Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

General vintage slot machine related topics.
User avatar
arrgee
Posts: 1589
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:56 am
Reaction score: 5
Location: North Wiltshire

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by arrgee »

Operator Bell wrote:I remember dancing to it at "The Ship" disco in Dymchurch the night I had sex for the first time with the girl who became my wife
The mind boggles OP......dancing to Simon Says whilst having sex !!! :o !OMFG!
User avatar
badpenny
Forum Moderator
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 12:41 pm
Reaction score: 25
Location: East Midlands

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by badpenny »

Arrgee wrote: Mon Mar 26, 2018 10:29 am The mind boggles OP......dancing to Simon Says whilst having sex !!!
I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous. :#:
User avatar
coppinpr
Posts: 5111
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:01 pm
Reaction score: 20
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
Contact:

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by coppinpr »

Arrgee wrote: Mon Mar 26, 2018 10:29 am The mind boggles OP......dancing to Simon Says whilst having sex !!!
It would only take a few minor changes to the lyrics !OMFG!
pennymachines
Site Admin
Posts: 6638
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:12 am
Reaction score: 56
Location: The Black Country

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by pennymachines »



Now I see who my drummer nephew gets his groovy dress sense from.
13rebel
Posts: 588
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:03 pm
Reaction score: 0

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by 13rebel »

Now I know why I liked Rocksteady music from around the same era. !!ESCAPE!!
User avatar
coppinpr
Posts: 5111
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:01 pm
Reaction score: 20
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
Contact:

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by coppinpr »

I found this in a chronology of US gaming produced by a college in the US. A bit ambiguous but a little more info never hurts and it does touch on the use of "lemons" on reel strips.
1915- Slot machines were camouflaged to circumvent anti-gambling laws (continuing unti11955). The slots were camouflaged, disguised, and equipped with "skill-stops" which continues even today. The machines were designed to vend gum, mints, candy, cigarettes, etc. with every pull of the handle. The gum being dispensed was obtained from the Chicle Company and incorporated a special label along with flavors that the company had trouble selling to other buyers: these flavors were orange, cherry, plum, etc. Today, fruit and bar symbols on slot machines evolved from Fey's early machines equipped with Chicklets. Furthermore, lemons on the early machines indicated it was rigged, thus the connotation of lemons meaning "no good."
pennymachines
Site Admin
Posts: 6638
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:12 am
Reaction score: 56
Location: The Black Country

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by pennymachines »

coppinpr wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 8:22 am...a little more info never hurts
Not as long as it's accurate. This thread was about half-truths, heresay and myths, and your quote from A Chronology of (Legal) Gaming in the U.S., (George G. Fenich, School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration, University of New Orleans) introduces several.

I've seen no evidence of "Fey's early machines equipped with chicklets", to which the author credits the evolution of the fruit symbols. Mills first Liberty Bell bandits incorporated Fey's horseshoe and playing card symbols, before they substituted them with fruit symbols, which they copyrighted in 1910 (deferring again to Dick Bueschell's meticulous research, p58 Lemon, Cherries & Bell-Fruit Gum).

It's not clear to me whether Mills very first "fruit machines" had apparatus for vending the Bell Fruit Gum, or whether it was to be paid over the counter trade-stimulator style (by request). Certainly their main purpose was disguise and gum vendors were incorporated by 1911, if not before. Mint vendors followed.

The statement, "lemons on the early machines indicated it was rigged" doesn't make much sense either. Lemons were lose symbols on the original Mills reel strips and, anyway, all fruit machines are rigged against the player. I dispatched his claim that this is why lemons came to mean 'no good' on page 2 of this thread.

Finally, "gum being dispensed was obtained from the Chicle Company" (presumably the American Chicle Company), sounds plausible as they were the major manufacturer, but I won't take the author's word for it. No doubt cheaper brands were available...
User avatar
coppinpr
Posts: 5111
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:01 pm
Reaction score: 20
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
Contact:

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by coppinpr »

i did say it was ambiguous,
i have read elsewhere that the flavors used were those that did not sell well elsewhere, as you say the lemons thing makes no sense at all only in as much as its reiterates the "lemons=something that is no good" the reference to the Chicle candy maker is interesting,they were the biggest gum makers in US and would have made gum in many grades.the large volume of gum needed for machines would have been attractive to them for sure. ,I believe they were eventually absorbed into several companies ending up as part of Cadburys (who I think are now part of Hersheys)
I copied it in its entirety because it would be more miss leading to edit it down to the bits that COULD be correct.
half truths and editing a piece down are indeed miss leading ,for example your quote "a little more info never hurts" .It would have described what I posted better if you had quoted the full section "a bit ambiguous but a little more info never hurts" :lol:
pennymachines
Site Admin
Posts: 6638
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:12 am
Reaction score: 56
Location: The Black Country

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by pennymachines »

coppinpr wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:14 pm I have read elsewhere that the flavors used were those that did not sell well elsewhere
That was my point really. It doesn't matter how many times you read something, unless backed by evidence, be it oral history, a contemporary letter, etc. it doesn't become fact.

