Down town Fort Myers

Ive been going down town more often. Taking my group to Fords garage for dinner this evening and then us girls are going back again in the morning because me and my oldest daughter found the greatest café for brunch.

take a peek at ft myers if you have never been here.



carpe deum

Did you see the first jukebox ever made  (in the Edison museum),  Chrissy?  The Edison Multiphone?

I like a restaurant on Pine Island....cannot think of its name.

Bob wrote:Did you see the first jukebox ever made  (in the Edison museum),  Chrissy?  The Edison Multiphone?

No not yet. I been meaning to because I wanted to get a picture for you of the place, up close and personal.

im always either too tired or too lazy to go.

I bet they have a juke box at fords when I go tonight, ill take a pic of it for you if they do. this vid doesn't show one, but maybe they have one. for some reason I just feel like they do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lu9MykvVw

btw, your pic didn't work

2seaoat wrote:I like a restaurant on Pine Island....cannot think of its name.

best restaurant on pine island is Berts.   

best restaurant on pine island is Berts.

That might be it.

2seaoat wrote:best restaurant on pine island is Berts.

That might be it.

maybe, maybe not, its actually in matlacha, little pine island area. like 5 min from me. right next to yella dog   

http://www.bertsbar.us/

They have great seafood...

No, it is not Bert's..........I think it was Sandy Hook fish and rib house.....we met some couples there in January and had a nice meal and good views of the bay and mangroves.

Dot wrote:

No not yet. I been meaning to because I wanted to get a picture for you of the place, up close and personal.

im always either too tired or too lazy to go.

I bet they have a juke box at fords when I go tonight, ill take a pic of it for you if they do. this vid doesn't show one, but maybe they have one. for some reason I just feel like they do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lu9MykvVw

btw, your pic didn't work

Chrissy,

In 1906,  Edison produced the first coin-operated jukebox.  It was called the Multiphone.
Only a handful have survived.  And the only one I've ever got to see is in the Edison museum.  When you visit the museum it's in the room where all the music machines are.  This is a photo of it in the museum so you'll know what to look for.



It uses Edison cylinder records.  Edison also invented the disc phonograph record which is so familiar to us today.  But he hadn't invented that yet in 1906.
And he was really ahead of his time on this because he also produced the first remote selecting "wallbox" to go with the Multiphone jukebox.  Those are the things which became common in diner booths decades later.  Here's how ancient looking that is (looks like something out of a Jules Verne story)...

Bob,
Where are some of the other machines? What would an item like that be worth?

2seaoat wrote:Bob,
Where are some of the other machines?  What would an item like that be worth?

Offhand the only other one I can think of is the one which was discovered in a basement in 2010 in California.  But I think in the past I've heard about one or two in the hands of collectors.  And I may remember hearing about one being sold at the Victorian Casino Antiques auction in Las Vegas which is one of the oldest auctions of antique coinn-operated machines.

I'm not familiar with any specific selling price.  But I would guess $100,000 plus.
The record price for any antique jukebox is $120,750 at an auction in 2009.  That was a 1940 Gables Kuro and only six are known to exist.

The second jukebox ever produced is the Regina Hexaphone made in 1908 (two years after the Multiphone). Where the Multiphone held 24 cylinder records,  the Hexaphone held six.

About 25 years ago a very nice example of one of those turned up in a house on Oriole Beach Rd.  An antique phonograph collector from Texas came here every summer to visit relatives and I got to know him him.  He always put a wanted to buy ad in the News Journal for the two weeks he was here.
One day he called me and he was beside himself.  He told me the people on Oriole Beach Rd had called him and when we went out he was stunned to find it.  They sold it to him for $600.  Upon being told about it I threw up. lol
Here's what it looks like...

This may seem like a silly question, but how many of these were produced, and was this one craftman making the cabinets, or was there assembly line production by Edison of these. I can see the beauty of the cabinet and the history, but could you see an early computer like a xerox cpm based personal computer with big floppy disks being worth something in sixty years? I just do not see a market for current electronics without the beauty of the box.

I know y'all are talking about juke boxes. and I love juke boxes too. and I have convinced my gf that I must go to Edison so I know I will be going soon. im whipped.

anyway, we all had a very nice dinner. and it turned out tonight was the day for classic car show. so I took these pics for yall.

Nice.....