The jukebox was a mighty mess. Someone had attached pieces of tape to keep the front from falling off. One of the plastic decorative arms on the side had a small crack. The wood-grain finish was scuffed and scratched. And dust had settled in like it was at home.
But beneath the grime and dirt and years of neglect, I could imagine how this jukebox could be returned to its old self in the hands of the right restorer. It was a lovely piece of heavy junk now, but it obviously certainly had once been a gem.
As I stood there admiring the jukebox among other furniture on a long outside ramp at the auction house, another auction-goer walked up. It’d take a lot to restore it, he said. But, I answered undeterred, it’d be worth it.
This wasn’t the first time I’d become enamored with a jukebox at auction. Two years ago, another auction house was selling two of them – a Seeburg Select-o-matic on a ramp outside and a hunk of a machine like the one at auction, a Wurlitzer 1080 Colonial, on the floor inside. The inside jukebox topped this one in awesomeness. Then, though, I was more interested in their play lists than their bodies.
Other times, I’ve come across the small players you find in the booths of 1950s-style burger restaurants. In fact, this auction house had one of those models for sale, with James Brown and the Famous Flames (“Again/How Long Darling” from 1963-64) on the play list.
The jukebox at auction was made by the J.P. Seeburg Corp., which was one of the major manufacturers of these machines. This one was a Symphonola Record Changer, according to the metal tag inside the dusty back of the machine.
It was one of several Seeburg’s Trashcan jukeboxes made in the 1940s, and looking at its shape, I could understand why it was called that: big at the top tapering to a small base. This one appeared to be a Model S-147 (there were three similar models for the years 1946-1948). The machine offered 20 selections on 78 rpm records.
Seeburg had started out making coin-operated pianos, and moved into what was then called coin-operated phonographs in the 1920s and 1930s, but didn’t do too well, according to jitterbuzz.com. Things turned around in the 1940s and the company produced some of the best and most glitzy jukeboxes against such well-known competitors as Wurlitzer and Rock-Ola.
One website noted that the Symphonola was one of three of Seeburg’s most popular models. A Symphonola 147 was used in the 1956 movie “The Girl Can’t Help It” with Jayne Mansfield, according to jitterbuzz.com. An S-146 was said to be in the 1956 movie “Bus Stop,” featuring Marilyn Monroe.
These coin-operated machines got the name “jukebox” after finding their way into juke joints and dance halls in African American neighborhoods in the South.
During the auction, a staffer noted that the jukebox worked before it was put into storage, but the auctioneer-owner wasn’t sure if it still did. The jukebox sold for $240.
On the web, I found a cleaned-up lit-up version of the Symphonola 147M that sold for $1,200 at an auction in Florida last year. Here’s a restored Symphonola 146 playing Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Shake, Rattle and Roll” on YouTube. Here’s another restored jukebox playing “I Don’t Know Enough About You” written by Benny Goodman.
Both the machine and the sound were as beautiful as I envisioned for the one at auction. I’d love to have one of those in my home, loaded with 1960s Marvin Gaye and Motown tunes.
