Mills Extraordinary production years?

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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby rtmccurdy » Tue Sep 25, 2018 5:51 am

The promo picture looks familiar as it is like the chromed gold award w. side vendor in my collection (serial #385517). The vendor front (serial #361100) is lighter blue with a mirror covering the reserve, standard F.O.K. side plate, and a "foil" paper eagle.
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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby Mills » Wed Sep 26, 2018 1:41 am

My Extraordinary was made in 1936. Untouched since 1937 !!
Skill stop version with vender.
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37 slots machines.... May be more ?
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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby kxh121 » Wed Sep 26, 2018 2:03 pm

Very nice Extraordinary Console Clubconsoles!! The fluting/bottom may have been cut off and replaced sometime in the past since it looks very similar to all of the other consoles I have seen.

Ken
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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby JPCass » Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:06 pm

rtmccurdy wrote:I think I talked to Rick Frink at one time about the horizontal fortune reel strips (for a gold award Castle Front I was working on) but can't recall why they weren't available. I do have a set of originals (CC-314-1A-SG-1 5M) that are in good enough condition to reproduce. I concur on the architectural impact of the fair on design changes in U.S. products and buildings especially in Chicago (lived there for several years). From a design perspective the console Page Boy Extraordinary is a perfect marriage of machine to cabinet.


First, I should have mentioned, the original Mills promo shows reel strips with horizontal fortunes/jokes.

It's on my list to get in touch with Rick about a couple of things, so I'll ask him about those CC-314 strips. The ones on my machine are not in the greatest shape, so it's good to hear that there are some others out there that might reproduce better.
Restored Mills 5c Extraordinary "barn find", long gone - now restoring 1934 5c Extraordinary Gold Award with original World's Fair reel strips
Restoring early Mills 5c Firebird (large coin view window)
About to take on a Mills 5c Vest Pocket
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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby JPCass » Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:59 pm

rtmccurdy wrote:The promo picture looks familiar as it is like the chromed gold award w. side vendor in my collection (serial #385517). The vendor front (serial #361100) is lighter blue with a mirror covering the reserve, standard F.O.K. side plate, and a "foil" paper eagle.

Thanks for that. It's nice to see an example of the proper vender, as shown in the original Mills promo, and one of the vendor front models in what looks to be original condition.

The first Extraordinary that I had, a somewhat later model that originally was painted with gray wrinkle paint, had the upper jackpot covered with a factory cast plate, similar to that seen on some other models. The early Extraordinary that I have now, has the original double jackpot, though the gold award window had been painted over - fortunately with the mechanism left intact, other than a missing spring. The mechanism of course has gold award strips, but the gold awards were apparently expected to be treated like lemons, with a regular (CC-413?) award card dated 4-27-37 mounted in the case; the odd thing is that someone went to the trouble to braze washers over the gold award slots on the reel discs, even though the gold award lever was left in place!

I believe that the color of the eagle plate should match the blue of the case, as shown with the darker blue examples in the original promo pieces. Those early Mills promos show eagle plates with a frame around them, suggesting that what came first were eagles printed on silver metallic paper, and then the ones with paint in the etched design on brushed steel plates. After the early dark blue purplish paint came a lighter blue sometimes known as cadet blue (like the one in Fey's book, and some of the silkscreened repro plates like the one on the black 50c machine pictured earler), and that very pale blue, which would have been in keeping with a general trend towards more pastel or dusty colors. Then sometime around World War II they seem to have gone to the rather drab and industrial gray wrinkle paint look, and I think some examples of brown and green wrinkle paint as well. The machine I have now, like some others I've seen, then later had some red paint put on them to liven them up.

p.s. I have one of the pale blue on silvered paper plates in reasonable condition, if anyone is looking for one

Here's a fairly often reproduced photo of some Extraordinaires in what looks to be one of the drab 1940s paint schemes, probably wrinkle paint:

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Restored Mills 5c Extraordinary "barn find", long gone - now restoring 1934 5c Extraordinary Gold Award with original World's Fair reel strips
Restoring early Mills 5c Firebird (large coin view window)
About to take on a Mills 5c Vest Pocket
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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby rtmccurdy » Thu Sep 27, 2018 6:15 am

Speaking of gold awards...on three of the Extraordinaries I have restored the gold award mechanism was intact on the casting and NONE were gold award machines. Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?
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Re: Mills Extraordinary production years?

Postby JPCass » Thu Sep 27, 2018 9:38 pm

rtmccurdy wrote:Speaking of gold awards...on three of the Extraordinaries I have restored the gold award mechanism was intact on the casting and NONE were gold award machines. Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?


As I described, on the one I have now, the operator apparently stopped running it as a gold award, painted over the gold award window and changed the award card. Is that the sort of thing you're referring to, and what did they do with the window on the three machines that you've worked on?

The first Extraordinary that I had, circa 1938-41 later production originally painted in gray wrinkle finish, had a factory cast plate covering up the gold award window (as well as the top jackpot window), and no mechanism on the casting.

In the Mills of the Thirties book, I don't see any machines with gold awards after the Futurity dated to 1937. I'm guessing that around 1937-8 the gold award went out of fashion, and operators discontinued using it on existing machines.
Restored Mills 5c Extraordinary "barn find", long gone - now restoring 1934 5c Extraordinary Gold Award with original World's Fair reel strips
Restoring early Mills 5c Firebird (large coin view window)
About to take on a Mills 5c Vest Pocket
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