The Seeburg jukebox referred to by Dave Brown in the MMD last Sunday
was one of Seeburg's early all-mechanical phonographs, manufactured
after the pneumatically-operated ones which did not last for any
significant period of time.

If you were able to watch the records changing behind clear glass, it
was one of the various models made between 1933 and 1937, after which
time the cabinets were drastically re-designed using opaque light-up
plastics, and the record changers were always hidden from view.  Their
machines of that era were called the "Symphonola" by Seeburg, and they
used that name for the machines featuring a sliding tray record changer
up to the introduction of the Seeburg "Select-O-Matic 100" in 1950.

These earlier Symphonola phonographs were well constructed in a variety
of different case styles, some of them being rather attractive with a
strong Art-Deco influence.  The sound quality was far above average,
due to the fact that Seeburg paid extra attention to their sound
systems which featured a high output magnetic pickup in the earlier
machines.  Seeburgs were always the best sounding phonographs during
that time.

Although these machines are a bit harder to find than the later 40's
and 50's Seeburgs, they are not unreasonably priced and make a nice
addition to a jukebox collection.

Some appropriate jukebox side notes here:  Unlike Wurlitzer, who proudly
showed the record changer until the early 1960's, Seeburgs hidden
mechanism continued until 1950 with the introduction of the Seeburg
"Select-O-Matic 100" model M-100-A, a changer that _literally_ revo-
lutionized the coin-phonograph industry during one trade show which
featured a Select-O-Matic mechanism on a custom created setup
consisting of 500 records!

Wurlitzer could not compete, since their mechanism at the time was
still only capable of playing one side of 24 78 rpm records and was
not easily adaptable to increasing the number of selections offered.
The Wurlitzer case designs also suddenly looked comparatively old
fashioned, and they were immediately was forced into taking a back seat
to Seeburg, whose newly designed Scandinavian-style cases featured
harsh fluorescent light, straight lines, and of course the new
"Select-O-Matic 100" mechanism up front and in plain view magically
playing records on their edge.

The incredible new "Select-O-Matic 100" mechanism selectively played
_both sides_ of fifty 10- _or_ 12-inch (intermixed!) 78 rpm records in
full view with a vertical tone arm.  The following year, the M-100-B
was introduced, which used a similarly designed mechanism, but was the
first commercial phonograph ever to use the new 7" 45 rpm records.
A conversion kit was also offered to change M-100-A machines to the new
45 rpm format, resulting in the fact that most M-100-A's discovered
today are on 45's.

Seeburg used the re-designed 45 rpm record changer with basically all
the same castings and parts and little modification until their last
phonograph was produced in 1983.

John D. Rutoskey