The Famous Brands

The country you would associate the most with manufacturing Jukeboxes would be the United States. According to Rock-Ola’s website. Their jukeboxes are the only American made jukeboxes or, as they put it, “The only American-Made Jukebox is Rock-Ola”.
Here is a link to their current catalogue http://rock-olamfgcorp.parks.officelive.com/Documents/62118_Catalog_2009.pdf

Rock-Ola
Email: sales@rock-ola.com
website: www.rock-ola.com

Seeburg, now defunct, were the innovators of their time. Famous for the Seeburg Trashcan.There are many Seeburg restorations for sale and they are highly sought after.

AMI, Bal-AMi

AMI, was the first Jukebox manufacturing company to use electronically amplified sound and are know for their Art Deco designs. The Streamliner was manufactured in the late 1930s. It featured a long light bulb which they called the Lumiline and it appeared that the light was not emanating from any single point along the bulb.

The AMI produced a very unique machine called the Singing Tower whose physical shape affected the sound to give the impression to the listener that they were sitting in the centre of an orchestra. It was the Surround Sound of its day and a real leap forward in design but was perhaps ahead of its time as it didn’t catch on.

In the UK, following World War II, a limit was set on imported products and every product sold had to contain a minimum amount (53%) of British manufactured parts. A deal was done between the Balfour Engineering Company based in the UK and AMi. Some of the AMi parts were imported and the rest were produced in the UK. The jukeboxes were designed by AMi but the UK produced jukeboxes were called BAL-AMi. The BAL-AMi model I was most popular at the time.

Wurlitzer (www.Gibson.net/products/wurlitzer)

Wurlitzer have been around since their first coin-operated electric piano, the tonophon, was manufactured. They have been taken over by Gibson and according to their website Gibson hopes to “accelerate the growth of business through broader international distribution and product development”. It seems to be a marriage of two quality brands that can only do good for the Wurlitzers to come.