Playing an antique 1940s Mills Novelty Company 3 reel slot machine.
The Mills Novelty Company had a long and storied run that had a significant impact not only the slot machine manufacturing industry, but which also affected the development of vending machine and arcade games for decades. Although these divisions of the once powerful corporation are now defunct, the company was also well-known for their widely celebrated automatic music machines and that aspect of the business is still alive and well in Chicago, Illinois to this day.
The History of Mills Novelty Company
The company was founded in the early 1890’s by Mortimer Birdsul Mills, a Canadian immigrant and inventor. He named his new business MBM Cigar Vending Company based on his patented method of delivering the desired product to the customer from a vending machine. The company branched out to introduce its first slot machine in 1897 and in 1898 Mortimer’s eldest son, Herbert, took the helm from his father and the company was renamed the Mills Novelty Company, Inc. By the time of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the young startup had already made enough of a name for itself in the arcade industry that it was drafted to provide an exhibit for the big event. The Mills’ team presented the Spectatorium, a penny arcade that was a huge hit at the international show.
Mills Novelty Company established a separate corporation to operate its Coin Machine Department in April of 1946, calling the new venture Bell-O-Matic. This business took over the slot machine operations from Mills Novelty and, over time, became a powerhouse within the industry. By the early 1960’s, Bell-O-Matic was a close second in the market to its biggest competitor, Jennings & Company, the founder of which had actually run the Mills Spectatorium pavilion at the World’s Fair years earlier before forming his own successful slots manufacturing business.
Tony Mills, one of the direct descendents of Mortimer, was in charge of the company during that time and he made the decision to sell the family business to the American Machine and Science Company, also known as AMSC. American Machine and Science had also recently bought out the Mills family’s biggest rival, Jennings & Company, and a plan was hatched to merge the two former competitors into one firm that would dominate the slots markets. The name was changed once again, from Bell-O-Matic to the TJM Corporation, a reference to Tony Mills and his brother, John, who partnered to take over this latest incarnation of their family’s long-running business.
Unfortunately, the newer companies in the field were more adept at utilizing the modern technological advances that were being made at the time and, as a result, the TJM games simply couldn’t compete. Coupled with the company’s failure to secure its property rights in Japan, the inability to compete effectively proved to be the ultimate demise for the slot manufacturing side of the legendary Mill Novelty Company and it ceased production in 1990, only a few years shy of the one-hundred year anniversary of its founding.
Mills Novelty Company Slot Machines
Although the Mills name eventually expanded to cover all manner of machines, including jukeboxes and hot soup vending machines, one of its earliest endeavors was, in fact, a slot machine. The game was called the Owl and it was an ornately carved wooden cabinet that featured a lithographed wheel with a ring of small owls and plenty of color to draw the attention of players. The machine was upright and mechanical and one of the first games to be distributed that could boast of either of those things. This slot game became such a hit and was so associated with the Mills brand, that the company logo became an owl and it remains so for the last division of the business that is still in operation today.
Not long after that, in 1900, Mills created the 20th Century slot machine as a tribute to the new era. The oak cabinet stood on pedestal legs and came with or without music as a feature. There were also different models available that would accept either smaller coin denominations and trade checks or half-dollar and dollar coins, high rolling values indeed for those days.
Their 1906 game titled Le Comete was an impressive metal structure that included ornamental elements and an astronomy theme. In the 1920’s, Mills introduced games like the Jackpot Bell, a sleek looking machine that was obviously influenced by the Art Deco style that was so popular at the time. The 1930’s era Blue Front Bell showcased the company’s ability to apply bright colors and metal adornments for a modern look that was exceptionally appealing. The 1941 console-style slot machine called 3 Bells is a prime example of the company’s designs at that time. A carved wooden casing with a three-reel glass display, the game is finished with sleek metal details and eye-popping color.
Once it was operating under the Bell-O-Matic name, the company was able to put together a partnership with the undisputed inventor of the modern slot machine, Charles Fey. Together they developed a game known as the Liberty Bell, with a patriotic theme and a cast iron structure. The addition of a sound element – a ringing bell whenever the player had a winning combination – made this machine a big step for slot machine manufacturers at that time. They continued to make creative games for the next twenty years before losing out to the modern competition that began to join the field of slots production.
Although the Mills Novelty Company hasn’t been in operation in decades, the company’s influence can still be felt on casino floors today. Their innovation in the field and commitment to providing games that would impress gamblers and make them more inclined to play is what led them to the heights of the slots manufacturing industry. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of several generations of the Mills family, this business will go down in the record books as one of the great gaming dynasties of all time.
Introduction to Why Slot Machines Say Bar
Why do slot machines say bar on their reels? Well, to understand why this tradition came to be, we’ll have to delve into slot machine history. First of all, these gambling devices weren’t always called slot machines. Slot machines were originally referred to as a one-armed bandit, then later in Great Britain as a fruit machine.
