous, as in the case of the Watling DETROIT, and other “City Name” machines.

The “City Name” machines are somewhat unique. There aren’t many, and the ones there are can almost identify the maker by the name of the machine. The idea started with the Specialty Manufacturing Company, the first maker of electric floor machines, located in Kala-mazoo, Michigan. Their first5-way machine, produced in 1896, was named the KALAMAZOO, with the name soon becoming a generic for 5-ways made by a lot of producers. The Rosenfield Manufacturing Company in New York City picked up on the idea and named their S-way electric the NEW YORK. When The Caille-Schiemer Company in Detroit made an exposed stop version of their original PUCK in 1898 they named it after the city of manufacture, DETROIT. Likewise, when the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago did the same thing with their DEWEY in 1900 they created the exposed stop aim and ratchet wheel CHICAGO.

These names didn’t go far away from home. Automatic Machine and Tool Company of Chicago made a CHICAGO, and the subsequent Caille companies in Detroit made DETROIT models. It ended there except for one glaring exception; Watling. Only Watling made them both, and only Watling had the audacity to claim to be “the original and only” maker of each machine. There must have been a lot of excitement and even law suits about that in the early 1900s, but that’s too long ago and too unrecorded for us to know the facts at this point in time. What we do know is that Watling, a Chicago maker, made a machine called DETROIT and that in itself is incongruous enough. The most nagging point about all this is that the Watling DETROIT ( even the Watling CHICAGO for that matter, see Page 64 of Volume 2) is so darn good looking it looks a lot better than the Caille-Schiemer and Caille-whatever DETROITS. The super color wheel and dial, rich ornate trim and classic Watling coin head make this DETROIT a machine to be proud of.

This, incidentally, isn’t the only Watling DETROIT. The firm started out in 1902 with a NEW CENTURY DETROIT model described as a “6-slot automatic paying machine without music”. They made it in 50, 250 and 500 play. The “New Century” part of the name was soon dropped with the coin head soon saying THE DETROIT in its front casting and shown in this photo-graph. It was produced this way for many years. An original Watling catalogue from around 1907 said the machine “needs no recommendation. It has proven its

worth and is still as popular as ever. We have built thousands and are still building them. It has front stop wheel showing it is on the square. Also fitted with automatic percentage device. Finished in an elegant quarter-sawed oak cabinet, neatly trimmed. Furnished with or without music. Built for nickel, quarter or half dollar play. Width 24in., depth 14 in., height 66 in., weight 205 lbs., boxed 290 lbs.”

Watling also coded its machines for telegraphed orders, with the “Without Music” DETROIT models called “Maple in nickel play, “Thorn” in quarter and “Birch” in half dollar play. The machine was also made in TWIN DETROIT and TRIPLET DETROIT models, making it a major component in the Watling line.

Lucky owners of later production machines will find a nameplate on the front of the cabinet that says: “Made by Watling Mfg. Co., Manufacturers of Scales and Slot Machines, 153 to 159 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, Ill., U.S.A.” That’s a strange place for a machine called DETROIT to come from.

Watling DEWEY Floor Wheel

Produced between 1902 and 1916

There are DEWEYS and there are DEWEYS. While most DEWEY floor machines were made by Mills there were certainly many others. A lot of them were smaller copy-cat machines, but some are as big and beefy as the Mills original, and equally desirable. Foremost in that class is the Watling DEWEY. It looks a lot like the Mills, but not quite. The legs are stockier and the coin .head is pure Watling. But it’s unique. There are nowhere near as many Watling DEWEY machines as Mills machines, so the collectors that favor unique pieces are prime Watling DEWEY prospects. These collectors will also have a machine with an interesting story behind it.

Watling carried their DEWEY copy a bit far, both in appearance and in claims. They were selling the machine in 1903 for $70 in nickel play, $80 in quarter play and $95 in half-dollar play, so you can see it was a higher priced item than the smaller Watling OWL and JUDGE machines. At the time they called their version the IMPROVED DEWEY to make it look like they did something better with it than Mills did. But they didn’t mess around with its looks. Old advertising for the Watling DEWEY shows it with a stars-and-bars shield design with Admiral George Dew-ey’s portrait in the middle, a straight steal from Mills. This fine touch has been lost over the years, for the surviving examples generally have clear glass if any, with the original smashed long ago.

