WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?

[MONTI]

MikeB, u da man!
That is a great lead and the name Lane Fleischer is familiar to me from the old days I spent in Northern Nevada!
This gives me a name to look up and as I still have many contacts from those days hopefully it will get me the information I need!
I'll give Marshall a shout as he revamped a few slot machines in the day and had some of his revamps in the Liberty Bell Restaurant he and his brother owned!
I'll let you know what I find out!
Monti

[Anglobritish]

Bell-Fruit 3-A-Like-Base Plate Bell-Fruit Corp Reno, Nevada.jpg (9.92 KiB) Viewed 3773 times

Hi Guy's,
The Patent throws a great deal of light on the origins of the machine. I knew Lane Fleischer as far back as 1960, he came to England and brokered the deal for the sale of the Watling tooling to the Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co, Ltd. in 1950 John Watling had moved all of the Watling tooling to Reno, for fear of it being confiscated by the authorities in Chicago, because of the Johnson act. Lane was the first person to make repro War Eagles, he bought some of the Mills tooling, Lane was also in partnership with Lou Benetti of The Nevada Novelty Company. (Still in Business today) Lou Benetti did a lot of work designing cabinets for the Space Manufacturing company, so there is the link for the small mech in the Novelty Vendor,

A couple of years ago I wrote an article for The Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co, Ltd who were celebrating their 50th Anniversary, you can read this and many more articles I have wrote on the history of the industry, just go to http://www.coin-opcommunity.co.uk and in the search box type Freddy Bailey you can read about 30 articles of the coin machine industry.

In 1980 Lane brought his repro models to England they were distributed by Bob O'Donnell an old friend of mine. Lane was also involved with the launch of Skee-Ball in the U.K. he was a real crook, but also a real Character. both Lane and Lou Benneti got into trouble in the early 1990's for illegally shipping gambling devises.

Freddy Bailey

[Anglobritish]

The attachment Bell-Fruit 3-A-Like-Base Plate Bell-Fruit Corp Reno, Nevada.jpg is no longer available

Hi Guy's,
The Patent throws a great deal of light on the origins of the machine. I knew Lane Fleischer as far back as 1960, he came to England and brokered the deal for the sale of the Watling tooling to the Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co, Ltd. in 1950 John Watling had moved all of the Watling tooling to Reno, for fear of it being confiscated by the authorities in Chicago, because of the Johnson act. Lane was the first person to make repro War Eagles, he bought some of the Mills tooling, Lane was also in partnership with Lou Benetti of The Nevada Novelty Company. (Still in Business today) Lou Benetti did a lot of work designing cabinets for the Space Manufacturing company, so there is the link for the small mech in the Novelty Vendor,

A couple of years ago I wrote an article for The Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co, Ltd who were celebrating their 50th Anniversary, you can read this and many more articles I have wrote on the history of the industry, just go to http://www.coin-opcommunity.co.uk and in the search box type Freddy Bailey you can read about 30 articles of the coin machine industry.

In 1980 Lane brought his repro models to England they were distributed by Bob O'Donnell an old friend of mine. Lane was also involved with the launch of Skee-Ball in the U.K. he was a real crook, but also a real Character. both Lane and Lou Benneti got into trouble in the early 1990's for illegally shipping gambling devises.

Freddy Bailey

[MONTI]

Thanks Freddy!
Now it is coming back to me as I knew Lou Benetti well in the years before he passed and met Lane as well, yes that was an interesting bunch!
Had bought some antique slots from him and knew him thru George Miles who has also left us shortly after Lou passed!
I was familiar with some of their dealings!
Interesting bunch to say the least!
His son Lou Jr. is still running the business but mainly is involved with ATM's, Etc.
Louis Benetti, the elder was a fixture in the early days of Reno gambling as well!
Some great history there!
Monti