Pace or Mills

American, British, French or German? We want to know about it.
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treefrog
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Pace or Mills

Post by treefrog »

Many many years ago, I bought the below bandit from an auction, “The Little Dandy”, not in best condition and sat in store awaiting one of those rainy days...... Oddly another appeared on eBay almost identical in worse condition in Exeter and sold for £250.

Anyway, got around to having a fiddle and assumed it was a late Pace Open Front machine, but on inspection find it had a Mills mechanism, but a Pace rotary escalator. I rebuilt the mechanism and returned the slides and fingers to full operation as usual been restricted to 2 coin payout for the associated award. Found it was a true 5C machine including the escalator. Also found on the back of the little dandy artwork was the original casino origin for “Honest Johns”.....

Anyway have reverted to original state with original lightup panels (I happen to have a load of empty cases in good condition, as you do) which are all intact... Never seen Mills and Pace mixed, no idea if an afterthought of an operator or original, but they mix well and work well. !PUZZLED! Cute little machines used in later years of the US casino era, a bit like Aristocrat Nevadas.
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badpenny
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by badpenny »

Nice TF, but who the hell is the Honest John?
We can't tolerate his sort in our world.
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by pennymachines »

Honest Joe's less honest brother? Why does it say, "He's in Europe"? :!?!:
The dictionary says he's, "a man so trusting and innocent that he may be easily cheated or deceived". So that's the player I guess... :o
Curious bandit.
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treefrog
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by treefrog »

Cannot find a definitive source for the term “Honest John”, although seems to have been used a lot for politicians, including the Australian prime minister.

They seem to have had a few small outlets - casinos in Las Vegas from 1961, no idea what the “in Europe” meant. I thought at first maybe they had set up an outlet out here, maybe Germany for troops or something. Who knows....?
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brigham
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by brigham »

"He's in Europe" probably means something like "Tax in Post".
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by coppinpr »

Several descriptions of "Honest John's Casino" seem to hint it was in fact only a slot machine arcade. The composer and performer Larry Dunlap has I think the dest description "Honest John's Casino was a casino in name only. It was just a bunch of slot machines in a store front next to a chicken restaurant. :lol:
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by pennymachines »

It appears he was referring to one of three Honest John's in Vegas - a small place at 304 E Ogden Avenue, opened in 1963, licensed for slots only, and renamed Lady Luck in 1968.


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This was just around the corner from Honest John's Casino on 206 North 3rd Street which was open from 1961 to 1967.


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The biggest operation was Honest John's on 2440 Las Vegas Boulevard South, which included table games and was open from 1963 to 1974.
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john t peterson
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by john t peterson »

Sharing the same name with the following:

"Honest John's Casino."
John - a prostitute's customer.
John - American slang for the loo.

No wonder I'm so confused. :burp:

J Peterson
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by arrgee »

John t Peterson wrote:J Peterson
Johnny on the spot in America
On this side of the pond JP, a 'Johnny' is slang for a prophylactic (condom) !! !WHOOPS! :lol:
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john t peterson
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by john t peterson »

Great. I'm covering both sides: hookers and birth control.

Must mean I'm sexy.

jp
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by coppinpr »

I guess as the mechanical slot era ended in the USA the lines were becoming blurred as companies went out of business and others bought up their tooling and spares.
I just came across this four reel Mills Primadonna from 1964, just about the last Mills model, and clearly made for US bases in the Far East. The design is plain but the artwork makes it rather desirable. The point is, at the same time (1964) the very last Pace looking machine came out also called Primadonna looking very much like the Mills but only three reels and accommodating the Pace round escalator. No wonder we have trouble identifying machines form time to time.
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Re: Pace or Mills

Post by treefrog »

Primadonna was/is a Casino in Reno and the script matches theirs in these machines.

The Mills Open Front started with a proper escalator left hand entry rather than the less appealing S10 on these machines. Suspect Paul this is a style thing, most manufacturers were similar with big colourful belly glasses, square steel boxes and a bit of chrome, eg Aristocrat Nevada, Jubilee Riviera and even Bally’s.......

I bought an open front from this site many years ago owned by JC on a console table, still have it somewhere
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