As this is written at the beginning of 1999, as do many people, I tend to get somewhat reflective. The highlights of my young 16 years in the industry are almost exclusively related to the many people I've met and become friends with. I frequently find myself retelling a story or experience that I had heard from one of our great industry veterans. In the same vein as Tom Brokaw's new best-selling book, The Greatest Generation, a book that retells World War II D Day stories from the war veterans, our industry has "veterans" that have great stories about how they started in this business. Although I don't remember too many that were life threatening, they're terrific stories nevertheless. Every story is unique. When you're in school and they ask you what you want to be when you graduate, you don't hear the students rave about being coin machine operators. But some become just that, and how they got there is fun reading, and writing.
My inaugural effort at story retelling is a tall task indeed. One of my favorite industry veterans has always been Ken Anderson, currently of Sega Enterprises USA. Whenever he's in the same building, I try to find reasons to be sitting next to him just so I can listen to his stories, one right after the other. Ken barely stops to take a breath between stories, but does occasionally stop to take a sip. Someone said that the ultimate form of flattery is when a person is so unique in their personality that they resemble no one else that you know. That would describe Ken Anderson.
Many of you know Ken currently as an employee of Sega. He's currently senior vice president of new business development at Sega Enterprises USA. When I spoke to Ken on the phone, what I didn't ask him were the typical questions about the state of the industry. Remember, I'm reflecting, so I really didn't care. I also didn't ask him about the latest equipment trends or hot titles. Ho-Hum. Out of Ken's 32 years as a member of this industry, I told him I was really only interested in the first two or three. How did you get your start in this industry?
Crocker Anglo Bank in San Francisco. I've never heard of it, but prior to 1967, Ken was their "Consumer Loan Interviewer." I don't know what that entails, but it must have been important. He made $500 per month doing it. I would enjoy doing a lot of things with Ken, but I'm not sure one of them is having him evaluate my credit status for a consumer loan.
During that time, one of Ken's good buddies was scheduled to take a job as Wurlitzer Jukebox Company's western regional credit representative. That fell through as his friend had a sudden change in his plans. Something to do with a sudden marriage and a shotgun. His friend declined the job and recommended Ken for the position. That's where it all started. Ken initially declined the job that Emile Addy (at that time Emile was Wurlitzer's Credit Manager, who eventually went on to become President of Wurlitzer) offered him. Ken's fiancé, Angie, really didn't like him to travel. Ken explained that he really wouldn't travel that much, and that the offer was too good to pass up. The offer he couldn't refuse was $600 per month plus expenses and a company car. Ken took the job and traveled all the time. Ken and Angie married shortly thereafter.
Ken's initial area was the Rocky Mountain Region. His job was primarily to collect money from Wurlitzer customers. Ken would visit the operators who owed money to Wurlitzer. In a strategy that would make crack cocaine dealers all over the nation proud, if they owed him $5,000, he would rewrite the note for $9,000 and sell them three more jukeboxes. The theory was that with the income the new jukeboxes earned, the monthly payments would be easier to make. A funny thing happened. Ken, as a credit representative for Wurlitzer, was selling more jukeboxes than the sales department.
As you would expect, Ken was moved into the sales department of Wurlitzer. There he was a sales representative, living in L.A., and was responsible for the Northern California region. He worked in tandem with the Southern California sales representative, "Willie" (Bill) Cravens. Bill Cravens is another industry veteran who continues today to bring prosperity to the companies that retain him. I don't exactly refer to him as Mr. Cravens, but I don't think I've ever heard him referred to as "Willie" until this interview. It was a key moment in the interview. Ken was on a roll. Wurlitzer sales in California continued to grow. As Ken tells it, you either bought Wurlitzer, or Ken and Willie would come visit you, and more often than not, you ended up buying Wurlitzer anyway. If that didn't work, Ken and Willie were known to put operators in business to get the products into the marketplace. You see, California was a Seeburg market, and selling Wurlitzer wasn't easy.
Ken tells a great story that at first he didn't like the new sales position at all. His car broke down, he didn't make a sale, he got lost, just an all around bad week. He called his boss at the time, Clayton Ballard, and said "you can take this job and shove it." Clayton simply asked Ken if there was a tavern nearby and Ken answered yes there was. Clayton told Ken to go to that tavern, have a couple of drinks, and call him back. Ken did, and he continued to have a very successful career at Wurlitzer.
One thing that really stuck out in my conversation with Ken is how he felt about the Wurlitzer distributor network he had at the time. Stated only as Ken could state it, he described it by saying, "Wurlitzer had the greatest group of distributors that this world will ever enact, anytime, anyplace, anywhere, for any reason. Absolutely beautiful people, just beautiful." Have you heard a manufacturer make a statement like that lately? Neither have I. That was a statement that to me reflected "the good old days."
Nothing lasts forever, and Ken left Wurlitzer and went to work for Chicago Coin (remember the game Speedway?) where he stayed until 1974. He next landed at a company called Gameplan where they started a new division from ground level, built in 18 months with sales of 37 million dollars. He speaks with noticeable affection of the time he spent there with Ed Cebula and Wendall McAdams. Ken left Gameplan in 1983, and was hired by a "really class group" at the Leland Company; Byron Cook, Leland Cook, and John Rowe. As that opportunity concluded, Ken took a job with Data East in 1990 where he stayed for a full three weeks. It was then that Tom Petit from Sega called, and that is where you'll find Ken Anderson today working in Southern California.
On a personal level, Ken lost his wife Angie to illness in 1998. On January 23 Ken is planning to marry Juno Kellar.
As we closed, Ken summed up our conversation, "The only thing I can tell you is this, it's honest, that's exactly the way it happened. I don't know how good it'll be, but it's truthful. That's the way it happened, Buddy."