in the 1950′s the ole juke box played five songs for a quarter, today it’s five songs for a dollar. in those thrilling days of yesteryear juke boxes were everywhere and all it took was a nickel and you could hear your favorite song.put another nickel in in the nickelodeon all i want to hear is rock-a-billy music. the 50′s were the golden years of the juke box. it is reported that blues legend b.b. king once said i got known from them juke boxes, my records didn’t get played on no radio stations. rudolph wurlitzer founded the rudolph wurlitzer co. in cincinnati in 1856, he was born in 1829 in shilbach,saxony. at 24 he came to america and began importing musical instruments to sell on the american market. in 1880 he built his first wurtlitzer piano. in 1896 he built the first coin operated electric piano. he called it “the tonophon”. farny wurtlitzer, who succeded rudolph, bought a patented juke box mechanism in 1933 and hired skilled professionals to build the juke boxes from their new location in ty. they called their juke box “the debutante”. by the late 30′s over fourty thousand juke box’s were being built yearly. a very gifted designer named paul fuller styled the models “700″ “750″ and “850″ using sophisticated plastic glass and wood. after world war two wurtlitzer introduced the 1015 juke box. it was an instant hit. it’s the juke box we all remember from the 50′s. the styling was a sight to behold the attention that wurllitzer gave to the 1015 was mesmerzing. the details included animated bubble tubes, revolving color columns and a revealed record changer. fifty six thousand 1015′s were sold in the first six months of production. the 1015 is the most successful juke box ever built. the 1015 saw many changes, 78 rpm, to 45 rpm then lps, and mono to stero and other technical changes. television cut into sales in the late 60′s as the dominant form of entertainment. in recent years the juke box has had renewed interest. many of the juke boxes from the 40′s 50′s and 60′s have become collectors items. in 1985 the wurlitzer co. was bought by the nelson group of companies. wurlitzer came out with a new compact disc juke box in 1989. the 1015 has a new design it’s called the 1015 one more time cd juke box. the one more time is a nostalgic reproduction of the original 1015 that been up dated with state of the art technology. the main office for wurlitzer jukebox co. is gurnee (chicagoland) illinois. the 80,000 sq. ft. the facility for production is in stemwede-levern, germany. my my my, have things changed. today’s stuff ain’t bad but it ain’t nothing like we had so many years ago when we had that good ole rock-a-billy rock n roll.

the top ten all- time juke box hit singles.
#1 houng dog – elvis – 1956
#2 crazy – patsy cline – 1956
#3 old time rock and roll – bob seger – 1979
#4 i heard it through the grape vine – marvin gaye – 1979
#5 don’t be cruel – elvis – 1956
#6 rock around the clock – bill haley & his comets – 1955
#7 hey jude – the beatles – 1968
#8 the dock of the bay – otis redding – 1968
#9 lady – kenny rogers – 1980
#10 cherry pink and apple blossom white – prez prado – 1955

~ Widmarc Clark