Jump to content

Rock-Ola

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lawrence914 (talk | contribs) at 17:53, 25 April 2010 (Wikipedia is not the place for a tech article.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation was, along with Wurlitzer, a top maker of jukeboxes. The company, which originally made Slot Machines, scales and pinball machines, was founded in 1927 by Coin-Op pioneer David Cullen Rockola. During the 1920s, Rockola was linked with Chicago organized crime and escaped a jail sentence by turning State's Evidence. Starting in 1935, Rock-Ola sold more than 400,000 jukeboxes under the Rock-Ola brand name, which predated the rock and roll era by two decades, and is thought to have inspired the term. In 1977, The Antique Apparatus Company engineered, refined, and manufactured the first and finest "Nostalgic" Jukeboxes. The Antique Apparatus Company acquired the Rock-Ola Corporation and name in 1992.

The company currently manufactures a variety of jukeboxes for both commercial and home entertainment. Commercial jukeboxes feature touch screens, Peavey power amps and digital downloading of music and ad content, delivered by the AMI Network. Rock-Ola continues to manufacture Nostalgic style CD-jukeboxes and has also added state-of-the-art digital touch screen technology for the home market. The Rock-Ola line of Nostalgic Music Centers was introduced in 2006. Two new music center models, the "Mystic" and the "Q" were introduced in 2008.

Rockola was also the maker of shuffleboard tables from 1948-50. Considered by collectors the Cadillac of shuffleboards due to their Art Deco styling with curving woodwork and lots of chrome, they are highly sought after by players.

Rock-Ola also produced and published arcade video game machines in the early 1980s such as Fantasy with the most successful in-house game developed being Nibbler.

Rock-Ola was also one of the producers of the M1 carbine for the US Military during WWII, making 3.7% of the 6,221,220 made. Due to both the relative rarity of Rock-Ola carbines and the distinctive name, they are highly prized among collectors.

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Rock-Ola&oldid=358241854"