Jukeboxes, Pinballs and Old Radios are my passion

Before

After restoration

Jukeboxes, Pinballs and Old Radios are my passion!
I have been a gear head most of my life and when I wasn’t one, I was dreaming about it. My love and passion doesn’t stop with automobiles, I have the love for everything mechanical. When I was a little girl, my grandfather on my dad’s side of the family would always have all the relatives over for various occasions. When all the adults were sitting around chatting about what adults discuss, which was boring to me, I would head down to the basement where my grandfather had a Wurlitzer Jukebox model 1015 which played 45 records. He had it set up to free play and I would sit there listening to songs I think until I fell asleep. I remember dreaming of someday owning one.

As I grew up, I listened to my 45’s on the family record player, and then came 33 1/3 records and Jukeboxes were starting to phase out making room for newer technology. I kept buying up 45’s since I knew one day I would need them for my jukebox I was planning to own. Well that day came true in 1995 when a friend called to tell me about one for sale by a co-worker. I made the call, showed up to check it out and yes it came home with me. It is a 1958 Seeburg model 201. What a beauty she was and still is. I knew one day that she might need some mechanical attention, so I began to educate myself on the functions of this musical baby and soon could fix just about anything that could go wrong.

Many of my friends were amazed at my mechanical ability for fixing them, that they started offering me ones they had that no longer were functional. It did not take me long to have them singing songs again. My collections include a 1948 Seeburg Trashcan, Seeburg Synphonola 1939 which plays 78’s and a Seeburg LPT1 which is really not worth very much even restored, so I figured a way to have a computer run the music and you would never know.

My friends thought, well if she likes jukeboxes, she must love Pinball machines? There was a pinball machine advertised in the news papers classifieds for a Gotlieb Cleopatra machine 1978 that was not operational, they were only asking $100.00 for it. I headed off to give it the once over and the unit appeared to be well cared for, so I decided to take it home. I started researching Cleopatra and it seems that this model was considered an Electrical/Mechanical type. Many repair shops during that time were not well versed on how to troubleshoot them, so many of these pinball machines ended up in the dump heap.

I was determined to hear this one play again, so I kept my focus on locating either parts or someone who knew a little about this vintage machine. I hit gold when I came upon a company in Florida through my research surfing the internet. Not only could they help me with my issue, but they also had parts to get her up and running. After about $100.00 in parts, I was racking up my score. Since then, friends have given me 2 other machines, ACES and Spirit of 76, which I play with great enjoyment. When younger kids come over I introduce them to Pinball and it doesn’t take long for them to become hooked. Sometimes I have to drag them from the machine.

Old radios are another passion I have grown to love as well, since people just seem to think that I need to add more items to may now collection. I have 2 free standing models and after rebuilding the amp and receiver, adding new tubes, even without an antenna, they sound beautiful. I stained the wood back to original appearance.

Recently a friend has offered me his player piano to have and fix, but first I need to find room. We will see if that ever happens. They are very big and take up a lot of room.