Rock-ola Jukebox Restoration and Repair

1946: Rock-ola’s early 1950’s Jukebox History actually begins in 1946, after WWII. Jukebox production returned, customers were once again spending money and the competition to get those customers was on. For the Jukebox market, big changes were made in the way of exterior cosmetics, sound quality and the amount of selections. Each Jukebox manufacture competing for more customer sales and trying to out do each other in the process. For 1946, Rock-ola and Seeburg each featured 20 selection Jukeboxes, while Wurlitzer had been leading customer sales featuring a 24 play mechanism and beautiful designed Jukebox cabinets. Rock-ola quickly began copying Wurlitzer cabinet designs with the Rock-ola 1422, 1426 and 1428 Jukeboxes (which sold for less cost than the Wurlitzer models, putting Rock-ola in second place for over all sales)
1948: Seeburg (a competitor) was lagging in Jukebox sales from its model 146, 147, and 148 models (today known as the “Trash can” models) and chose to re-design its mechanism, and cabinet design from the ground up. This lead to the introduction of the 1948 Seeburg “A” Jukebox with its “Select-O-Matic” mechanism. This new Seeburg Jukebox mechanism held 50 records and could play both sides offering 100 selections of 78 rpm records. The Select-o-matic mechanism was small and proved to be very reliable. Seeburg introduced this mechanism in a new cabinet design as well. The Seeburg “A” Jukebox was more of a “Console” type, showing wider than tall. A very modern look for the time. Both changes were very different and customers began to buy

1949: With Seeburg’s increased sales, Wurlitzer and Rock-ola began to struggle, in all aspects. Rock-ola had just introduced the model 1428 Jukebox (in 1948). Sales were pretty good but, Rock-ola needed to make big changes if they wanted to stay competitive. They continued production of the model 1428 Jukebox into 1949, giving them time to work on new ideas

Late 1950: Rock-ola introduces the Rock-ola 1432 Jukebox for the 1951 model year. That same year, the new 45 rpm record and 33-1/3 rpm LP record designs had just been introduced by the major record companies. However, not many customers had the new 45’s. The Rock-ola 1432 was introduced as a 78 rpm Jukebox, available converted to the new 45 record and the new 33-1/3 LP. With that problem solved, the next problem was the amount of selections. Rock-ola had been using its 20 play “Pancake Stack” style mechanism for a decade, and needed to push the design for more selections. They added 5 more record selections and re-designed the mechanism to play both sides of each record by using a twin-head tone arm. One to play the top of the record, and one to play the bottom. This required a special turn table motor that could turn in two directions. But, would now allowed for 50 selections total (still half of what Seeburg was selling). Though Rock-ola was re-using many of its 1940’s mechanics and electronics, Rock-ola did try hard to change their cabinet design toward the “Console” look (that Seeburg was using successfully). Using many clear plastics, the Rock-ola 1432 Jukebox had a much more viewable mechanism and rounded front to back look

1952: Rock-ola introduces a new 120 selection mechanism exclusively for the 45 rpm record (a year after Seeburg). For 1952, the Rock-ola 1432 Jukebox was available with the 50 selection, 78 rpm mechanism (for smaller locations and less cost) or, the more expensive 120 selection, 45 rpm mechanism for larger locations
Also in 1952: Rock-ola introduces the Rock-ola 1434 Jukebox (which they simply tried to enhance the cosmetics more). The Rock-ola 1434 Jukebox featured a full view clear plastic mechanism dome and huge light up plastic pilasters on the outside of the grill area which did help to increase sales some. The Rock-ola 1434 Jukebox was available with the same mechanism options as the model 1432, the 50 selection 78 rpm mechanism or the upgraded 120 selection, 45 rpm mechanism

1952: Rock-ola introduces a new 120 play mechanism (called the “Fireball 120”) made exclusively for the 45 rpm record. This mechanism was offered in the Rock-ola 1432 and 1434 Jukeboxes as an option. But, was featured exclusively in the NEW Rock-ola 1436 Jukebox of 1952 and 1953. Having 120 selections required a re-design of the title strip and selection area. For this, Rock-ola chose an idea Wurlitzer had used in the 1948 Wurlitzer 1100 Jukebox, “Rotating title strips”. Rock-ola used a three sided drum, each side of the drum holding 20 title strips. Only one side of the drum was viewable at a time, and would correspond to a row of 20 selection buttons. You simply pushed the selection button under the current title strip to make that selection. If you did not prefer any of the 20 selections visible at that time, pushing the “Program” button would rotate the drum to display another 20 selections, and so on. These were very innovative idea that began to get Rock-ola Jukebox back on top

December, 1953: Rock-ola introduces the model 1438 “Comet-Fireball” Jukebox. A new cabinet design that was a major leap for Rock-ola (But to the public, appeared very similar to the 1952 Seeburg C Jukebox). The Rock-ola 1438 Jukebox had very similar mechanism dome glass and plastic grill pilasters with color changing lights as the Seeburg C. Even having a similar speaker grill design

Also in 1953: Seeburg Jukebox had begun using a new feature, “High-Fidelity” audio sound. Rock-ola quickly designed a new amplifier that could produce “Hi-Fi” sound, and introduces it in June of 1954, as the Rock-ola 1446 Jukebox (which featured the same cabinet and mechanism as the Rockola 1438)

1954: Rock-ola introduces the economy model 1442 Jukebox for smaller locations. A 50 play, 45 rpm Jukebox at less cost than the 1438/1446 Jukeboxes. The Rock-ola 1442 Jukebox featured its own cabinet design. Similar in looks to Seeburg’s Jukeboxes, but with a completely different grill, using many vertical bars and a single light up center plastic. The Rock-ola 1442 Jukebox replaced the 1432 and 1434 models