Known for his C.A. Robinson & Co., a business that lasted for 76 years until its closure in 2013, Al Bettelman was among those inducted into AAMA’s Amusement Industry Hall of Fame this year.
Bettelman started his coin-op career in the 1930s. While managing a drug store in Los Angeles, he met route operator Charlie Robinson, who came into the business to set a music box and some amusement games.
“Over the next three years, they managed to grow the route to more than 400 locations and in 1939, they entered into a 50-50 partnership,” said AAMA’s Pete Gustafson in his HOF speech.
A ban on pinball in 1939 redirected the pair’s focus on distribution and by 1944, they sold off their route to become full-time distributors.
In the ’60s, Bettelman and his wife, Leah, became the sole owners of the business and brought in their two sons, Ira and Sandy, to make it a true family affair.
Sandy Bettelman accepted the Hall of Fame honor for his late father, who died in 1984.
RePlay Publisher Eddie Adlum said Al Bettelman was “one of the most colorful people I ever met in the coin-op business – and I met a ton of people over the 60-plus years I’ve been covering it.”
“I’d never met Al, or Mr. B as everyone including his sons Ira and Sandy called him, until my employer Cash Box Magazine moved me out to Los Angeles in 1975. He was a real showman, snappy dresser and more outgoing with everyone he met, customer or not, than a candidate running for office.
“He put a lot of guys into the business back in the video game glory days and sold a ton of machinery in the process. His opening remark when you walked in the door of their showroom on Pico Blvd. was: “Do I know you?” always delivered with a bright smile. He always remembered that I drank Budweiser back when I drank Budweiser and would promptly pop one in my hand. Charming and very prosperous. Back when all other distributors were selling videos like mad, he was selling more than any of them.”
