Putting Coinslot archive online

General vintage slot machine related topics.
daleman
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:33 pm
Reaction score: 0

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by daleman »

We stand corrected re location of the work. It was however 'missing' for a number of years and only reappeared in its rightful place after publication of the book. Of course no museum curator will admit this but it was definitely the case back then.
As 'unassuming' as the Dennison book is it is a rare example of somebody in the trade bequeathing something for the greater good. Its actually a very interesting document.

The Nic Costa Archive is located at the University in Canterbury in the south of England.
User avatar
moonriver
Posts: 930
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:56 am
Reaction score: 3

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by moonriver »

daleman wrote: Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:05 pm We stand corrected re location of the work. It was however 'missing' for a number of years and only reappeared in its rightful place after publication of the book. Of course no museum curator will admit this but it was definitely the case back then.
As 'unassuming' as the Dennison book is it is a rare example of somebody in the trade bequeathing something for the greater good. Its actually a very interesting document.

I agree bequeathing the diary to the Museum was a fantastic thing for them to have done. I have a copy of it, it is quite spectacular in its content and the information and original photographs of most of the models in the note book the daughters Alice and Eveline kept.

Right down to their added written comments showing how different models were performing and which were the best ones and how they updated models to make them more popular and increase the cash box take.
For example in 1926 with their 'Eugene Aram Murder' model, the diary entry shows by adding a skeleton outside the raising and lowering curtain in front of the cave scene, and adding the word 'MURDER' across the black curtain this increased its popularity with the public.
They would also add comments underneath certain models in the diary such as "this was a winner", and "one of our cleverest models".

At the back of the diary is a fascinating insight into the accounts, annual takings figures listed from 1921 to 1944 during a period the models were exhibited at Blackpool Tower.
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

daleman wrote: Tue Nov 16, 2021 6:56 pm You may be interested to learn that Nic Costa, author of Automatic Pleasures, More Automatic Pleasures, and numerous articles in both the UK and US Coin Slot magazines has donated all his research materials (totalling some 16 banana boxes crammed with paper archives, photos, catalogues etc related to the coin op world from its inception through to the early 90s to the University of Canterbury Christchurch where over the coming months they will gradually be put online by the University. Anybody interested in the subject will be able to access it free of charge.
The establishment of the Nic Costa Archive will hopefully attract others to contribute items as well.
https://niccosta.org/
OH HELL YES THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!
We can't take it with us.
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

daleman wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 4:10 pm Nic has asked me to thank you all for your complements. A state owned digital archive dedicated to our subject is long overdue
It doesn’t include the Coin slot digital archive- and apparently the existing World’s Fair digital archive also does not include the Coin slot section. The university does have a copy of the World’s Fair digital archive
The Nic Costa Archive amongst other things does contain a series handwritten notebooks with dates, listings and notes of salient coin op info published in the World’s Fair from its inception through to the 1960s as well as other coin op related journals as well as an interrelated card system listing and dating thousands of machines and hundreds of companies. It took a long time to compile and will all take a long time to upload –if ever-(this was in the pre computer days).
There are two salutary lessons in all of this:
1. Greed/ selfishness- a certain now dead well know collector had misappropriated for himself the wonderful document bequeathed to Sheffield by Dennison’s daughters, as a consequence Nic was unable to refer to this when writing his book and neither was anybody else. Luckily following publication of the story in Automatic Pleasures the rogue collector was shamed and the ‘missing’ work mysteriously reappeared and is now thankfully available for all.
2. Family/ accidents. Nic for decades had been lovingly keeping a tape-recording of an interview he did with Freddie Bolland many decades ago. A very rare treasure to hear the old man himself talking about his life. This too was donated to Canterbury...but horror sometime in the intervening years his young daughters secretly got hold of the recorder and recording and taped their mock interview over the top!!! There’s no guarantee that your family will have the same interest in the subject as yourself!!

However, at last there is now a public archive in the UK devoted to Coin Operated Machines which will be accessible to all free of charge. Hopefully others with donate and help it to grow.
And any of you who don’t have a copy just to remind you both of Nic’s books are still available from Amazon –happy reading!!!