A slot machine gambling device is activated by pulling a handle or pushing a button. This can only be done after coins, tokens, cash, or casino credits has been entered. Consequently, reels with symbols begin to spin. When done spinning, the symbols shown lined up along pay lines are used to determine the payout, if any.
Reel symbols are often traditional, including stars, bars, numbers, and various pictured fruits. Fruits can include cherries, plums, oranges, lemons, and watermelons. The number seven is also very popular. And, finally, then there are bar reel symbols.
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Bar Reel Symbols
Fruit reel symbols were first used in slot machine by the Industry Novelty Company in 1909. This was quickly followed the next year by Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, recently inherited by Herbert Stephen Mills. But, with a slight addition.
Mills added the photograph of a chewing gum pack along with the fruit reel symbols. Soon after, these photographs of a chewing gum pack were replaced with a stylized bar symbol.
Slot machines have a very rich history. Within gaming device circles of the time, it was well known that Charles Augustus Fey of San Francisco refused to sell or lease the design of his first coin-operated slot machine, the Liberty Bell, which he invented around 1887.
So, how did Mills get the design from Fey? There are two theories. First, that Fey cooperated with Mills to spread the use of slot machines. After all, Fey is known as the “Father of Slots” both for his invention of the coin-operated device as well as popularizing its use.
The second theory is Mills somehow “obtained” a Liberty Bell as a result of a San Francisco saloon robbery in 1905. Less than a year later, Mills produced a new version of the Liberty Bell called either the Mills Liberty Bell or Operator Bell.
During my review of the history of early slot machines, there are also suggestions the bar symbol may have another origin story. It is generally accepted that the bar symbol is a stylized image of a chewing gum pack, as well as a company logo.
According to some historical sources, however, the company having that logo may have been the Bell-Gum Fruit company.
A Bit More History
As mentioned, slot machines have a very rich history, especially in their early days. Besides Why Do Slot Machines Say Bar, there are a few other interesting historical items of interest.
In 1916, another historic slot machine innovation created by the Mills Novelty Company was the jackpot. When a specific combination of reel symbols resulted from a bet, the slot machine would empty its coin hopper of all coins as a prize.
The Mills Novelty would later go on to produce slot machines with wooden cabinets, rather than the original cast iron construction materials.
Here are a few pictures of these early slot machines at Cyprus Casino Consultant, Casino Observer, and International Arcade Museum.
The Cyprus Casino Consultant website shows 4 slot machines on a waist-high counter top. They appear to have wood cabinets and are each perhaps 30 inches high by 18 inches wide. In metric, that’s about 76 centimeters by 46 centimeters.
Each slot machine is of the one-armed bandit variety, meaning they appear to are activated by first inserting a coin and then pulling a large lever on the right side of the machine. Each of these models appears to accept coins at the top, as well as dispense coins for winners at the bottom.
The Casino Observer website also shows 4 slot machines. Two of these machines are some of the first slot machines, from about 1890, while two others are more modern, ~1940s. The two older slot machines receive coins, but only the poker machine appears to not be able to dispense coins. This poker machine has typical card suits as reel symbols and a cast metal-type cabinet.
It appears to be missing its one-armed bandit lever, perhaps due to damage, or it never had a lever. One older slot machine with coin dispenser capability is clearly identified as a “Liberty Bell”. It rests on cast feet located on each corner. The reel symbols show three Liberty Bells, but its “pay table” shows card suits – not fruit or bars.
The International Arcade Museum website shows a single slot machine. It’s a very old slot machine showing the symbol of the Liberty Bell on its front next to three reels showing Liberty Bell, bar, and fruit reel symbols.
This is probably a “Liberty Bell” by Charles Fey, but must be a slightly later version due to it having obvious fruit and bar reel symbols. It also has a cast metal-type cabinet and the distinctive “feet” of a Liberty Bell. It also has a small tray for coins, suggesting it has automatic payouts.
Charles Fey manufactured about 100 Liberty Bell slot machines for distribution in and around San Francisco. However, there are few of them remaining in existence. The scarcity of Fey’s Liberty Bell is a direct result of a natural disaster occurring shortly after their manufacture: the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
Summary of Why Slot Machines Say Bar
Starting in 1907, Bell Fruit Gum slot machines were manufactured by Industry Novelty Co. They were followed by the Mills Novelty Company in 1910.
The reels on these slot machines included cherry, melon, orange, apple, and bar symbols with non-cash payouts in the form of fruit-flavored gum, allowing machine owners to avoid prosecution under the anti-gambling laws of that time.
The cherry and bar symbols became traditional to slot machines, and are still commonly used today. The bar symbol was a company logo, originally a photo of a chewing gum pack before being stylized as a bar.
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