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The Great American Jukebox: The Machine That Changed Music

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb
The Truth Network Radio
August 28, 2026 3:03 am

The Great American Jukebox: The Machine That Changed Music

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb

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August 28, 2026 3:03 am

On this episode of Our American Stories, before Spotify, playlists, and music on demand, there was the jukebox. Drop in a nickel, pick a song, and a machine glowing with lights and color could provide the soundtrack for a bar, restaurant, or teenage hangout. Along the way, jukeboxes helped spread new sounds, gave Black musicians another way to reach listeners during segregation, and became an unmistakable piece of American culture.Ed Liss fell in love with jukeboxes as a three-year-old boy in the Bronx and has spent much of his adult life hunting down and painstakingly restoring them. He shares the history of the great American jukebox and explains why bringing these machines back to life isn't simply about preserving old technology. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Join the Shell Fuel Rewards program in the Shell app on your phone and enjoy life with more. Your nearest shell station is closer than you think. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star. and the American people. Long before Spotify and other online streaming platforms, Americans listened to music in a different way.

To hear your favorite song, you plopped a nickel, later a dime, and eventually a quarter. into a jukebox. Historically, the jukebox has brought people together during times of war and strife. Ed Liss, a former IT executive, is a jukebox collector and historian. He has long admired these music machines and spent a lifetime hunting and restoring the great American Chupac.

Here's the story.

Well, I grew up in the Northeast Bronx, New York. I lived in an apartment house. and at the bottom of the apartment house or group of stores, one of which was a Rosie's lunchonnette. And in the Lanchinette, there was a whirl of bubbling jukebox. That when I was three years old, I used to stand on a chair.

and watch the works mechanism work. and stand there sucking my thumb, moving from side to side as the music swayed. Uh the bees. And the 1015 was really the first jukebox that I ever saw and was with for many years. It's a beautiful machine.

Judging by the serial number of my machine, It looks like it was made in late May. of nineteen forty seven right before they switch to going for to make a new model. but, growing up the ten fifteen, was the first to catch my eye as well as many other eyes. It was a very popular jukebox. that came out right after World War Two.

And it was designed by the genius Paul M. Fuller, who work with worlds are from nineteen thirty four about nineteen forty nine. and he designed all their jukeboxes He's a brilliant designer. He used uh motion light. Bubbles cavitation uh everything to attract you to the eye.

to the jukebox and it was just beautiful. But the 10.15 was unusual because It was designed using the golden ratio. Completely. The golden race shows one to one point six one eight It was made by a In the 550 BC, By a Greek mathematician. Who?

figured out how to design ratios that would make anything you made visible to the eye appealing. like the Parthenon, for example. is made with a golden ratio. Other great works of art, sculptures, but the 1015. is one big arc, of light color animation Bubbles And It has no protruding anything.

It's just one big arc. of beautiful colour and design. In its time it was called the Wild Curve. But Paul Fuller was the master who designed all the world to jukeboxes in the 40s. using all these different components.

of light, animation, cavitation, etcetera. And of course the great audio sounds from of the worlds or a jukebox itself. The world's your company as a company goes back to the year sixteen hundred and fifty nine. when it was in Saxony, before it became Germany. and their business was making musical instruments, They made violins, violas, cellos.

all the instruments that the masters made in Europe. and they used the finest materials. and they were instrument makers. One of them, Farny Worldser, came over to this country, to see if the market here would be ripe. for pianos that they would make, And they looked at the American pianos at the time.

and thought that they weren't as good a quality as what worlds are can do.

So they opened an office in Cincinnati, Ohio. and started building Pianos. Um For You know, the American market. But they're basically an instrument maker. Jukeboxes came much later because before jukeboxes there was mechanical pianos.

sometimes referred to as Nickelodeons. You go into a merry-go-round and you see a Nickelodeon playing and they sound beautiful. But Matt Wurlitzer was a master at building electro-mechanical equipment. And in the USA, there were two places that were prone to bring skills for woodworking of that level. And it was in Brooklyn and Coney Island.

and the other was a north town of Wands. New York.