By 1905 or so Watling was selling the machine as just plain DEWEY, but got nasty in their promotional copy. If you can believe it, here’s what the Watling Manufacturing Company said in a 1910 advertising flyer: “The Watling DEWEY. The old reliable DEW-EY. Everybody knows this machine, of which we are the originators and which has been imitated. But never equalled. The fact that others (read “Mills” for “others”) tried to copy it is the best proof of its worth.” Now where in the world would the Watlings get the audacity to say all that, and did people really believe them? Simple checking proves the claim entirely false. For one thing, Mills started making the DEWEY in 1899, and Watling wasn’t even formed until the end of 1901. Maybe they based their claim on a prior Schall machine, yet even Schall came after Mills in floor machines.

The inescapable conclusion is that they lied. So, they lied. It was a day and age when absurd claims and flat out lies were part of the norm (Old expression: “Play it straight. Lie.”). How business and advertising ever crawled out of that hole I’ll never know. Frankly, if you pulled a stunt like that today.

Watling EXCHANGE Counter Wheel

Produced between 1904 and 1912

Exchange used to mean place of business, back then. Not exactly a store. More like a company store or a country store where you brought in one thing and traded it for something else, often just for the credit that gave you buying power.

It’s the perfect name for a slot machine, particularly one that takes in one thing and pays out something else. That’s just how the Watling EXCHANGE operates. It looks like any one of a number of 5-way gambling machines, from the Mills BROWNIE which is a lot bigger to the Caille BEN HUR, which is just about the same size. In fact, it’s easy to confuse the Watling EXCHANGE with the Caille BEN HUR. But they are a lot different, for the BEN HUR is a straight cash-payout gambling machine. Not so for the Watling EXCHANGE, for if it’s anything it’s really an automatic payout trade stimulator. Even its glass —when it is intact says “No Gambling”.

So why put a “No Gambling” machine in with automatic payout slots? Because that’s where it belongs, no matter what the payout or what the glass says. All that stuff about being an exchange, and no gambling. was a lot of baloney. True. the payouts aren’t in cash they’re in trade checks or tokens for 100, 250, 500 or $1.00 but this is a coin-op chance machine pure and simple. It’s a 5-way. so you pick your color or colors and play your nickel or nickels. If you lose, that’s it. But if you win, you win “exchange” in the form of the trade checks. Five separate payout tubes in the back dispense the proper tokens. Oftentimes the location, be it a store or a cigar counter ( EXCHANGE was basically not a saloon machine), would have its name on the tokens, with “Good For 50 In Merchandise” or other cash-in or exchange values indicated. So if you win,you buy. A typical machine serial is 1.132 so they must have made a lot of them.

The Watling counter wheel machines are sought after, with their remarkably colorful glass and elaborate coin heads reason enough for their popularity. Typically, this EXCHANGE says “Watling Mfg. Co./Chicago, Ill. on the head with the Watling name also on the glass. There’s a whole family of these machines: EXCHANGE, LINCOLN, JEFFERSON, JACK RABBIT and others, but only the EXCHANGE is a trade machine with tokens. The others are coin payouts.

Watling IMPROVED CHICAGO Floor Wheel

Produced between 1902 and 1911

We’re back again with another Watling ripoff of a Mills machine, yet the machine looks so good you have to wonder if you’d rather have the Watling IMPROVED CHICAGO or the Mills CHICAGO original. The Watling name is its own tip off to the fact that the IMPROVED CHICAGO is a copy-cat. Improved means better than what has been or currently is, and newly formed Watling certainly didn’t make a CHICAGO machine before their IMPROVED CHICAGO. Thus, the name suggests an improvement or somebody else machine. Who else but Mills?

