Jukebox Production in
The
history of the 'modern' jukebox production in Denmark started in 1945, shortly
after the German occupation during World War II had come to an end. The very
early years were difficult, and two modern style American jukeboxes imported
only a few months before the occupation forces came on the 9th April, 1940, had
a certain importance in connection with the first Danish productions in the
area of
Now,
looking back at the period of the forties and fifties, it is obvious that many
local artists and musicians had advantages derived from music boxes. As an
example one particular artist in
As
mentioned previously, two American jukeboxes were the first electrically
amplified 'modern' music boxes in Denmark. However, the editor of this site
does not consider the early coin operated automatic phonographs, but it is
important to remember that the first officially known nickel-in-the-slot
machine (an electric Edison Class M Phonograph with coin slot
attachment) was presented to the press in Copenhagen on the 9th February, 1894,
only about four years after the first coin-op phonograph was demonstrated in
the States. The coin-op phonograph, named Fonografavtomat by the press, was introduced by the wholesaler, and
consul general for Portugal, Gottfried Moses Ruben (1837-1897).
Gottfried M. Ruben was from September 1889 also the general representative in
Scandinavia for the Edison phonograph company together with his business
partner Theodor Valdemar Cornelius-Knudsen (1844-1920), a
well known instrument maker with his own workshop at Købmagergade 15 in
Copenhagen. The brother Ludwig M. Ruben (1845-1916), a successful musical agent
in New York, asked the Edison company about a possible agency for Denmark in
February 1889, and this was finally obtained via contact to the Edison
representative George
Edward Gouraud (1842-1912) in London. The
first all Danish coin operated cylinder phonograph was produced in 1896 by
Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer (1871-1946) in
his new workshop at Istedgade 119 in Copenhagen (small plaque at the address today). Jacob C. H.
Ellehammer later became a well known pioneer of flight and inventor with 59
patents to his name.
A
major slot-machine operator in
However,
Ziirsen was not the first to get the idea of producing music boxes locally. An
engineer, Edvard Agner Køj Petersen, had become aware of music boxes a
few years before. It might well have been a short sequence in a film during the
war that gave him the idea, and late in the evenings he made the drawings for a
cabinet and a complete 40-selection mechanism for a jukebox later to be called Lytrofon
Musikautomat. The machine could, however, not be produced until after
1947/48 due to the lack of tools and the rationing of various material as a
consequence of the war. The last of the three known Lytrofon music box
designs called Bluebird was produced around 1956. The total number of Lytrofon-boxes
produced is unknown, and only very few have been preserved by collectors.
Most
productions in Denmark took place in the area of Copenhagen, and another
engineer, Tage Engbæk (1912-1974), who became quite important to the early
Danish jukebox history, made a music box called Atofon in the latter
half of the forties. The 12-selection Atofon with a copy of an imported
D. T. N. Williamson amplifier was made for the slot-machine operator Knud Petersen who was related to the engineer
Edvard Agner Køj Petersen mentioned above. The total number of Atofon-boxes
made is unknown today, but fortunately a few have been preserved by collectors.
After
the development of Atofon, which was very typical maybe even American in
design of the era, Tage Engbæk tried to develop a very unique mechanism driven
by hydraulic pressure. It was no immediate success, and Tage Engbæk waited a
few years before he tried again. Then he managed in cooperation with engineer
Niels Overgaard to develop a stable hydraulic mechanism, which has never been
seen before or after in the history of jukeboxes. Both Tage Engbæk and Niels
Overgaard, who for years had been working in a firm owned by Kai Ginge Nielsen,
were experts in the use of hydraulic pressure. The 48-selection Superno
Automat-Grammofon with an amplifier built by Johannes Jacobsen was made in
the very early fifties in the small town Kirke-Værløse outside
This
story has of course to deal with the most important of the Danish jukebox
productions. The Jensen Music Box produced by the company Jensen &
Hoffmann A/S in Copenhagen is well-known today by collectors all over the
world. The production was initiated a few years after the war, when the
engineer Edwin Karl Jensen got in touch again with engineer Jørgen Mølkier and other people that he had known
in the thirties. They had all been interested in audio equipment for many
years. Who would have believed then in the late forties, that the production in
Copenhagen would turn out to be the largest of its kind in Europe less than ten
years later, and that music machines with the name Jensen Music Box would
be exported worldwide, at least to more than thirty countries.
The
first model A from Jensen & Hoffmann A/S, which was a hide-away
model, was only produced as a prototype in a number of two or three. One of
them is preserved today by a collector in Sweden. The next models J-20-B
and -C were nicknamed Linie 4 due to red and green lights on the
front. The combination of red and green lights was used on tramcars on line
The
Jensen company, better known today as IMA/AMI, which indeed was the most
important manufacturer during the Danish jukebox era, made the following full
size jukeboxes from 1951 until the end of 1955: J-40-A, J-40-B, J-80,
and the rather impressive J-120 Music Box.