So the world's a factory made musical instruments, and then when jukeboxes came along in the early thirties, They made your first jukebox. In 1934, and it was made in the North Tanawanta plant. And um they had a qu a half a mile long. The plate was half a mile long. It was humongous But the engineering prowness that they had And the amount of work that they did in house The only thing that was imported was speakers, coin equipment, and raw materials for lumber.

wood cabinets. That's it. Everything else was made in the house.

So as a self- producing factory um an incredible engineering feat. but the company was founded in sixteen fifty nine. His facts in each other before waste remedy. Yeah. And you've been listening to Ed Liss, a jukebox collector and historian.

And a guy who's been hunting and restoring jukeboxes, well, for most of his adult life, and had a love affair from the time he was three, sitting in front of them, watching them work and listening to these amazing sounds coming out of the beautiful Speakers of the Wurlitzer jukeboxes, of which the 1015 is a work of art. Go to Google and search Wurlitzer 1015, and you will be impressed. When we come back, more of the story of the jukebox. Here on Our American Story. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.

And all of our history stories are brought to us by our generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn all the things that are beautiful in life. and all the things that matter in life. If you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to hillsdale.edu. That's Hillsdale.edu.

That feeling when you're trying to build your credit, and it's like over and over again. Good news! Chase Credit Journey can help you with a personalized score improvement plan provided by Experian, so when you still need that credit built. You have the guidance you need. You can even get a Chase Secure banking account with no monthly service fee if you're 17 to 24 years old.

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Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.

Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY. Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay.

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APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's. Like this commercial break.

Did you need 15 seconds away from music? Or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for Orees. And we continue with our American stories.

We've been listening to Ed Liss map out the fascinating history. of the jukebox. Ed has built a world-class museum of music in his home. He owns 15,000 records, mostly 45s and 78s, that were of the highest quality in the heyday of jukeboxes, which introduced stereophonic sound. Let's now hear Ed describe what he calls a resurrection of a 1937 Rock Hola Rhythm King.

that was beyond restoration. During the eighteen fifties and sixties. when there was still slavery. A lot of the slaves It came from the country of Senegal. And they ended up in like cities like New Orleans and other southern places.

where they were dropped off and sold. But The language in Senegal was called the Gola language. G-U-L-L-I-H. And basically there was a word in the Gala language. That meant to dance and the word was juge.

Now it wasn't dancing like ballroom dancing. It was like wicked dancing around the fire with the crazed people dancing. Um usually what you'd see like voodoo or something.

So it was that kind of dancing. Wicked dancing.

So that became Anglo-Saxonized over the years The Juge If to a juke box, juke box. Chickbox is a dance box. And it represents Music. That was brought in by mostly blacks. and black slaves.

and gravitated towards that. type of crazed music. White folks didn't like it and they frowned on it. But they loved black music, they just wouldn't admit it. White folks love black music, no question.

I think when The American Uh slavery. ended and and blacks were freed and all that. Musicians were able to express themselves in a way that they could never do before. And a prime example of that would be Louis Armstrong. Who really changed everything because Lewis Armstrong.

played Progressive music. In other words, he didn't read music note for note. His music was played from the heart.

So every time you play even the same tune It would be different. And he brought a feeling of freedom. That lasted and permeated throughout. the early 20th century. Like in Harlem we got a rhinoceros.

of music. and jazz and poetry and all these other Uh things coming together. In New York City, for example. But Louis Armstrong was unique because he was You're authentic. person who loved and was outstanding.

Musically. And he was a great person. As a human being. No question. But his music really changed everything.

Because it made Music. more free. Black music, certainly, but black music could not be played. He places where white audiences were, like on a jukebox. Wouldn't they wouldn't have it?

Most people would go to a cotton club in New York to watch Duke Ellington, who was black. and they were all white. If you look in the audience, there were no black people in the audience. It were all white people. But there's a lot of discrimination going on at that time, and even.

popular people like Duke Ellington could not walk Through the front door of the cotton club, He was still had to go through the back 'cause he was black.