It's only trivia, so of course it doesn't hurt, but it amused me that, in a single paragraph, the author smuggled in no less than six made-up factoids of the kind we were discussing:
It was 1910 or earlier (not 1915),
Fey bandits didn't vend chicklets,
'The Chicle Company' didn't exist - The American Chicle Company did,
Mills not Fey introduced the fruit symbols,
Lemons didn't signify a rigged game,
'Lemon' already meant 'no good'.
User avatar
brigham
Posts: 1180
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:37 pm
Reaction score: 2

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by brigham »

An interesting observation: Although the Mills symbols of 1910 include 'Bell Fruit Gum', the actual Mills gum, and the machines dispensing it, are called 'Liberty Bell Gum Fruit'.
pennymachines
Site Admin
Posts: 6638
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:12 am
Reaction score: 56
Location: The Black Country

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by pennymachines »

And on this 1910 Mills Novelty Liberty Bell (sold by Morphy Auctions, Jan 29 2017) they cost 5 cents a package.

The catalogue says, "Mills Novelty Co. manufactured this combination slot machine and gum vendor in 1910", but as I see no vendor mechanism, I assume the description is wrong and the package was handed over the counter on request.

Again, I've yet to see an original packet of Liberty Bell Gum Fruit. Presumably you got a selection of all the flavours represented on the award card.
Attachments
LibertyBell.jpg
quadibloc
Posts: 44
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:28 pm
Reaction score: 0
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Contact:

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by quadibloc »

In the very early Mills machines with a spearmint leaf symbol, that symbol was later replaced by the cherries, not the bar or the bell. The reel strips of that kind had a bar, but the bar symbol was the blue stick of "Liberty Bell Gum-Fruit" instead of "Bell-Fruit Gum" as on their later machines with fruit symbols, so that variation of the name was on the reel strips, not just the case.

As for Zeno, the gum company, it eventually started making a slot machine-like device, which neither took nor dispensed coins, in the late 1940s, as one way to avoid some of the gambling laws.

I haven't been able to find an image of even a reproduction of a Bell-Fruit-Gum or Liberty Bell Gum Fruit wrapper, but on page 108 of the fourth edition of Slot Machines: A Pictorial History of the First 100 Years there is a reproduction of an advertisement by the Mills Novelty Company inviting slot machine purchasers to also purchase a supply of Liberty Bell Fruit Gum along with their machines. Also, there are reproduction mint wrappers sold for Pace and Watling machines. Hence, I'm inclined to believe that Liberty Bell Gum Fruit or Bell Fruit Gum did have a real existence for some time, starting in 1910, and ending some time before 1951, perhaps a long time before.
chris rideout
Posts: 148
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:25 am
Reaction score: 0

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by chris rideout »

coppinpr wrote: Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:43 pm
Arrgee wrote: Mon Mar 26, 2018 10:29 am The mind boggles OP......dancing to Simon Says whilst having sex !!!
It would only take a few minor changes to the lyrics !OMFG!
The first time I heard the song was indeed in 1968 at the Station Café opposite the rail station in Eastleigh. I was 16 years old and played a Bally Gold Award (2 pulls for 6d) machine and won several gold tokens. I bought several 20 packs of "Senior Service" cigarettes and sold them to one of my neighbours even though I did not have a licence to sell tobacco! !!IDEA!! Every time I hear that song I recall those 7s and beer mugs bouncing to a stop in time with the music.
ecfinn
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2021 8:39 am
Reaction score: 0

Re: Bell-Fruit Gum Company: Fact or Fiction?

Post by ecfinn »

Before looking into the origin of the “bar” symbol, I assumed that it was used the way it’s used by ranchers, especially given that slot machines are linked to the old west. Ranch names like “S bar K Ranch” are referring to the ranch’s brand, which would look like “S-K” on the animal. Basically, the word “bar” is a spelled out symbol. I had assumed the slot machine “bar” was just the inventor needing another symbol and using one that was common. I think this makes a lot more sense than this bizarre gum company theory. Thanks for posting this because it does seem to be one of those dubious, circular theories that are so frustratingly prevalent on the internet.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests