In the course of historical, sometimes hysterical research, one often
comes across an item that has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject
at hand.  Today such an incident occurred and I wanted to share it.

While wading my way through the Amusement Machines section of Billboard
Magazine I came across a small article announcing the former Gulbransen
Piano factory building at the corner of Chicago and Kedzie Avenues in
Chicago had been sold.  The date was November 10, 1934.  It was sort of
a ho-hum tidbit until I read a bit further.

The Gulbransen Factory contained 271,360 square feet or about six
acres!   The new owner leased 90,000 square feet back to Gulbransen so
they could continue to produce their piano line.

The buyer?  David Rockola of the Rockola Manufacturing Company, builder
of pinballs, juke boxes and other "gaming" devices.  The plant was so
large they manufactured their own electricity using reciprocating steam
engines direct coupled to the generators.  "Enough to light a good
sized town," the blurb added.

I think the building was razed a few years ago.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi!

Ed Gaida
San Antonio, Texas -- where my pecan trees are being very cautious
about budding out, meaning more cold weather is ahead.

 [ The six-story building contained a total of four hundred
 [ thousand square feet of floor space, according to the story
 [ at http://books.google.com/books?id=nS7PAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA280 
 [
 [ At http://books.google.com/books?id=rigEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65 
 [   "The [Gulbransen] property covered an area of four and 1/2 city
 [ blocks and included 23 buildings with more than 750,000 square feet."
 [
 [ Yet another article says that Rockola controlled 60,000 square
 [ feet, but he utilized only 10% of that for his operations;
 [ see http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_348.html 
 [
 [ Wurlitzer tried without success to force Rockola out of business, see
 [ http://www.jukebox45s.co.uk/rockola-jukebox-vinyl-records-history.htm 
 [
 [ -- Robbie