So it didn't make a difference. he was still what he was.

So music in this case Uh the black musicians had a hard time. Getting your music heard. And the only way you can get them heard outside of a live band would be on a jukebox. in a black juke joint that catered to black patrons, White people did not. Go to those places and listen to that music.

They just didn't.

So discrimination was pretty big. And it took many years and decades for that to kinda like it would subside a little bit, not entirely. but enough to make it more palatable. I know Billy Holiday, when Billy Holiday took a big band role with Um in nineteen thirty eight She worked. as in a big band for a year and she hated it.

Because she was subject to all kinds of racism and humiliations. Um and it was horrible. And she swore she'd never do that again. And she never did. But I I always ask the question, why did musicians endure all these hardships?

all these hardships and humiliations Why did they do that? Yeah. It's because they love the music. It's about the music. They loved the music and they loved people that could play the music.

They love to play.

So that's why they endure All these other negative issues. It's because it's about the music. It's always about the music.

So Louis Armstrong He was the one who really started the movement of freedom of expression in music. where other people came after him but nobody could really top Yeah. The beauty of Louis Armstrong, he was the best of the best, absolutely the best. You know, the i if you take a look at the music and this and the sound on a jukebox. You can hear the difference in the sound between an early 30s jukebox and a late 30s jukebox.

And the reason is that the early 30s jukeboxes only had a dynamic range of about 5,000 cycles. Which is not a lot. But unlike digital, which is zeros and ones, Everything recorded on an analog jukebox. was played back one hundred percent. What happened was in the 1930s there were advances made in microphone technology.

that increase the dynamic range. from about five thousand cycles or hertz About twelve thousand cycles or hertz.

So one of the early g Thirties m Recordings Bin Crosby. Camp Calloway Um, there'll be a holiday. All these people were basically recording music That can only reach five thousand cycles. for an a seventy eight RPM record.

So if you were limited in what the playback could provide, But again, everything recorded was played back one hundred per cent. Um Kip Calloway is an interesting story. He became popular in the early nineteen thirties His first big hit was Minnie the Moocher. And Mini the Moochra was a great tune, The Heidi Ho song they called it. But Mini the Moocha was basically a true story of a homeless woman who who lived in Minneapolis.

And it was mini Cable. and Minnie Gayden was homeless, And she used to Walk around the town. in a shopping cart with her belongings, And one day they found her frozen to death in the middle of a two apartment buildings in the winter, But she inspired many of the moocher. And if you listen to the song, the words of many of the mocha they talk about coke, cocaine, and opium? Um Things of that nature.

I don't know how that is affiliated With many the mocher, But The song is about drug. And you're listening to Ed Liss tell the story of the Jews and through it. A little bit of American history. Cultural history, musical history, and the story of race in America, too. And how black musicians were treated, how black music was treated, white people, as he said, pretending not to like the music that they actually liked.

And ultimately, it would take decades before those barriers between black and white music would completely shatter well into the 60s. By the way, our Duke Ellington piece. With Terry Teachout, the late Terry Teachout gets into this territory brilliantly. Go to Our American Stories and just write in Duke. Ellington on the search bar.

one of our finest hours, a walk through the 20th century in every dimension. When we come back, more of the story of the jukepox. Guay unaficionado. Endless. Here.

on our American story. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.

It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY.

Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay. Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of 1 cent required to earn advertised APY.

Early pay not guaranteed. APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for Orees.

Like this commercial break. Did you need 15 seconds away from music? Or 15 seconds to eat Oresus? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for Orees.

Working forest professionals in the U.S. plant more than they harvest, while also caring for water, wildlife, and more. It's how we grow a sustainable future. Learn more at WorkingForestsInitiative.com. And we return to Our American Stories and with Jukebox historian and collector Ed Liss of New York.

He's brought back to life numerous jukeboxes over the years, preserving a meaningful part of America's music history.

Now let's return to Ed. Mm. Um every project I've done and I've done total of well, I've I have nineteen restored machines. But every project's different and these machines A very complex Oh, not with faint of heart. I wouldn't do it as a weekend warrior.

