Gilchrist Games

History

Rudolph Wurlitzer immigrated to the US in 1853 and began importing instruments to sell to the U.S. government during the Civil War. He started manufacturing pianos and eventually attached a coin slot to a player piano and literally started the coin-operated music boom of the late 1800s.

In the 20th century, Wurlitzer became famous for theatre organs played during silent films. He died in 1914, leaving the business to his three sons. The depression of 1929 nearly put the company out of business. In 1933, Wurlitzer began manufacturing a coin phonograph called the Debutante. The repeal of prohibition was imminent and the demand for coin-operated music exploded. By 1937, Wurlitzer had sold over 100,000 phonographs.

Wurlitzer dominated the coin-operated phonograph business until the introduction of the 45-rpm vinyl record. At that point, Wurlitzer's mechanism only handled up to 24 vinyl records, playing only one side. Seeburg introduced a new mechanism that held 50 45rpm vinyl records and could play both sides, yielding a true 100-select jukebox.

Wurlitzer tried to compete with this but never really impacted Seeburg's domination of the jukebox market. After nearly giving up on jukeboxes in the early '70s, Wurlitzer gave one last gasp in 1973 and tried to make a nostalgic-looking jukebox called the 1050. With only 1,600 units produced, the effort wasn't enough to bring back what was once the greatest jukebox manufacturer ever. Wurlitzer held on but when demand for 45rpm vinyl record playing jukeboxes faded, so did Wurlitzer, eventually going out of business.