The points of comparison with Mills narrows down with the Watling IMPROVED CHICAGO. The cabinet, legs and trim are Millish, and at first glance only the Watling coin head sticks out as really different. A careful look will reveal a lot of other difference, but the front glass won’t help. It has the Chicago “I Will” lady in the center just like Mills does, although the base relief casting of this Grande Old Gal isn’t on the front of the machine. Sorry loss; look at all the tough language she missed in the saloon locations that ran this machine.

Pricewise, the Watling IMPROVED CHICAGO cost even more than their DEWEY did, with 1903 costs at $75 in nickel play; $85 in quarter and $100 in half-dollar play, adding $20 to each price for music. What collector wouldn’t be glad to peel off a century note from an auction budget right now for this thing. But if you look at it reasonably, that’s really not so cheap. The dedicated investor collectors feel that their machines should increase in annual value at a rate in excess of the amount paid in pure interest in a bank. Therefore, if you take the initial cost of this machine at an interest of 10% annually, compounded, you’ll get a fair idea of what it’s really worth. If you take it from a purely financial point of view it comes to over $60,000. Yet, today, it sells for less than a tenth of that. A lot of collectors feel their machines are a much better investment than diamonds, land or common stock. But are they, really? The real jump has come in the last four or five years, and only since then have they become the hot investment property they are today. For instance, if you bought the Watling IMPROVED CHICAGO for $1,000 in 1970 which was a fairly standard price for a floor machine at the time, if not on the high end it would only be worth about $2,500 today. See what’s happened? It sells for three times that much on the market, and I can’t think of any investment that has done that well in the past few years except maybe a house.

Watling JACKPOT Floor Wheel

Produced between 1904 and 1906

Why should one upright be worth half again as much as another when they look almost alike? Often, rarity has little to do with it. What really sets the value is desirability. You’ll see it work at an auction. Some machines are regarded as more desirable than others, and often a small detail or a graphic element will be worth thousands of dollars to the bidders. The Watling JACKPOT is one of those machines. What seems to make the difference is the fact that the word “Jackpot” appears in the glass, well above the jackpot window in the cabinet. For Watling, this was really a me-too machine. It was built to compete against the jackpot floor machines made by Mills and Caille. Mills called their version the DEWEY JACKPOT, and the glass generally carried the DEWEY name, although JACKPOT was sometimes included. But not elaborately. The Caille version didn’t even use the jackpot name on the machine. Sure, the machine had a visible jackpot casting, but the machine carried the name CENTAUR. Watling, and only Watling, made a big deal out of one of the first popular original words to come out of slot machines. The glass boldly says WATLING’S JACKPOT. It’s stunning. And, obviously, valuable. Watling made no bones about the fact that the 6-way Watling JACKPOT was created to counter the competition. In a 1906 catalog the machine was described as the “Watling JACK POT or CENTAUER”, with the CENTAUR name apparently misspelled on purpose as a cut against Caille. By 1910 Watling described the competitive position of their JACK POT in glowing terms, saying “This beautiful machine leaped into favor promptly, and has held its own with the best.” They added that “Since introducing it, we have added many improvements. It is built with stop wheel in front of dial, also equipped with our extra pay tube, from which the proprietor can refill the jackpot when won out without access to the machine proper, thus holding the players.” The ultimate model was the Watling JACKPOT SPECIAL, a limited production machine with beveled glass sides, a mirrored back and an inside light so you could see the mechanism at work when you played. PRICE GUIDE Would you believe it; a California collector found one in storage in 1978 where it had been stashed away since the San Francisco earthquake. The puzzling part was that the old cloth wrapped electric cord.