Um you better know what you're doing when you get involved in these, because they will confound you in less than five minutes. I have uh The last machine I restored It was It was not that far from home. But it was incomplete. Non-working It was basically a pile of junk. And I don't know why I bought it, but I bought it.

And I must have stared at it for several months. before uh I was able to figure out what to do with it. And We ended up spending Two and a half years and over two thousand hours. of labor. bringing this pile of junk back into a Incredible peace.

of American music history. Absolutely stunning. It needed everything. I found it in a in Katona, New York. which is not too far from where I live now.

And uh The the guy wanted to get rid of it 'cause it was just taking up space It had broken parts, missing pieces, I didn't know really what it was, and Until I took it home. and realized that what the hell did I do? But my my technician who works on my cabinets who's a brilliant creator, said to me, I can restore this cabinet. And I looked at him like he was crazy. Because it had no wheels Had no side, the bottom side was missing.

I mean, everything on it needed work, something.

So we took it apart piece by piece, And we had really nothing to go by. We had a Make a brand new grill for the front with which is very elaborate and Yeah, we had a very Fuzzy picture on the internet. That kind of showed us what it looked like. And then we found a piece of wood in the cabinet. that had been put there as a brace which didn't belong there originally.

and I was part of the original grille. And from that errand piece o' wood We were able to figure out what the krill looked like, what it was made of, how it was shaped, molded, type of wood they used. Really? Uh it was like a clone. and after two and a half years and two thousand hours of labor, We brought this jukebox back to life.

It also had a first phonograph ever To use noise cancellation circuitry, An amplifier. That means that all seventy eights Regardless of the scratchy surface noise, The noise would be taken out. And when I restored the amplifier, I had to research. Retired engineers. And Islam.

How did this company put in noise cancellation circuitry in 1937? And they told me they use notch filters. And what are notch filters? Notch filters are capacitors that basically eliminate noise in certain frequency ranges.

So if seventy eight couldn't go beyond five thousand hertz or cycles, On the sound spectrum, most of the noise would be in the mid-range. And that's what these did. They targeted mid-range noise and removed it completely. I had to find a guy who was re long retired Who knew how to do this? An is amplifier And I hired him.

John Wiesner, the The best. ampreistore on the planet. And he knew how to do it. And he did it.

So I took this machine. From an un from an un incomplete, non working pile of junk into a beautiful Sounding Looking Working. Jukebox. I'm very proud of it. And um all the records in there, there are only 12 records.

1278 Each one is making Matched to the era. How Judy Garlands Already show a Benny Goodman. Uh Tommy Dorsey and Clambig 7. You name it and I got it. But it's only twelve selections.

but the fidelity on it is so good that I get chills every time. I hear it. It's a 1937 Recola. The model is the rhythm king. and it was made in nineteen thirty seven.

In nineteen thirty seven this jukebox cost five hundred dollars. which was during the depression which was a fortune of money. At that time. five hundred dollars in nineteen thirty seven was a lot of money. And we had to Uh it was tarnished someone had varnished it with his brown varnish on a cabinet.

and we knew that it didn't come out of the factory that way.

so he stripped it very carefully. and under it was beautifully bookmatched walnut. the components of it and materials are used was unbelievable. And we worked with Hand tools. from the 1890s.

to ensure accuracy and perfection.

so that we were finished with this project, This machine was absolutely perfect. You can go online. any time on YouTube And watch. The resurrection of the 1937 Rockola Rhythm King. It's seventeen minutes long.

And it's it's A glory to watch and you can see what the machine looked like. When I got it. to what it ended up in sounded like When I was all done with it. When we finished restoring the machine, We decided to make a documentary. of the entire Restoration or resurrection process.

I call it a resurrection because this machine was beyond restoration. It was a pile of junk. And it needed to be resurrected. and we resurrected it. And in the middle of November of twenty sixteen, It played for the first time In eighty years.

Eight decades. and when we heard the music, and heard the quality of the fidelity We were absolutely f Ford. we were like frozen in our tracks. To hear this machine. singing again after eight decades of silence.

