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I recently got a really beautiful original Jennings Operator's Bell that was revamped by Silver King, The top casting is boldly embossed with their name, along with the original paper label inside the door. My first assumption was that they converted a standard Operator's Bell into a mint vender with future pay, but the front casting with the future pay window has the normal Jennings 'J' logo, and the mint vender is also a Jennings unit. This had to have left Jennings factory already set up as an "OK" vending machine, so what would Silver King have done to revamp it other than simply overhauling it and putting their top casting on it, sticking a decal in the window, and slapping a whopping $200 price tag on it, according to the instruction label in the door?

ReneRondeau wrote:I recently got a really beautiful original Jennings Operator's Bell that was revamped by Silver King, The top casting is boldly embossed with their name, along with the original paper label inside the door. My first assumption was that they converted a standard Operator's Bell into a mint vender with future pay, but the front casting with the future pay window has the normal Jennings 'J' logo, and the mint vender is also a Jennings unit. This had to have left Jennings factory already set up as an "OK" vending machine, so what would Silver King have done to revamp it other than simply overhauling it and putting their top casting on it, sticking a decal in the window, and slapping a whopping $200 price tag on it, according to the instruction label in the door?

Wow! That is gorgeous!

Don't you wish we could still get machines for the prices in the old catalogs?

Very nice machine. Congratulations.

Dave

That really is a great looking machine!

As for revamps;
It can be surprising how much (or how little) the revampers did to machines.

I have a Watling RolATop that was revamped by Buckley.
I think they just took off the front mint vender and replaced it with a simple front lower casting.
It still looks like a Watling, just has a Buckley sticker inside and they stamped their own serial number in wood case.

Thanks for all the kind words and the input.

It definitely appears to me that Silver King's work on this machine was limited to replacing the top casting and slapping on decals and a new instruction label. I guess that was just the way marketing worked. It's a Jennings in every other way but you have to know their trademark J or their designs to know it. The machine itself screams "Silver King" all over.

The real deal-maker to me was the decal in the front glass. I just love this sort of thing. They really laid it on thick, with multiple reassurances that it was tax-paid and "positively legal." I researched the "war tax" reference; that was instituted on candies in 1918 and rescinded in mid-1924. But I don't believe Silver King would bother scrapping existing decals when that law changed so this could well have been revamped up to 1926 or so. There's really no way to know.

I'm only just coming back into the hobby after having been deeply involved in the 1980s and then dropping out when my daughter was born and I realigned my priorities for a while. But even then it was hard to find really nice original machines so this one is a special treat to me. No restoration at all, just cleaning and oiling to make it fully functional and pretty. It's the nicest all-original slot I've ever owned.

The thing about revampers (at least in the UK) was WHY they were revamping machines. The intention was to make money from old damaged machines, buy cheap (or part exchange for revamped models), keep the mech ,overhaul it then put into a new case or as much of the old case as you could keep slap your name on it and make a profit. Bottom line is a good revamper did as little as possible so as to make as much profit as possible

In Bueschel's book, Lemons, Cherries and Bell fruit Gum, he has more than 25 references to revampers in the US. You can trace how they changed over the years. Seems like they were primarily catering to changing interests of the players and needs of the operators to keep up with trends. When jackpots first came out, firms like Rock-Ola started taking perfectly good machines and putting jackpots on them as early as 1926. When mint venders fell out of favor, revampers replaced the front castings and did little else, like my Watling revamp by Buckley mentioned above. Some revamps really improved the attractiveness of the machine, like the Extrabell of 1947. Machines that paid only jackpots became popular in the early 1960s and a lot of High Tops were revamped to do just that.

I can totally understand most of the things revampers did, especially things like updating old machines by adding jackpots, or converting standard machines to use in marginal territories by adding mint venders or future pay. What mystifies me about this one is that it was already a future pay vender as built by Jennings. Silver King didn't change the front instruction casting or the vender, both of which are Jennings. From all appearances, all they did was replace the top casting to one with their name, and put a "perfectly legal" decal on the glass and decals with their name on the sides. There was no change (that I can find) to the operation or configuration of the machine, It's exactly as Jennings built it, save for the name on the casting.

I can only assume that it was a situation where they were simply able to buy some slots at a distressed price. from a bankrupt operator perhaps, and resold them under their name without making any serious alterations or improvements.

Whatever the real story, it's a great machine in wonderful original condition.

You may be right in regard to this particular machine; but a boatload of machines passed thru Silver King from early 20s all the way to 1950 and they made some really interesting revamps.
"Silver King was the primary and premier revamper of its day." (Bueschel; referring to mid 20s to mid 30s).
They made their own fronts in a wide variety of models, but obviously did more modifications with some machines than others.
Maybe this machine is interesting because they did so little to it; whatever the case it's a fantastic find.

On second thought;
When compared to how little Buckley did to my Watling (mentioned above), Silver King actually did quite a lot to your Jennings.
I had the Watling for several years before I even learned that it was a Buckley revamp!