Especially
the Jensen IMA/AMI J-120 Music Box was a very nice machine with corner
plastics and rotating colour cylinders. All the Jensen models from 1951 until
1955 had cabinets of zebrano veneer, and the mechanisms did look very much like
the AMI 'model 500 record changer', They were all produced at the same
time, but the total number of machines produced at the factory is unknown today
as the serial number registrations were destroyed in the late sixties.
The
illuminated Jensen IMA/AMI J-120 Music Box and Lytrofon Bluebird
produced during the same period (1955/56) were the aces among Danish jukeboxes.
Both of them had cabinets of zebrano veneer, corner plastics, and rotating
colour cylinders, and they brought with them a very cosy atmosphere in the
local bars and restaurants.
Later
in the fifties Jensen Music Automates A/S, which was the official name of the
company during the heydays, the period between 1954 and 1958, produced the
following models: J-40-G, J-80-G, and J-80-H. They all had
a certain resemblance to the American G- and H-models from
Automatic Musical Instrument Inc. (AMI). The managers of the two companies in
question, Edwin Karl Jensen and John W. Haddock, had signed a kind of license
agreement in the year 1954. AMI was together with Seeburg, Rock-Ola, and of
course Wurlitzer called the 'big four' among jukebox manufacturers worldwide.
Jensen Music Automates A/S could then very well be called the 'big one' on the
European market for a short period in the mid fifties.
John
W. Haddock had at a trade fair in Antwerp in Belgium in 1952/53 become aware of
the fact, that the Danish firm made jukebox mechanisms similar to the 'model
500 record changer', but he believed that a lawsuit might not be
profitable (the mechanism by AMI was based on two patents originally filed in
1946, but both patents were not internationally accepted until April 1953 and
January 1954). That was, however, believed to be only one good reason for the
license agreement signed by Haddock and Jensen. Another reason why John W.
Haddock and AMI wanted an agreement with the Danish company was most probably
that a very fine amplifier, type U-58, had been developed by Jørgen Mølkier for
the J-20 and early J-40-models. The amplifier gave the Jensen
music boxes a remarkably good sound, and the license agreement would be an
advantage for both companies. In 1958 the production of jukeboxes came to an
end, and the Jensen company changed its name to Jensen Music & Television
A/S. The last four years until 1962/63 the company produced television sets
mainly for the domestic market, but heavy losses on a few big customers forced
the firm into liquidation at the end of the year 1962. As mentioned before the
total number of jukeboxes from the Jensen company is unknown today due to the
unfortunate fact, that all factory registrations were lost in the late sixties.
Next
to the manufacturers Bøgh & Egholm, Superno, Lytrofon, and of course the
Jensen company, there were a few other minor productions around during the
fifties. Some of them made Danish cabinets for imported mechanisms, and among
those productions in the area of Copenhagen were music boxes made by Svend
Jarlstrøm, who imported mechanisms through foreign amusement park connections.
Another manufacturer was Bent Hansen, who made boxes for the local operator
Sigv. Hufeldt.
Bent
Hansen, who was indeed a very good furniture maker, made the boxes called Luna-Box
in the basement under a restaurant owned by Sigv. Hufeldt. The number of boxes
produced is unknown today, but they were according to reliable information to
be found in Copenhagen in the early years of the sixties. The boxes made by the
company owned by Svend Jarlstrøm are also reasonably unknown today. The editor
does know, however, that the firm was registered for many years within the
slot-machine and jukebox trade.
In
this line of minor productions the editor has to mention the Derby production
near Aarhus, Jutland. The company wanted to make a total of thirty jukeboxes
with the Derby-emblem on the front, but only one prototype was made and
used in the canteen at the factory itself. The promoter of the production was
Willy Johannsen, who was a well-known owner of restaurants and manufacturer of
mopeds in the fifties and sixties. In addition, he also produced television
sets, and employees at that particular factory unit a little north of the city
Aarhus developed and designed the prototype of the Derby-jukebox in
1956. Unfortunately the box is no longer to be found, but a few retired
employees remembered the box in the corner of the canteen.
Finally,
in the year 1960 towards the end of the era of Danish music boxes another small
production of cabinets took place in
Unfortunately,
most pioneers related to the jukebox era in
The
Danish jukebox history is interesting, but of course only a part of the
European history dealing with hundreds of manufacturers. They were all in the
fifties and sixties and certainly since then important to the European cultural
heritage, and today books and trade newsletters deal worldwide with both the
American and the European history in order to preserve information for future
generations. Unfortunately, one of the leading historians, Richard M. Bueschel, passed away on the 19th April,
1998, and left behind an unpublished 343 page manuscript entitled "Let the
Other Guy Play It!". It is the hope of the editor that Dick's daughter(s)
and a publishing company in the States will finish Richard Martin Bueschel's
fantastic work.
Gert J. Almind