And what we heard was beautiful. Beautiful sound. Beautiful bass response. Smooth bottom. Um crystal clear notes And use a a very special speaker.

called the Jensen Series X. It was a new type of speaker that Jensen made, and it was the first time they used it. in this jukebox, any jukebox, But um We had it reconed. It was difficult because it wasn't like usual speakers. It had a few quirks to it.

But we got it done. And we got the whole thing done. And the machine is restored now back to brand new Education. in every way, shape, and form. And we're listening to Ed Liss talk about the restoration.

of a grand, grand jukebox. And he talks about it with this love, with this adoration. That Americans are familiar with. Any of you who have a desire and a love for restoring things, be it cars. In my family, my mom had a deep affection.

for restoring wood and furniture. Back to its original form, and it was a time-consuming and painstaking process to do it. And when he starts to talk about that recall a Rhythm King jukebox, He called it a piece of junk that he returned to its original magnificence. It wasn't a restoration, he said. It was a resurrection.

Edliss's story continues here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.

It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY, plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay.

Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of 1 cent required to earn advertised APY. Early pay not guaranteed.

APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's. Like this commercial break.

Did you need 15 seconds away from music? Or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for Orees. Working forest professionals in the U.S.

plant more than they harvest, while also caring for water, wildlife, and more. It's how we grow a sustainable future. Learn more at WorkingForestsIniative.com. And we return to Our American Stories and with Jukebox historian and collector Ed Liss. who is masterfully taking us through the history of the Jupacs and the role they played in culture and the Jupac formed teenage social life.

and determine the most popular teen hangout spots around. Let's return to Ed. with the rest of this story. Trickboxes really became popular when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. which allowed social gathering drinking.

Um so jukeboxes became popular. because it was a cheap form of entertainment, rather than hiring a live band, which costs money. The early jukeboxes were really Chlorified radio cabinets with phone uh phonographs in them, mechanisms in them. If you take a look at the early wooden ones They will look look like our deco Well, they they have different uh Unusual wood uh the markings on them. They were made mostly from walnut Birch.

And woods that basically were good for absorbing sound. Keep in mind that in the early years, of jerk boxes, They didn't have what's called sound shaping. Such shaping is basically uh the ability to shape sound, in a cabinet Because you didn't have like equalizers where you can do it by frequencies.

So the cabinet had to be made out of walnut or some kind of a wood, That would be Positive towards music, like a violin. When you make a good violin or cello, you gotta use the best varnishes, the best woods, the veneers, and all that. The same with a wooden jukebox, you gotta use the best products that will make this sound as good as possible. without sound shaping.

So the early machines used basically radio cabinets that had phonographs in them. and then in the nineteen thirties They invented what's called phenolic plastic. which are plastic pieces that were had the ability to shine light through them, so now the jukeboxes became more attractive because they could be lit up. And then you put in rotating cylinders.

so that the colors could change. and bubble tubes so that the bubbles would circulate, it was called cavitation in science. Um But the jukeboxes at the time were precisely tuned to the age. The way they sounded, the way they worked, the way they looked. and certainly the way they made you feel.

Jukebox has a connection that um only a jukebox can make. Nothing plays like a jukebox. Nothing. Except for maybe a live orchestra or a band. But the chip boxes had a certain sound and even a jukebox from the thirties of 40s or 50s will sound different.

because the technology they use, the records they use, Everything they did at that time was different. and precisely tuned to the age of that machine. What I find a machine is usually Dead? incomplete, non-working um abandoned or whatever. You have to have vision and grit.

to pull these back together because they're very complicated pieces of equipment. But as I said earlier, they're precisely engineered. One machine I restored. I found in a garage in Bedford, New York. In nineteen eighty eight, and it had been used in White Plains, New York, In a restaurant whose operator who owned the jukebox It was right next to my father's business.

of forty two years in White Plains. And I never knew the druke box was even there.

