According to Chris Pearce‘s 1991 book, Jukebox Art, etymologists believe the word “juke” is derived from Black Southern slang and the West African word “dzug,” which means to lead a disorderly life. Jukebox manufacturers initially distanced themselves from the word, opting instead for the term “automatic phonograph.” Based on Pearce’s research, attitudes shifted once the term was used in films such as the 1942 movie Jukebox Jenny, which transformed the device into a symbol of American life.
When the first Rock-ola came out in 1935, there were already three jukebox manufacturers on the scene: Wurlitzer, AMI and Mills. Originating in the mid-1920s, the first jukebox models were made of dark wood and resembled the radios of the day. The device’s selling point was not beauty but its ability to amplify music for public entertainment.
By the time former pinball machine designer David Rockola put out his first jukebox in the mid-1930s, manufacturers were making them more visually appealing, using fine veneer and alternating light and dark woods. By the 1940s, designs became more playful, incorporating colored plastics, bubble tubes, bright lights and chrome.
Asheville Radio Museum curator Stuart Smolkin says, “There was a lot of competition among jukebox makers so people would be attracted in a dimly lit bar and put money in. … People liked to dance, and if [a bar] didn’t have a band [it] had a jukebox.”
The ubiquity of the jukebox during the 1930s boosted sales in the record industry, which had plummeted due to the popularity of the radio as well as the onset of the Great Depression. According to Pearce, sales had dropped from its 1920s peak of around 110 million records per year to about 10 million in the early 1930s. By the end of the decade, however, record sales went up again to 33 million.
By the 1950s, jukebox design changed as manufacturers competed less about who had the most attractive design than who had the best technology. Seeburg designed the Select-O-Matic, a model that could store 50 records and play 100 songs — a far leap from the handful of songs available decades earlier.
Soon after, manufacturers began emulating the cars popular at the time, adding colored lights, chrome tailfins and front grills to new jukebox designs — the perfect compliment to the diners popular at that time.
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