Woodward Allmaster Allwin

[pennymachines]

Is the name a pseudonym?

We know Fred Woodward was proprietor of Grove Automatics of 81 Camp Hill, Birmingham (one of the few companies not referenced in Arcades & Slot Machines) who supplied parts to Burrows Automatics, and we're told, designed a coin rejector for Shefras.

[slotalot]

This has taken a little finding, I wonder if this is also our man from 1947?

Taken from the Yorkshire Evening News, Monday April 21st 1947.

[pennymachines]

Well you found more than I could.
I wonder... If he is one and the same, a background as traveling showman might account for the difficulty pinning him to a location: Doncaster, Blackfriars London (for Shefras) or Birmingham. I imagine Grove Automatics as typical of a small industrial Birmingham workshop of the time (many were just rooms above domestic accommodation) turning out metal goods for the larger manufacturers. The little cast-fronted fortune tellers, like Your Photo By X-Ray, are marked 'Woodward London', so if it's the same fellow, he made a few machines (including the Allmaster Allwin) under his own name while based in London.

I think this is an early Olly Whales. I have one with a similar mech, sort of...

What's yours look like from the front, Dave? Appears earlyish. As OW, like others, revamped and reconditioned clapped-out allwins when he started out, could it be a rebadged Woodward?

[john t peterson]

Excellent detective work, Gentlemen.

J Peterson
USA

[coppinpr]

well one thing we do know... it sold for £425, not bad for just the door in bad condition

[JC]

Sorry to throw a massive spanner into the works, but from the info Stuart has provided, Mr Woodward would have been born in 1920. Wouldn't that have made him a bit young to have manufactured what appears to be a 1930s allwin? My guess is that (especially as he appears to have been a travelling showman) he simply put his name on this particular machine, and probably many others, much later - say after the war?

........although thinking about it, that payout knob and guard isn't 1930s - more like 50s or certainly post war.

I'll give it some more thought

[pennymachines]

The Allmaster looks earlyish, by which I mean late '30s, judging by the simple card-over-acetate instructions with sunburst graphics and Plain-Jane game style. So I think you're probably right JC; James Frederick seems too young to be our man.

I see the Allmaster also places F Woodward in London. The Fred Woodward/Grove Automatics receipt and letter Michael Jordan contributed are dated 1958/9. Perhaps the claim, "IN THE AUTOMATIC TRADE SINCE 1922" refers to Woodward's previous history in the business. I've yet to find any company records of Grove Automatics.