So when I found that jukebox I restored it. all with the original equipment in it, And it's in my collection. and it plays all the big band hits. of the nineteen forties. I have another machine called the bomber nose which was built in nineteen forty eight, which looks like the tail gunner On an F twenty four.

Uh bomber. It's hell cutting uh canopy. And it plays 24. Forty five six. Originally it was a 78 machine.

It was converted to 45s. In the early 50s, And when I found it, it had been already converted The forty-five. But it was a mess. And it needed everything.

So that machine now is called Grade One. which means is the highest quality restoration after all these years I restored it. All the machines I have basically tell an interesting story they all sound great But you gotta keep in mind that when I get these things, They're not working. They're incomplete. I gotta research them.

I I gotta find the parts. I gotta find skilled people that know how to fix them or restore them. Not easy. But my interest is not just Restoring the hardware. It's in restoring the authentic experience, of listening to what It sounded like at that time the The artist, the Music.

The machinery. It's all about the jukebox experience. and I've restored that experience so that you can see history in front of your eyes. And that's what's so Thrilling about it is It's its history being restored. authentically one hundred per cent.

So when I restore a jukebox It's got to be done right. I don't cut corners. I do a lot of research first, but then when I finished the project, I just can't believe what I've done, because it's so much work. But I've got nineteen restored machines. and they all work perfectly.

So I'm very proud of what I was able to accomplish. And again, it's authenticating the experience and restoring it the way it was at that time.

Well the mid eighteen fifties I lived in the Northeast Bronx. And there was a bar on the corner. uh one of the streets. And they are in my In that bar was a jukebox, of course.

So one day A trick box salesman. walks in with a n a new model. A new model jukebox. He wheels it in. He pulls the one out of the wall.

the plug out of the wall. and push the plug-in to this new one and he says To the bartender, he says Hey, I'd like to demonstrate this for you. Try this out for a couple of days. Poor Tanta said You can't do that. This belongs to...

Blah blah blah people. And it's their machinery.

So he says, ah, it's okay. He says, Leave it for a couple of days.

So the the bartender makes a phone call. Ten minutes later, two big goons walk in. big goons walk in and They ask, Where's the jukebox salesman? And there he is sitting on a stool. She's like, They pull the plug out of the jukebox.

They roll it out the door. into the street. Into the gutter. into the sidewalk. where it smashes into ten thousand pieces.

Then they go back inside and this poor guy is sitting there at the barstool trembling. They take one arm, one leg, a practice swing on each side, and toss them out the door. Demonstration over.

So I know one V200 Never made it. It got disintegrated. at that incident So you never do that in the industry. It's called romancing. You don't want to romance people.

Because that'll get you killed. or get you injured or something. But that Location belong to these people and Any permission you wanted to do anything, you gotta go through them or else you're going to get your butt tossed out the door. Just exactly what happened.

So that was an interesting story. Um There are other stories like it. I have a friend who used to work for an operator, and one night he gets a call in a horrible area in Bedford-Stuyvesant. 1 a.m. in the morning.

hangs behind a jukebox, trying to fix it. And all of a sudden the fight breaks out. and beer bottles and fists and chairs and tables are flying all over the place.

So he's standing behind the jukebox, he puts two wires together, puts the cover on, and crawls on his hands and knees out the door, and the place was in a melee.

So stories like that, jukebox operators had to service machines at all hours of the day. Because once the music stops, the income stops.

so you gotta be around to fix it. But in this case Uh, it wasn't a great situation. Lots of stories like that. You have fights.

Well, you end up somebody's head goes through the jukebox or something like that. Jukebox has never gotten any respect. But interestingly enough, they're one of the greatest products this country ever made: the Great American Jukebox. And a terrific job on our production team, and that consists of Russ Jones, Micah Touche, and Andrew Stein. And a special thanks to Ed Liss.

He's a former IT executive, jukebox collector, and historian who's long admired the machines and spent a lifetime hunting and restoring great American jukeboxes. Indeed, what Ed is doing is restoring history. The story of the jukebox and Ed Liss's story too, and for restorers everywhere who restore anything. them too, here on Our American Story. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.

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