Jack Rodios, founder/publisher of the old Cash Box International trade magazine, died at age 84 on April 24 at his retirement town in Queensland. In an online Intergame obituary, David Snook called him one of the best-loved characters in the Australian coin-op business. He was certainly one of the more pugnacious chaps who ever wrote stories for any trade paper, having rubbed more than one member of the business the wrong way for violating his sense of what’s right and what’s wrong in coin-op matters.
Jack came from the Australian building trades into operating pinballs, and eventually used his deep knowledge of the industry “down under” to create and run his magazine. Many said he “told it like it is” while others said “he told it like he thought it should be.” His peppery stories were mirrored in his personal speech which was liberally spiced with native Australian jargon like “bonzer” and “bloke.”
Snook wrote that the late publisher also produced several trade shows for the business down there and even built a few amusement and gray area video games during the boom times. “I knew him from his early days, well before he became a publisher,” Snook wrote. “He was a mine of information and a forthright personality who never minced words.” (Rodios ceased publishing his magazine around the turn of the century, trying an online version toward the end before shutting it down and eventually retiring.)
Jack’s close mate Frank Kakoulidis (Escape Electronics) called his chum “a great bloke … always up for a fight and never scared to take on the big guys.” His stateside buddy, Rock-Ola’s Glenn Streeter, said: “This choked me up when I heard the news. Jack was a fascinating guy, sometimes a bit over the top, but you couldn’t help but love him. I still have a copy of the Cash Box issue where he put Frank and a stripper together on the cover,” Glenn laughed.
Due to the coronavirus problem that’s also affecting Australia, Kakoulidis advised his regret that he couldn’t attend services the family held due to interstate quarantine laws. May he rest in God’s peace.
