23 November: Juke boxes

The very first Jukebox was officially introduced at San Francisco’s Palais Royal Saloon on November 23rd, 1889. Here are 10 things you might not know about juke boxes:

1. Sources differ on the origin of the word “juke”. Some say it’s an African word meaning “to make wicked mischief”; others say it was a slang word for dancing, or even sex; or that it meant “bawdy”. A “juke joint” was a dodgy bar or a brothel.

2. Hence the manufacturers of juke boxes at first avoided the term like the plague and referred to them as Automatic Coin-Operated Phonographs.

3. It wasn’t possible to choose the track in the earliest models. They held about 12-16 records and played them in order.

4. And only one side. Technology which allowed both sides of a record to be played didn’t appear until the 1930s.

5. A 1930s juke box would be inside a beautifully carved walnut and Glass cabinet. These were heavy and expensive. In the 1940s they started using plastic instead of glass.

6. The Great Depression of the 1930s contributed a great deal to the popularity of juke boxes. Bars couldn’t afford to employ a band, but being able to provide Music out of a box proved to be a massive attraction for the young people of the time.

7. They are often associated with American diners of the 1950s. Diners would place miniature juke boxes on the tables so customers could pop in a coin and choose a song to listen to while they ate.

8. Juke boxes on the wall became a thing in the 1960s when stereo sound became popular. These models could incorporate speakers to make the most of this new technology.

9. Perhaps the most iconic jukebox of all time was produced by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company—the 1015 model (aka, the Bubbler). This model appeared after the hiatus of juke box production during the second world war, in 1946.

10. There’s a National Juke Box Day which is observed every year on the day before Thanksgiving, around the time of the anniversary of the appearance of the first juke box.

Character birthday

Alpha Wave, a member of Combat Team Alpha. He was previously the lead singer of a boy band known as the Alpha Waves, but left over a disagreement about modernising their sound. He is gay but had to remain in the closet in order to maintain a wholesome image as a teen idol. His power to temporarily paralyse people using psionics first manifested when his secret affair with record producer Llew Powell was discovered by a gossip magazine photographer. Alpha Wave paralysed the photographer so that Powell could destroy the photographic film. Powell ended the affair and married in order to quell the rumours. Later, however, when setting up his combat team, he remembered Alpha Wave’s strange ability and recruited him.