1946 Rock-Ola 1422
This 1946 Rock-Ola 1422 was completed restored from the ground up, inside and out. We repaired the animation motor, polished the plastics, gave it new color sheets, and restored the cabinet and chrome. It now looks as good as it sounds.
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From 1932 Rockola also produced pinball games, starting with “Juggle ball”, and many other devices but that made him nearly bankrupt – despite the fact that the machines were regarded as the most innovative and later collectble pingames. As the demand for coin-operated phonographs increased Rock-Ola moved into the jukebox arena. David Rockola purchased a mechanism from a Mr. Smythe. Rockola reengineered this 12-select mechanism and started 1935 making jukeboxes. Farny Wurlitzer viewed this a huge threat to his business based on Rockola’s success in other machines. Wurlitzer tried to convince David Rockola that there was no room in the industry for another manufacturer. Wurlitzer then filed a $1 million lawsuit claiming patent infringement on the Smythe mechanism. Rockola eventually won the suit but not until he had spent half a million dollars in legal fees. This hurt Rockola but didn’t kill him. He continued manufacturing and in 1939 introduced a series of very successful jukeboxes called “Luxury Light-Up”.
During World War II, Rock-Ola led the industry in telephone-line music transmission systems. This was very popular because it allowed for many selections to be offered at a time when jukebox manufacturing was nearly halted because of the war effort. He produced also rifles (M1) and ammunition. After World War II, the jukebox industry was booming. Boys were coming home and it was party time. Wurlitzer came out with the model 1015, probably the most popular jukebox of all time, and Rock-Ola introduced the “Magic Glow” series. These were models 1422, 1426, and 1428.
Read more about Rock-Olas at: http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?Company_Id=7430