This is all so lovely. Do you know how to access the university's World's Fair digital archive? Is it available through university transfer programs, I wonder?
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

is there a contact email for Nic Costa and/or anyone administering the Nic Costa Archive?
Are they in need of resources, funding, etc?
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

:didact:
This is also a good reminder that whatever your passions are, you can't expect your family to give a crap about them when you die.
So if you have an unwieldly physical collection, make arrangements for disbursement while you're still alive. Make it a regular thing to revisit as you do your will.
If you have a collection of knowledge and/or ephemera, do you best to ensure it doesn't pass with you. !SAINT!
daleman
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:33 pm
Reaction score: 0

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by daleman »

Great remarks. The person to thank is professor Alan Meades of Canterbury University. He has undertaken the hard work of instigating and setting the archive up. Yes if anybody feels they can positively contribute in terms of helping put the archive online or contributing to it they can contact him directly through the university: alan.meades@canterbury.ac.uk

But please be patient hopefully it will be fully up and running by the summer, and of course any contributions will be fully credited.
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

daleman wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 9:46 am Great remarks. The person to thank is professor Alan Meades of Canterbury University. He has undertaken the hard work of instigating and setting the archive up. Yes if anybody feels they can positively contribute in terms of helping put the archive online or contributing to it they can contact him directly through the university: alan.meades@canterbury.ac.uk

But please be patient hopefully it will be fully up and running by the summer, and of course any contributions will be fully credited.
Wonderful, sent them an email!
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

dickywink wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:35 am World's Fair being available online is something I would like to see also, just like what has been done with Billboard.

The coin slot section I believe first became part of the World's Fair newspaper publication in the early fifties.

I understand there is an archive of World's Fair papers at Sheffield University, in the National Fairground and circus archive: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfca
Not sure if they have kept the coin slot sections though.
https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/a ... 0adcd50e25

All we need is a large format scanner and a lot of time :)

all the best ... Dicky
Hello, did Coin Slot exist before the early 1950s? Or was it born as part of World's Fair in the early 1950s?
I don't want to get confused.


Does anyone here have copies of Coin Slot from before 1966? Any at all?
If so please do get in touch. Thank you!
(66-99 are apparently accounted for currently and will hopefully be digitized eventually.)

As was mentioned in another post here, and confirmed externally, Sheffield doesn't seem to have any of the coin slot inserts in their archive.
cheeky
Posts: 631
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:19 pm
Reaction score: 2
Location: North East Essex

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cheeky »

Does anyone here have copies of Coin Slot from before 1966? Any at all?
If so please do get in touch. Thank you!
(66-99 are apparently accounted for currently and will hopefully be digitized eventually.)
Sadly no but that’s great news. !!THUMBSX2!!
User avatar
dickywink
Posts: 156
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:50 pm
Reaction score: 4

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by dickywink »

cait001 wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 11:52 pm

Hello, did Coin Slot exist before the early 1950s? Or was it born as part of World's Fair in the early 1950s?
I don't want to get confused.


Does anyone here have copies of Coin Slot from before 1966? Any at all?
If so please do get in touch. Thank you!
(66-99 are apparently accounted for currently and will hopefully be digitized eventually.)

As was mentioned in another post here, and confirmed externally, Sheffield doesn't seem to have any of the coin slot inserts in their archive.
As far as I understand... machine articles were featured in World's Fair pre '50s but with the rise of sales of jukeboxes, pinballs, and slot machines to cafes, pubs clubs and arcades in the 50s it was decided to give them its own publication as part of the newspaper.

Looking forward to seeing the digitized versions as this will help greatly with the research for the Ditchburn Project and the Ditchburn Jukebox Museum.

all the best ... Dicky
drglitch
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 7:58 pm
Reaction score: 0

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by drglitch »

Hello everyone,

Alan Meades here, director of the Nic Costa Archive. Just to add, I have a digital archive of Coin Slots from 1966 - 1999 (plus some others). They weren't part of Nic Costa's collection, though that did contain many paper cuttings from Coin Slot, the best of which can still be seen in his More Automatic Pleasures.

I purchased the files from a well known collector quite a few years ago on the proviso I would not share or sell them on. While I would like to share them, I gave my word. I also haven't spoken with BACTA (who I understand owned Coin Slot during that period), or GB Media to know their stance on it.

The digital archive does exist, and several people have one. It is low resolution and in B/W meaning that images are illegible, but while blocky, the text and many advertisement illustrations are fine.

