Close Menu
  • CURRENT ISSUE
    • Cover Story
    • Profiles – Companies, Products & People
    • Spotlight Feature
    • VR Spotlight
    • Favorites & Special Reports
    • Bob Cooney Special Reports
    • Editorial
    • Datebook
    • Columns
      • Q&A with AMOA
      • Q&A with AAMA
      • NOW TRENDING by Howard McAuliffe & Nick DiMatteo
      • George McAuliffe’s GAMEROOM GURU
      • Adam Pratt’s ENDGAME
      • Jack Guarnieri’s JERSEY JACK
      • Beth Standlee’s PARTY PROFESSOR
      • Clint Novak’s PRIZE PATROL
      • FUN ACROSS AMERICA
      • Frank Seninsky’s FRANK TALK
      • Tom Fricke’s REDEMPTION & THE LAW
      • Randy White GUEST ESSAY
  • INSTANT REPLAY
  • PODCASTS & VIDEOS
    • The RePlay Podcast
    • Machines, Myths & Legends
    • Older Audio/Video Archive
  • GET REPLAY
    • Subscriptions
    • Sample Copies
    • Order Back Issues
    • Index
  • ABOUT
    • About RePlay Magazine
    • Meet the Team
    • Cookie Policy
  • LINKS
  • CONTACT
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Trending
  • First National Darts Day Rousing Success for BullShooter
  • VNEA Names Mike Wiltse New Executive Director
  • QubicaAMF Launches New Scoring System
  • K1 Speed Opening Kansas City Location
  • Semnox Makes First Install in Finland
  • IAAPA Expo Asia Continues Growth
  • Darnelle Simmons Joins Zooom Studios Team
  • Valo Motion Installs 100th ValoArena
X (Twitter) Facebook RSS Instagram YouTube
RePlay Magazine
  • CURRENT ISSUE
    • Cover Story
    • Profiles – Companies, Products & People
    • Spotlight Feature
    • VR Spotlight
    • Favorites & Special Reports
    • Bob Cooney Special Reports
    • Editorial
    • Datebook
    • Columns
      • Q&A with AMOA
      • Q&A with AAMA
      • NOW TRENDING by Howard McAuliffe & Nick DiMatteo
      • George McAuliffe’s GAMEROOM GURU
      • Adam Pratt’s ENDGAME
      • Jack Guarnieri’s JERSEY JACK
      • Beth Standlee’s PARTY PROFESSOR
      • Clint Novak’s PRIZE PATROL
      • FUN ACROSS AMERICA
      • Frank Seninsky’s FRANK TALK
      • Tom Fricke’s REDEMPTION & THE LAW
      • Randy White GUEST ESSAY
  • INSTANT REPLAY
  • PODCASTS & VIDEOS
    • The RePlay Podcast
    • Machines, Myths & Legends
    • Older Audio/Video Archive
  • GET REPLAY
    • Subscriptions
    • Sample Copies
    • Order Back Issues
    • Index
  • ABOUT
    • About RePlay Magazine
    • Meet the Team
    • Cookie Policy
  • LINKS
  • CONTACT
RePlay Magazine
You are at:Home»Current Issue»Editorial – November 2023

Editorial – November 2023

0
By RePlay Editor on November 1, 2023 Current Issue, Editorial

Pretty soon, many people will be talking about the games and the people they ran into at the mid-November IAAPA Expo in Orlando. Before that grabs hold of the coin-op conversation too tightly, I want to give a shout-out to the jukebox, not because any terrifying piece of legislation has come down the pipe, but just because I’ve gotten a tad retrospective in my advancing years and thought how central that machine has been to my life. Maybe your life, too.

I fell in love with music when I heard Les Paul’s amazing electronic guitar feats playing on a jukebox in a Connecticut restaurant as a small kid. The tune was How High the Moon and the record measured 10” in diameter. Yeah, I can remember the moment even today. Years later, I heard Bill Haley screaming “One, two, three o’clock rock” from a Wurlitzer in a hot dog joint in the East Bronx and became a lifetime lover of rock ’n’ roll.

That germinated into my boy band (the Castle Kings), a contract with Atlantic Records, two not-so-hot records, a copy of the music trade magazine Cash Box and then a job at that publication doing the coin machine section. Oh, yeah, then came RePlay in 1975. That’s the thread of my life and I guess still is except those 10” records are history as are those outrageously-lit music boxes that weighed a couple hundred pounds (but now have slimmed down to hang on a barroom wall).

But there’s been more to it than that. There’s the emotional side of sitting on a stool, listening to Kenny Rogers tell Lucille she picked a fine time to leave him, followed by Long, Tall Sally to change the mood. Did you know that more money goes into jukeboxes to play those plaintive “I lost my lady” dirges like Lucille than the jumpy tunes? Can you figure out why? When anthropologists figure that hot dogs and apple pie typify Americana they leave out the third element – the “music machine,” as Chuck Berry liked to call it.

There are not all that many things more central to our culture than that which, like smelling freshly mowed grass, can get the happiness endorphins flowing like the music you heard on the jukebox back in the day. I recently read that famed Texas novelist Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, etc.) depicted small town America in the fifties as “little to be nostalgic for, apart from the (songs on the) jukebox.” That’s a little dark, but we all get his meaning. Anyway, that’s my take…and my emotional moment on a machine which used to define what we now call the “coin-op“ business.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Previous ArticleLAI Games – November 2023
Next Article Jersey Jack – November 2023

Related Posts

Prize Patrol – July 2025

Endgame – July 2025

Jersey Jack – July 2025

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.







RePlay Logo

RePlay Magazine is a monthly trade publication covering the game center and route business. Since 1975, RePlay has been reporting on the equipment, people and trends that have made "coin-op" a fun and exciting business.

Get the FREE Instant RePlay Newsletter

Sign up and receive newsletters to keep you in the know.


© 2025 RePlay Magazine - All rights reserved. For permission to reproduce content, email editor@replaymag.com.
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.