Watling JUDGE Floor Machine

Produced between 1902 and 1910

The Watling name has popped up frequently in the previous discussion of floor machines, both as a major producer of such machines and as a copy-cat maker of machines bearing other already popular names. That’s probably slightly unfair, but not completely so. The Watling firm and its predecessor did copy just about every viable machine name that came up, but they also made some original machines of their own. Not nearly as many of the proprietary Watling machines have survived as have the machines with the appropriated names, which suggests that they had a mighty good business going with the latter. Tom Watling and his brother John bought out D. N. Schall and Company at the end of 1901 and picked up the already substantial Schall line of floor and counter machines. They immediately added more, starting out in January 1902 with DEWEY, OWL, IMPROVED CHICAGO, IMPROVED PUCK, JUDGE, FOX and other floor machines in addition to their own MARQUETTE, BUFFALO, UNCLE SAM and further machines. The strange thing is that practically all of the Watling machines with unoriginal names look much alike, with just about the only difference being the 5-way or 6-way coin heads. All of them have generally uninteresting cabinets, similar dials and castings, with the major point of difference being in the glass. You can tell a Watling JUDGE apart from a Watling OWL by the glass, but if the glass is missing, you may as well flip a coin. A restorer can just about make it whatever they want it to be. Another strange thing is that the Watling name is frequently missing, so the machine is often listed as a “Maverick” or an “Unknown”. In most cases, the name was carried only on the paper inside of the cabinet, with this paper often long gone. As frequently happens, when the paper survives, the manufacturer’s name is often scratched out, presumably to prevent identification of the orignal source. Enough machines have been found with this characteristic to suggest that it was a common practice. Copy-cat machines made by White, Berger, Cahill and other firms are much the same, so accurate identification is sometimes difficult.

The mechanisms of the Watling OWL, JUDGE FOX, STAR, et al are usually small, appearing to be Watling BROWNIE mechanisms in large cabinets. The same holds true for the similar Berger and White machines. But Watling seems to have had the edge in copy-cat sales, with one of the 5-way machines having the serial 06580 with a Watling DEWEY numbered 8522. That’s business!

Watling O.K. GUM VENDER Cabinet Bell

Produced between 1911 and 1915

When the three-reel Bell machines first burst upon the scene in 1907 they came out as counter top gambling machines that were one-third to one-fourth the size and weight of the larger and heavier older floor machines, yet they pulled in as much or even more money than the larger cabinet models. Small wonder they were so instantly popular. Logic would suggest that it was a small jump from the counter top Bells of the teens to the counter top jackpot models of the twenties and thirties in a straight-line track of technological development. But such was not the case as an aberration was thrown in the middle of this stream. It was the gum vender.

If you talk with the real early 1900’s old timers in the business and just about all of them have passed to their reward by now, you consistently hear statements that suggest the thwart. In one of my many interviews with Harvey Carr, the 1925 founder of the old coin machine trade publication Automatic Age and the 1930’s and 1960’s publisher and editor of The Coin Machine Journal, he made the statement in November 1976; “The original slot machine was not originally a gambling machine. Those cherries, plums and so forth were to promote sales. Mills was making chewing gum. So what he did was buy the mechanism from Fey ( Charles Fey, San Francisco inventor of the Bell machine in 1905-1906) to sell the gum. By the time I was a kid there was a LIBERTY BELL gum machine in every restaurant, drug store, candy store and cigar shop around.”

At the time I didn’t know what he was talking about and came to the rash conclusion that he was mixed up and didn’t remember events correctly. I should have known better for everything Carr ever told me point-by-point ultimately not only proved to be correct but also very insightful. What changed my mind about the gum vending application of the Bell machine was the slow, sure and steady appearance of very old cabinet Bell machines that indeed vended gum. The proof was in the hardware.

Long regarded as oddities, an attempt was made to play catch up in Volume 3 of this series, with three of these machines illustrated and described; the Caille DELUXE CABINET VENDER of 1910-1914 on Page 59, the Mills NEW GUM VENDER of 1911-1914 on Page 63 and the Mills 1916 FLOOR GUM VENDER of 1915-1917 on Page 67. Now it’s Watling’s turn.

Watling generally copied everybody else when it came to slot machines (or even trade stimulators or arcade machines for that matter. For over twenty years only their scales were really unique). Strangely, this wasn’t completely true in the case of their floor standing gum venders, although they owed more to Caille machines than Mills, just the reverse of the situation with their counter models, The Caille Bros. influence is apparent in the reel symbols.