I'm happy to do searches in the files for specific information though, if that helps?
User avatar
dickywink
Posts: 156
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:50 pm
Reaction score: 4

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by dickywink »

drglitch wrote: Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:21 am The digital archive does exist, and several people have one. It is low resolution and in B/W meaning that images are illegible, but while blocky, the text and many advertisement illustrations are fine.
I'm happy to do searches in the files for specific information though, if that helps?

Hi Alan
It would be great if you could do a Ditchburn Search for me
I have sent you a request via PM

all the best ... Dicky
drglitch
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 7:58 pm
Reaction score: 0

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by drglitch »

Hi Dicky,

Apologies for missing this and not getting back to you sooner - it has been one of those months - let me just leave it like that!

Ok, unfortunately, the Coin Slot search has proven a bit tricky, on account of the sheer profusion of content. In the 4 years between 66-70 I'm getting 126 different documents and issues... a lot of it about the 1969 £1,600,000 takeover bid by Walker & Martin. I think it'll take a while to whittle this down (and likely after I've got over a hump of marking and uni admin). Is there anything about Ditchburn you're after specifically?

All the best,
Alan
User avatar
dickywink
Posts: 156
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:50 pm
Reaction score: 4

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by dickywink »

Hi Alan
Firstly thanks for your reply ... it looks like you have a vast amount of info there ....
and it also looks like it's going to be very difficult for you to process requests for information.

Ditchburn were the largest operator of Jukeboxes in the UK (and the world) during 1955 and 1973 and I was expecting that there would be a lot of information in the archive you have, so the 126 hits does not surprise me.

Sadly I have only been given a handful of cuttings from Coin slot over the years (which I'm extremely grateful for) and I have always known there must be a lot more, so everything and anything Ditchburn would help the museum and history of Ditchburn in a big way...

For example, you mentioned about the bid from Walker and Martin. Even with the many years of research I have done, I was not aware of this bid by them. It just shows what great information you have and how important it is. I am looking for any news items, show reports, adverts, product launches etc., basically everything Ditchburn, so I can preserve this slice of history.

I don't expect you to do all this work for free, and I'm sure like me you don't have time to spend searching and pulling out scans of 126 specific pages for someone else's use. I would personally give a kidney for all these articles, but sadly my kidneys are old and abused, so no point in that. :D
If there is a way that this could be done, I would gladly cover your costs in doing so. Please let me know if this is possible and how we can achieve this.

All the best
Dicky www.ditchburn.co.uk
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

I'm "putting my money where my mouth is" in terms of this kind of research on my home turf. I've been stockpiling issues of Canadian Coinbox magazine and will be arranging to have them all scanned and put online over the next few years. I have compiled over 200 magazines and once I have exhausted my initial search I'll be sending the massive piles off by freight to get scanned by other arcade historian types.
pennymachines
Site Admin
Posts: 6638
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:12 am
Reaction score: 56
Location: The Black Country

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by pennymachines »

Alan Meades also contacted me recently about hosting some of the Nic Costa archive here, which would be cool.
drglitch
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 7:58 pm
Reaction score: 0

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by drglitch »

I think that some of the content from Nic's archive would be immediately more useful to Penny Machines members - specifically the index cards that capture a great deal of Nic's efforts cataloguing machines, places, and people. I think that they are invaluable as a research archive. I'm not talking about the flyers and other bits, but the thousands of index cards. I'm not sure how much of the information on them is known in the collecting community, but I'm sure it would connect points and tie-up lines of research!
cheeky
Posts: 631
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:19 pm
Reaction score: 2
Location: North East Essex

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cheeky »

pennymachines wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 3:59 pm Alan Meades also contacted me recently about hosting some of the Nic Costa archive here, which would be cool.
Terrific. 👏
cait001
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:33 am
Reaction score: 1
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Putting Coinslot archive online

Post by cait001 »

Bumping this thread again:
I am looking for runs of Coin Slot magazine to purchase and/or borrow.
I will do high resolution scans of all of them, share them freely, and take all legal risks.

If you want to sell them to me, great. If you want them back, I will cover all shipping costs and could even provide an insurance deposit.
Looking for as many as possible, any and all years. (Personally I'm desperate for 1950 to 1974).
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 24 guests