Concord Man Revives Jukeboxes
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Dec. 31, 2000
CONCORD -- At the dawn of a new millennium, the jukebox refuses to die.
"It's the purest form of American art -- it's uniquely American in its design," said Bill Krueger, founder of Concord-based Jukebox Restorations.
Indeed, though the gaudy machine will forever be linked to an era of soda fountains and spinning 45s, the jukebox remains an enduring cultural phenomenon.
Why it continues to sing its often scratchy tune is a testament to a passionate group of jukebox purists like Krueger, who refuse to let the chrome-and-wood relics vanish.
"I see the jukebox as a throwback to another time that, in a lot of respects, was a lot purer," said Krueger, 44, who began restoring the machines as a hobby in 1980.
"It came from a much simpler time, when things were maybe not quite as abrasive as they are now."
Plenty of others agree. Hundreds of thousands of the bulky music boxes are still being built today all over the world. Several years ago, Torrance-based Rock-Ola Manufacturing Co. began producing a line of authentic jukeboxes under the famed Rock-Ola name, using CDs instead of LPs.
And more than 6,000 people regularly attend the annual Jukebox Madness Show in England.
Not bad for a trendy unit that enjoyed its first public demonstration in San Francisco more than 100 years ago.
The jukebox -- or in its early corporate lingo, the "automatic phonograph" -- had its heyday in the 1940s, when millions of Americans sought to escape from a national depression and World War II.
"Most of this business is dead," said Krueger, a former manager at a retail plastics company. "The golden age of the jukebox was back in the '40s. And in the 1950s, they called that the silver age. After that, it was no age."
Still, the Concord man is able to support a family by selling and fixing the antique machines, several of which decorate his home.
A specialist in a rare trade, the jukebox repairman knows of no other direct competitors in the Bay Area. His clients are scattered from Marin County to Redding.
Most of the work is accomplished in his Concord garage, where he is sprucing up a 1954 Seeburg for a friend in Clayton. A long-term restoration project, he said, could take two months to complete.
But Krueger, whose father was a cabinet maker, is also a distributor for Rock-Ola Manufacturing, through which he sells $6,000 jukeboxes to private collectors, wealthy musicians and CEOs.
"Typically, people buy them and keep them," he said. "And they become family heirlooms."
He specializes in 1940s Wurlitzers and '50s-era Seeburgs, once among the nation's most wildly popular names. But mostly, he enjoys the nostalgia of selling and repairing an apparatus that produced so many memories for generations of Americans.
After 20 years in the business, the work itself -- "lots of elbow grease and Windex," he said -- is fairly routine.
"The thrill comes from interacting with my customers," he said. "When I bring these machines back to life for them, it gets their memories going again. They start thinking of their first girlfriend or their first kiss ..."
Contra Costa Newspapers
Dec. 31, 2000
CONCORD -- At the dawn of a new millennium, the jukebox refuses to die.
"It's the purest form of American art -- it's uniquely American in its design," said Bill Krueger, founder of Concord-based Jukebox Restorations.
Indeed, though the gaudy machine will forever be linked to an era of soda fountains and spinning 45s, the jukebox remains an enduring cultural phenomenon.
Why it continues to sing its often scratchy tune is a testament to a passionate group of jukebox purists like Krueger, who refuse to let the chrome-and-wood relics vanish.
"I see the jukebox as a throwback to another time that, in a lot of respects, was a lot purer," said Krueger, 44, who began restoring the machines as a hobby in 1980.
"It came from a much simpler time, when things were maybe not quite as abrasive as they are now."
Plenty of others agree. Hundreds of thousands of the bulky music boxes are still being built today all over the world. Several years ago, Torrance-based Rock-Ola Manufacturing Co. began producing a line of authentic jukeboxes under the famed Rock-Ola name, using CDs instead of LPs.
And more than 6,000 people regularly attend the annual Jukebox Madness Show in England.
Not bad for a trendy unit that enjoyed its first public demonstration in San Francisco more than 100 years ago.
The jukebox -- or in its early corporate lingo, the "automatic phonograph" -- had its heyday in the 1940s, when millions of Americans sought to escape from a national depression and World War II.
"Most of this business is dead," said Krueger, a former manager at a retail plastics company. "The golden age of the jukebox was back in the '40s. And in the 1950s, they called that the silver age. After that, it was no age."
Still, the Concord man is able to support a family by selling and fixing the antique machines, several of which decorate his home.
A specialist in a rare trade, the jukebox repairman knows of no other direct competitors in the Bay Area. His clients are scattered from Marin County to Redding.
Most of the work is accomplished in his Concord garage, where he is sprucing up a 1954 Seeburg for a friend in Clayton. A long-term restoration project, he said, could take two months to complete.
But Krueger, whose father was a cabinet maker, is also a distributor for Rock-Ola Manufacturing, through which he sells $6,000 jukeboxes to private collectors, wealthy musicians and CEOs.
"Typically, people buy them and keep them," he said. "And they become family heirlooms."
He specializes in 1940s Wurlitzers and '50s-era Seeburgs, once among the nation's most wildly popular names. But mostly, he enjoys the nostalgia of selling and repairing an apparatus that produced so many memories for generations of Americans.
After 20 years in the business, the work itself -- "lots of elbow grease and Windex," he said -- is fairly routine.
"The thrill comes from interacting with my customers," he said. "When I bring these machines back to life for them, it gets their memories going again. They start thinking of their first girlfriend or their first kiss ..."
posted by Corey at 9:09 PM
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