Watling cataloged their floor model O.K. GUM VENDER in the same 1911 flyer that describes the Watling DERBY of two pages back. This literature even tells how it plays, and how both the operator and the location, or merchant, made a buck. It’s quaint, but to the point. “The operator first places the machine in a restaurant, drug store, ice cream parlor, general store, billiard hall, cigar stand, hotel lobby, saloon or anyplace where the public congregates. He then loads the pay system with premium checks and the gum compartment with gum. The player looks at the (O.K.) indicator which shows just what he will receive for his nickel before putting it in the machine. If the indicator shows the number 2 it indicates he will get a 50 package of gum and two premium checks which are worth 5 (P each in trade (when turned in to the merchant). If the indicator shows the word NO it indicates you will only get a 5, Z package of gum. All premium checks received by the merchant are redeemed at 50 each (by the operator) out of the cash box, then the operator receives the price of the gum sold out of the machine ( out of the cash box), which is 1 a package, and the remainder of the profits is divided with the merchant according to the arrangements made. If the merchant owns the machine he gets all the profits.” Makes you wanna go right out and buy a string. How could you miss?

Watling OWL Floor Wheel

Produced between 1902 and 1910

If an idea’s good, it’s worth copying. So when the Berger and White idea of sticking a small BROWNIE mechanism in a floor cabinet to make an upright machine worked out as well as it did, could another copy-cat producer be far behind? Heck no! And guess who? The Watlings, no less. Just as White was getting going with his simple mechanism floor machine line the Watling Manufacturing Company did exactly the same thing, and made their machines equally confusing.

Actually, it even more confusing than that. Watlings’ first OWL machine was a pick-up from D. N. Schall And Company and was practically a board-for-board copy of the Mills OWL. At quick look you can’t even tell them apart, except for the fact that the nameplate lettering “The Owl” is so stylized in Old English you can hardly read it. One of these machines still exists, but it seems to be the only one.

After the Schall OWLS were gone or maybe even before Watling went into a standardized cabinet and legs format for a series of inexpensive small mechanism machines, making the OWL, JUDGE, FOX, CUPID and others. They all have the distinctive Watling 5-way coin head with a slide, and the hardware is identical. The real differences are in the wheel and the glass, although the original decorated glass has usually been replaced with a clear pane, or is just missing. As a result, unless the original glass is still on the machine, or the wheel has distinctive symbols, you don’t know what kind of machine it is.

The paperwork on the inside is just as useless. Watling machines usually have a sheet of instruction paper glued to the back of the door, or on the cabinet wall. This sheet is almost incomprehensible and merely warns about careful loading and machine jams. Muddy looking halftones that claim to be pictures of the key mechanism parts are practically indistinguishable, although they do provide part numbers. But nowhere does the sheet carry the machine name. Oftentimes, the glue used wrecks the paper, or the off years ago. Interestingly, although the Manufacturing Company name and address appear at the bottom of the sheet, in most cases where the sheet still survives and that’s most cases, for some reason this information was scratched out when the machine was used, destroying the maker’s name and most of the instruction sheet at the same time. If some collector ever gets a complete one, here’s hoping it gets reprinted for all of us.

Watling PUCK Floor Wheel

Produced between 1902 and 1907

Watling strikes again! This time its with a Caille machine name, only with changes. Actually, Watling didn’t copy the name outright. D.N. Schall and Company did it first with its IMPROVED PUCK, of 1899, later made by Watling in 1902 as “Successors to D.N. Schall and Company”. Caille’s version started with The Illinois Machine Company and Caille-Schiemer, went through The Caille Company and was finally produced in high volumes by The Caille Bros. Co. in Detroit. So it was a distinctly Caille name, through and through.

Until Watling came along with it in 1902. Hear what Watling had to say about its musical version in a direct mail flyer postmarked April 23, 1903: “MUSICAL PUCK. Beware of worthless imitations of our famous machines. Originators and manufacturers of every machine on this card. We do not imitate.” Like hell they didn’t. Maybe the coin head and cabinet were different, and maybe the mechanism was theirs, but the name certainly wasn’t.

