Ha, yeah Bill I guess it was time
(Bill's been aware of my search for a while and has been a trusty confidant).
So, the story with this one is as follows:
The Very Machine pictured above was manufactured in Sydney, Australia sometime bwn 1949 and 1952 with a patent being granted in September '54.
Slot - or Poker, machines had been imported for some time - generally Mills and Pace but were totally unregulated.
Around this time a fellow named Ray Smith (of APEX Amusements) one day dragged a Mills High Top into a little jobbing shop in Sydney and asked whether they could make up a replica casting & cabinet as (I believe) he could source a pile of old gooseneck mechanisms and wanted to sell under his own name.
It appears that Middlehurst & Sons - a coin-op (vending I presume?) servicing company occupied space above the foundry - come metal stamping/plating workshop and took immediate notice.
So they decided to have a dip themselves.
They initially made
two machines. From Scratch! Castings have Middlehurst & Sons in them and every mech part was hand-made by cutting, bending & filing. Mine above (serial 333
1)and the one that mysteriously(??) ended up over in The States and is pictured in Ladwig's book on pg56.
Interjection:
Where's That One Now???? Anyone know????
Anyway, a chap named Joe Heywood who worked for a Dental Supply company knew Ray Smith & The Middlehursts and convinced his employer Len Ainsworth to check out the Coronets.
Obviously Mr Ainsworth was so impressed he had them make a few more machines (based on Middlehurt's) and called it the
Clubman.
They were an outstanding hit with the Social Clubs so he (basically) bought out the company and they manufactured in-house and for himself only thereby cuting Middlehurst off at the knee.
The new business venture produced it's first own machine called
New Clubman followed shortly after by the
Clubmaster and the
Aristocrat.
This led to another change in business name, dropping the Dental Supply reference,,,, the rest is history....
So, there we have it! The above machine started it all for Ainsworth/Aristocrat who are still I believe at the top of the tree in electronic gaming machines around the world.
Thanks for listening,
andydotp
BTW, having searched for info for about ten years, the above has come to light courtessy of a fellow member of this brilliant website who has been generous enough to 'tell all' about the early days in the slot machine industry in Australia.
Sure, not as early a history as the US gangsters, Mobs and Prohibition but equally as corrupt....with slot factories being bombed, folk disappearing and a (very early) case of a tattooed guy in 'concrete boots' and a huge shark that was netted - only to cough up a human arm (The Very Tattoo).
(Google the shark/arm case if interested).
.