Al Simon, whose coin-op career spanned a multitude of businesses, was recently inducted into AAMA’s Amusement Industry Hall of Fame.
Simon in the coin machine business started as a manufacturer, producing an assortment of games with U.S. Billiards. He also ran a dealership on New York City’s “Coin Row” and his Royal Amusements operated music, games and cigarette vending on Long Island.
“He was also one of coin-op’s largest operators of photo booths,” explained AAMA’s Executive Vice President Pete Gustafson at Simon’s induction. “Along with business colleague David Rosen of Philadelphia, it’s said that he owned all or part of every Auto-Photo machine on location from Maine to Florida back in the day.”
Allen Weisberg, founder and CEO of Apple Industries, accepted the induction on Simon’s behalf. Weisberg’s own trajectory into photo booths perhaps began when his father took him to meet Simon when he was 12 years old.