Back to the elegant good looks of the Watling machines. Just like the Watling DETROIT, the Watling PUCK looks as good, or better (that’s a matter of opinion, of course), than the Caille original. But there’s something else. Compare this PUCK to the previous Watling DETROIT and you’ll realize you’re looking at practically the same machine. That’s the way Caille did it; the exposed stop DETROIT came out of the hidden stop PUCK. Watling did it too, so even there they held true to the original. What’s more, the Watling catalogue copy of the period suggests vast improvements over the Caille original, and even poses a challenge. It states: “Our IMPROVED PUCK (in their price lists they just call it PUCK) is too familiar to need any introduction, unless we repeat what we have said before that it has been entirely rebuilt and we have eliminated all the delicate and intricate parts and have added the new crank handle as shown (the earlier Caille PUCK has a push down rod playhandle) in cut. We claim it is now one of the simplest machines on the market, paying all prizes in cash from 104 to $2.00 (in nickel play!). We will pay $1,000 to the first person that will show us how to manipulate it, as we claim it cannot be cheated. We guarantee the machine proper for six months.”

Wading made a raft of PUCK models, starting with the NEW CENTURY PUCK, and going to IMPROVED PUCK, PUCK, TWIN PUCK and TRIPLET PUCK, all in plain or musical models. In the early days of slot machine collecting collectors didn’t understand this, and assumed Watling never made such a model. When the first of these machines was discovered and put on the antique market in the middle 1960’s the beautifully etched and decorated glass with two cupid like figures (they were actually figures of Puck) suggested a different name. They

were described and offered to collectors as Watling CUPID machines, with this situation not straightened out until this writing. The Watling CUPID is a considerably different machine. For one thing, it is 5-way. It is described in great detail on Page 55 of Volume 2. No CUPID was ever made with a 6-way coin head, and no Watling PUCK was ever made with a push rod play handle. To add to the confusion, a few years later Watling also made a cast-iron counter-top payout spinning concentric wheels that they also called CUPID. Its rarity makes it worth even more than its namesake floor machine model. So if you have a Watling floor machine with a crank play handle, cupid-decorated glass and a 6-way coin head that you bought as a late model Watling CUPID take another look at it. You’ve got a PUCK, the name of the mischievous sprite in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. If that’s the case, your machine has been playing tricks on you, too.

Watling TOTEM Counter Pointer

Produced between 1912 and 1916

This is what is known in the slot machine collector field as a “heavy piece”. It has nothing to do with its weight (which is heavy, weighing in at just short of fifty pounds) but has everything to do with its value. This is the Watling TOTEM of 1912, and it’s rare. But that’s not all of it.

Watling made a whole line of small single wheel countertop cast iron slot machines that have a similar look, including BILLIKEN, CUPID, PASTIME and TOTEM. They are extremely unique and very colorful. And, best of all, small for cast iron. Most people react the same way; these machines are cute as hell. So collectors want them. But there are few in some cases none to be had. Much like the Caille OPERATOR BELL “Iron Case” machines, they are well known but only a few have been found. Watling called this line “The only single-slot two-arrow machines ever built paying four for one on any winning color”. That’s probably not true, for there are interesting clues to their origin, but until some other examples are found the Watling word is as good as law.

It was to get around the law that these machines were created. You’re looking at a gum vender model, but they also came plain for straight play. The reward card tips the operating plan, saying: “Operated on a Profit Sharing Basis”. That meant that sometimes, when you play, you win and thereby “share” the profit with the location or operator, often one and the same. The symbols, by the way, are marvelous and in vivid colors. They include a multi-colored Totem Pole, plus Pine-apple, Pear, Lemon, Strawberry and a cluster of Grapes. Sure, they’re fruit symbols, but hardly the ones we know. They almost suggest The Caille Bros. Co., but the actual origin is a far cry away. One known TOTEM has the name “G. W. Schultze, S.F.” on it. That’s our friend Gustav F. W. Schultze who created the AUTOMATIC CHECK MACHINE of 1893 described on earlier pages. Maybe this line is an original Schultze design, in spite of the fact that an early Watling catalog says these machines were “invented and made by Watling Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Ill.” Watling also called the TOTEM one of the “smallest self-paying machines ever built”, adding “the mechanism can be removed from the cabinet without removing a screw. Just open the door and slide it out. They can be operated where other machines are not tolerated. The best lawyers claim there is no law to stop their operation when operated as a future pay check paying gum vender”.