Part Three: The first Moving Picture Coin Machines, and B.A.M.O.S In 1907 George Barron had already established himself in the Great Yarmouth area; along with his brother Clarence they were running the Pleasure Beach amusement park and also the Southwold Pier. Prior to coming to Great Yarmouth, where the Barron family would spend the next 100 years in the amusement arcade business, George and Clarence had already successfully operated three Sports Arcades in the London area, where they had formed a new company called Interchangeable Syndicate Ltd dealing in coin operated machines. They also started the first cinema in London over the top of one of the arcades, they also established what must be one of the first operating companies supplying music machine to various locations on a sharing basis. Clarence had also started traveling on the fairs as far back as 1896, he had claimed that he had become the representative of the coi- operated Kinetoscope manufactured by Edison in the U.S.A. and was their sole representative in the U.K. He traveled the fairgrounds of Eastern and Northern England selling this highly successful moving picture machine to the traveling showmen such as Pat Collins, who owned a chain of cinemas across the country. Also among his customers was Randal Williams, reputed to be the first man to operate a cinema under canvas. Clarence was so well known amongst the traveling showmen that he also served on the committee for the Showmen s Supper and Ball that was held in the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington.
By 1898, the Barron brothers had once again changed the name of their company to Interchangeable Automatic Machines Ltd and with new funding and new partners they started to manufacture what may have been the first coin-operated vending machine called Ally Sloper (based on the famous comic character). This machine vended a wooden bottle and a fortune phrase.they also produced an X ray machine that proved to be very popular at the time. Once again they changed the name of the company to Interchangeable Automatic Machine and Cinematic Company Ltd after the acquisition of the British Mutoscope and Biograph company. X Ray Photo The Ally Sloper British Mfg Co. 1925 Automatic Machine Co.1921 Meanwhile in America several other inventors had been experimenting for several years with various ways to make moving pictures, but the Edison Manufacturing company from their production plant in West Orange, New Jersey had perfected the Kinetoscope and was producing spool banks that carried an endless 50 foot loop that contained a single feature. They were turning the Kinetoscope machines out in vast numbers for their parlour operations and were operating in all kinds of locations, from Broadway in New York City to Los Angeles. In charge of Edison s Kinetoscope operation was Thomas A. Edison s assistant William Kennedy Laurie Dickson who took over 1886 and was now running the entire project, the 50 foot continuous loops were being made of celluloid and were being produced for Edison by the Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. W.K.L Dickson was a brilliant young British engineer who was 13 years younger than Edison, and he came up
with the idea to place slots in the 50 foot continuous celluloid loop and replace the rollers with sprogets that held the film in position. The first Kinetoscope designed by Edison was not at first intended to be coin-operated, in fact both Edison and Dickson were already working on a camera that would add sound to the moving pictures of the Kinetoscope machine. Then one morning Edison walked into the Edison laboratory only to be greeted by Dickson who announced Good morning Mr. Edison, glad to see you back, I hope you are satisfied with the KINETOPHONOGRAPH, Dickson had syncronized the film with an Edison Phonogragh making it the very first filmed movie a talking picture.
The first Edison Kinetoscope moving picture machine on exhibition in the United States showing a customer paying at a booth for a ticket to view a moving picture, now with a controlled celluloid loop it could be made coin operated. One mistake that was to lose Edison a large part of the European market, including England and France, was the fact that he had no patent in Europe for his Kinetoscope. One day when Edison was at his attorney s office and was preparing to patent his machine, his lawyer said to him, What about your patents for Europe? Edison replied How much do they cost? His lawyer replied, about $150.00 Edison never answered and walked out of the office, and so there was no patents taken out for England and France, at that time the most lucrative markets in the World.
That is how companies like Haydon & Urry and several other British And French manufacturers started this kind of business in Europe. After the success of the Kinetoscope, the Barron family would later go on to much greater things. They built Britain s first purpose built amusement arcade on the sea front in Great Yarmouth in 1923, called The Paradium. This building would survive through World War II where it was occupied by the tanks of the allied troops. In 1955, my father the late David Bailey took space in the Paradium, where we operated a set of 1934 Rock-Ola coin-operated Jigsaw machines. I was 13 years old and I ran this stall. George Barron Jr, Clarence s younger brother and another brother of Stanley, operated several attractions in the Paradium, there was a Ghost Train, Bumper Cars, a set of Waltzing Kelly s and a mirror Maze as well as a live ammunition shooting range. George Jr had three daughters, Gloria, Madeleine and Rosalie, I dated Madeleine a few years later, and nearly married her several years after that, so I knew this family personally. Barron s Paradium dominated the sea front at Great Yarmouth until 2006 when it was sold and converted to Yesterday s World.
Next to The Paradium was the Goodge Hotel, which was later bought by my ex-brother-in-law Billy Burrows (Nott s & Derby Traveler), a bastard that I once had for a partner in a company, along with Max Fine and Cyril Shack of Phonographic Equipment Company Ltd. Billy Burrows converted the Goodge Hotel into another arcade called Caesar s Palace that arcade was later sold to Billy Moore (South Wales Traveler) To find out more about the Barron s of Great Yarmouth, you can read a chapter in my up and coming book entitled All My Life.A Showman More
Barron s Paradium at the height of the 1961 season and in its prime. Back to earlier times, by the early 1920 s Britain was once again becoming prosperous, like the Barron s Paradium in Great Yarmouth - other amusement arcades and amusement parks along with the travelling fairs were enjoying great prosperity, and to meet the demands of this prosperity there came a new generation of coin machine manufacturers, companies like Charles Ahrens, Matthewson, B.A.N.C.O (British American Novelty Company) Bryans and Bradley.
Pussy Shooter Le Guiliteen The Marksman B.A.N.C.O 1930 Charles Ahrens 1924 Charles Ahrens 1934 The Challenger The Gypsy The Horoscope Bradley 1929 British Mfg Co. 1925 British Mfg Co 1925 From the turn of the Century up until the late 1920 s there were many good amusement games manufactured. One of the most creative and popular designer was Ernest Mattewson who ran the Mechanical Trading Co.from 1891 till 1921 Mattewson was the first designer to create the popular two- player games, such as a 22 man football game where each football player had real knitted jerseys, another popular 2 player game was Cricket, all of these two player games had a coin return feature.
I have the original notes made by Freddy Bolland in the late 1950 s, where he talks about buying the last of the Mattewson Cast Iron cabinets that were two player shooting games, below is the transcript of those notes.
Above and below are pictures of Bollands Amusement Supply Co,Ltd showrooms in Gordon Grove, Camberwell, London, from their brochure in the 1930 s.