Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

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coppinpr
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Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by coppinpr »

Well either this just landed in the guy's storage or it's a very early electro-mech console. Anyone any ideas of make/age? The game looks particularly simple and boring. Is it possibly Jamiesons? The case shape is like their coin pushers and the lights are like their wall machines. :!?!: Early 60s? !PUZZLED! Under the dust, the cabinet at least is in great condition.


space ship console.JPG

Could this be a different machine but in the same vein being worked on at their factory?


Corn7.jpg

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brigham
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Re: Multi player arcade slot to ID please

Post by brigham »

I don't immediately recognise it, but it's definitely my type of machine!
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Re: Multi player arcade slot to ID please

Post by pennymachines »

OK, so this one is a puzzler. At least, that's what I'm calling it... Resemblance to Jamieson pushers seems tenuous - all six-station games will have this sort of shape, but it does have Rotolite-style coloured lenses.
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Re: Multi player arcade slot to ID please

Post by coppinpr »

It now seems the machine was possibly made by Lovett's Automatic Co. who were based next door to Gerry Anderson's studio in Slough. But I'm still not sure if Lovett were makers or just suppliers. I'm trying to get a photo of the payout plate to see if there are any clues there.
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Re: Multi player arcade slot to ID please

Post by pennymachines »

That would be Fred Edward Lovett, who teamed up with Stevenson in the 1940s to form Stevenson & Lovett Ltd. at 11/13 Falconberg Mews, Soho Square, W1, manufacturing a small range of games.
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Re: Multi player arcade slot to ID please

Post by pennymachines »

Aha! Just found it, thanks to the Lovett clue. Checked in Archive/Patents and found GB958782 filed in 1964 (applied for in '61) by John Walter Lovett, of Lovett's Pleasure Gardens, Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire. I'm guessing John might be son of Fred? Lovett's Pleasure Gardens was incorporated 24/04/58, exhibited at ATE in 1961, and relocated to Catham Enclosure, Redcar, TS10 1BZ, as Lovett's Pleasure Amusements (Northern) Ltd., sometime thereafter.

The London Gazette of 17/04/62 records Lovett's dissolved partnership with Silcock and Catlow:
Notice is hereby given that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between Lawrence Silcock of 43 Ackas Road, Grappenhall, Warrington in the county of Lancaster, Amusement Caterer, Thomas Catlow, of 12 Kirkham Avenue, Blackpool in the said county, Amusement Caterer, and John Walter Lovett, of Pleasure Gardens, Amusement Park, Burnham Beeches in the county of Buckingham, Inventor and Manufacturer of Slot Machines, carrying on business as Amusement Caterers at various addresses in Blackpood aforesaid and Lytham St. Annes, in the said county of Lancaster, under the firm name of LOVETT, SILCOCK and CATLOW has been, dissolved as from the 4th day of December 1961 by mutual consent and all debts due to and owing by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said Lawrence Silcock and Thomas Catlow. — Dated the 2nd day oi April 1962.
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. multi-player arcade flasher identified

Post by coppinpr »

Well done as always Mr P... at least I set you a small challenge this time. !!THUMBSX2!!
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. multi-player arcade flasher identified

Post by treefrog »

Well a link can be made to these plastic fronted colourful machines we have seen in recent years. I sold the below Fruit Cocktail at Coventry auction last month. I noticed a label inside stating Lovett Automatics with the address. I thought I had taken a picture of the label, but the buyer may be on here and spoke to him recently and almost had it running sweet.... See the payout cup is the same as the multi sided beast.
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brigham
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. multi-player arcade flasher identified

Post by brigham »

Another manufacturer with connections to one of my childhood haunts, Redcar.
I'm guessing that the Coatham Enclosure is on Majuba Road. There WAS a manufacturer of amusement machines there, in the 'sixties, which I for a long time thought was Oliver Whales; however his only Redcar address was 'Fun City', which was on the corner of Graffenberg Street.
Another one to look out for!
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. multi-player arcade flasher identified

Post by pennymachines »

It would be good to establish a definite connection, if there is one, between FE Lovett of S&L working in the centre of London in the '40-'50s and JW Lovett working west of London in the '50s-'60s (before heading North). According to my ever-trusty Arcades & Slot Machines,
Paul Braithwaite wrote:When John Lovett (Snr.) acquired the pleasure ground at Burnham Beeches (Bucks.) c1956 he found himself the proprietor of an arcade. This made him personally involved in machines and in due course he developed a new machine.

The only machine listed is 'Selectacolor' (American spelling) of 1960, an "unclassified gambling machine", advertised in the World's Fair 20th February 1960. Although it pre-dates the patent application by a year, the name fits the bill.
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by brigham »

The gameplay is no more than 'pick-a-colour', without any of the fascinations like a roulette wheel or a turning pointer.
If it embodies the design described in the patent grant, then it has the most complicated variator I have ever come across, involving a pulsed magnetic clutch!
It may account for why everybody's heard of Jamiesons...
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by pennymachines »

Yes, I'm sure that accounts for its relative obscurity. Hot on its heels came a bunch of similar but more exciting ideas, such as...

Bally's Spinner of 1962


BallySpinner.jpg




Streets Colourama of 1963


Streets-Colourama.jpg



Whittaker Brothers' Roulette of 1964


WhittakerBros-Roulette1.jpg


WhittakerBros-Roulette.jpg

(modern versions)



Brenco's Orbit and Money Wheel of 1966


Brenco-Orbit.jpg


Brenco-MoneyWheel2.jpg


Brenco-MoneyWheel3.jpg

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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. multi-player arcade flasher identified

Post by pennymachines »

pennymachines wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 5:28 pm The only machine listed is 'Selectacolor' (American spelling) of 1960, an "unclassified gambling machine", advertised in the World's Fair 20th February 1960. Although it pre-dates the patent application by a year, the name fits the bill.
John Lovett's daughter recently contacted me to confirm that Lovett Automatics did make the Selectacolor:
This machine was build by my father, the late John Lovett. It was indeed manufactured in Slough. His unit was next door to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s factory. It is possibly the last remaining unit. He invented the first multi slot. It was made of fibre glass and its shape was for a specific reason.
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by treefrog »

Looks like Steve from Colcon has had a Selectacolor put into the online auction, although it looks to have most if not all of the mechanical parts shown in the patent missing, plus every position blocked. A bit of a mammoth task on that one……

selectacolor.jpg

URL+REMOVED+BY+SITE+ADMIN#

Coppin, the picture that started this thread, was this someone who has one now or an historical photo, as if current certainly looks more complete. !PUZZLED!
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by ab88 »

It's the same machine. The blocked off sections are identical.
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by treefrog »

ab88 wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:40 am It's the same machine. The blocked off sections are identical.
Yes I realised after I posted... not for the faint-hearted. The pay cups are very similar to the Fruit Cocktail, but are made of poor quality alloy of some kind plated and seem to corrode easily. I did have one, bought at the Elephant and moved on. The new owner could not get it working properly and moved it on again. I like the looks of the Fruit Cocktail glass. Shame this beast has not got some impressive colourful graphics on it…
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by brigham »

The Selectacolor is a bit of a Chumbley, isn't it...
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by pennymachines »

Had to look it up.
I trust you mean Dr Who type:
chumley.gif
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not urban dictionary type? :o
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by livinginthepast »

I'm pleased that you needed to look it up Mr pm
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Re: Lovett Automatic Co. Selectacolor identified

Post by 13rebel »

:HaHa: :HaHa: :HaHa:
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