Araghi Bianchi

Some will be aware that I've "banged on a bit" in the past about my jukebox.

Well.. Today we went to this upmarket furniture store in Macclesfield, to order my wife a new reclining chair.

The owner is obviously into jukeboxes as he has four dotted around the store on "free-play" for customers to use.


There was a 1940's Wurlitzer 700 which plays 78s and a 1987 Wurlitzer "OMT45" neither of which interested me.

But these two certainly did!

A Wurlitzer 1800 from 1955.



And this Rowe-Ami JD200 from 1957.






Both were immaculate, having obviously been comprehensively restored. I bet both are worth upwards of £5,000 each and probably more. They were getting quite a lot of "quiet attention" from "customers of a certain age" (mostly men whilst their womenfolk probably were making decisions about purchases) and a few teenagers too.

 

At the risk of appearing a bit "nerdy" that would have been one of these a "BAL-AMI" (that should trigger a few memories). They were more or less identical except for the name, but built over here, some parts coming from the US.
This was because from 1953, import restrictions in the UK determined that manufactured goods from abroad could only be sold if at least 53% of the content was British made.



I remember them too, they were for a time, "the" jukebox.
After 1960 the restrictions were lifted on other makes so Wurlitzer and Seeburg (the biggest manufacturers) and Rock-Ola jukes started being imported and BAL-AMI more or less faded away.

 

On the subject of coffee bars, as teenagers my friends and I used to often be found in the "Orinoo Coffee Bar" in Wimbledon.

We always called it that, as at some time before, the "C" had fallen of the facia sign and had not been replaced for months.