by Sslots » Wed Sep 04, 2024 10:48 am
For such an extraordinary machine that was truly ahead of it's time, the scarcity of its presence in the market may be attributed to the following reasons:
According to Richard M. Bueschel V 3, Silver King acquired Fields in 1933, which likely is the reason to the limited availability of the 1933 version of Baby Grand. This acquisition may also account for the rarity of Genco Baby Grands.
From my research Genco had plan to introduced their new machine in 1934.
It is possible that Genco designed and pre-ordered a small quantity of machines in 1933 with the intention of unveiling them in the March 1934 Coin-Op Show.
However, as far as I can see Fields stopped all advertisement during the mid-late 1933.
That then meant C&F was no longer in the picture, the Genco Baby Grand project may have been halted, rendering it defunct before reaching the market.
This scenario could elucidate why only a couple of Genco Baby Grands are known to exist.
We do know Genco did showcase their New jackpot Machine in March of 1934.
I notice there are dual serial numbers on the Genco Baby Grand,
It's my belief that the mutiple serial numbers due to;
3020 for C&F.
And the 223 is for Genco.
The other only known Genco Baby Grand is 3019 and I don't know the 2nd serial number.
What if, the only two known Genco Baby Grand Vendor were just a prototype/sale model, this might explain why one is 3019 and the other is 3020.
Also would explain why one is Red and the other is blue?
The presence of not only a linkage for the bull gum vendor but also a 2nd linkage on the side suggests the possibility of incorporating a side vendor feature. It could indicate that Genco was considering or may have already developed a variant of the machine that included a side vendor function. This observation raises the intriguing possibility that Genco may have been exploring different configurations or options for The Baby Grand Vendor.
Last edited by
Sslots on Wed Sep 04, 2024 11:00 am, edited 2 times in total.