Antique reproduction radios, record players, turntables, phonographs, jukeboxes, phones, music boxes and more.
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Jukebox collection from Crosley & Wurlitzer
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Crosley, jukebox, Wurlitzer juke boxes, jukeboxes
The Crosley jukebox is inspired by some of the great juke box manufacturers and juke boxes ever made. The 'father' of the jukebox is Rudolph Wurlitzer who came to the United States from Germany in 1853 and started selling musical instruments to the U.S. government during the Civil War. Soon he became the largest instrument supplier in America. It wasn't long before Rudolph attached a coin slot to a player piano and literally created the forerunner of the jukebox and the coin-operated music boom of the late 1800s. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, Wurlitzer became famous for the large theater organs that created sound for silent films. Wurlitzer dominated the coin-operated phonograph business until the introduction of the 45 rpm record. At that point, Wurlitzer’s mechanism could handle up to 24 records, playing only one side. Seeburg introduced a new mechanism that held 50 records and could play both sides, yielding a true 100-select jukebox. Wurlitzer made many attempts to compete with this by engineering new mechanisms for its machines, but never really caught up with Seeburg's domination of the jukebox market. Wurlitzer gave one last gasp in 1973 and tried to make a nostalgic-looking jukebox called the "1050". With only 1,600 jukeboxes produced, the effort wasn't enough to bring back what was once the greatest jukebox manufacturer ever. Wurlitzer held on into the '70s but then when demand for jukeboxes faded, so did the Wurlitzer jukebox factory and it eventually went out of business. A new German company purchased the name Wurlitzer and is currently manufacturing bubbler CD jukeboxes. per national jukebox
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