Cover of report “General Aviation and Community Development” from NASA Langley Research Center and Old Dominion University. Line drawing of Snoopy wearing aviator goggles and a scarf, sitting atop his doghouse as if flying.
Thanks go out to @playhistory.bsky.social for some of the research here. This was based on a five-year-old thread from a now long-lost social media site whose name escapes us at the moment.
A full-page from Automatic Age magazine, January, 1934, with an op-ed from Babe Kaufman entitled "From A Woman's View Point" where she briefly describes her time in the coin-op biz.
In an industry absolutely dominated by men, to a degree north of 99%, Babe Kaufman consistently prospered, expanded, and leveraged her personality.
A photo taken from "find a grave" of Bruce Kaufman (Son) and to the right, Babe Kaufman (Mother).
Born Bella Cooper in Austria on February 28, 1898, “Babe” Kaufman died at 84 years old on March 23, 1982, in New Jersey.
America’s only woman jobber.
It's a super grainy pic of Joe Fishman, Babe Kaufman and Al Schlesinger.
She’s even spotted at the 1955 MOAs with Joe Fishman (left) and Al Schlesinger (right) — by this time, 57 years old and looking to pass operations over to the next generation.
A full-page photo in Cash Box magazine showing a group of a few dozen people who came to the outdoor celebration for Kaufman's 20th year in the coin-op industry. The headline reads "Babe Kaufman's - The Cash Box "20 Year Club" Party at Atlantic Highlands, NJ.
Babe fared well enough even after the war and, in 1953, was inducted into the Cash Box “20 Year Club” for lifers.
A page from Billboard Magazine, October 15, 1938 (p.67) with an article by Babe Kaufman called "We Doubled the Take" about her foray into Wurlitzer jukes and how much success she had with them.
Speaking of jukeboxes, she branched out into those as well — doubling the income on a route of about a hundred acquired machines.
Another staff photo of Kaufman and company, with everyone posing in front of a line of cars, Babe sitting front center on one of the fenders. Not so many hats this time.
The staff got larger and, in keeping with the more hipster times, was referred to as “the GANG” for their annual Billboard photo appearance.
“That sure is a nice jukebox you got there, and it’d be a real shame were somethin’ to happen to it…”
A couple of news clips with Kaufman signing deals for lots of 500 cigarette machines and another with her posing beside one of the machines.
As the thirties wore on, she diversified into other coin-op areas, such as cigarette vending machines.
Babe Kaufman poses in a full coat and hat in front of the door of an airplane along with some coin-op bigwigs of the day. It was apparently a thing you did to get your picture taken on a business trip on an airplane presumably as a memento if that thing were to crash.
“Targette” seemed to be a hit — at least among this group posing for their (apparently traditional) pre-flight group photo. There, front and center (and boosted) is Babe.
A promotional photo of Kaufman standing in heels aiming a rifle at the pedestal cabinet of "Targette". The dog is an Irish Setter named "Oriole-Seneca-Joker" and if you look closely you can see that the picture of the dog is actually just pasted in the photo, so it's like really clever 1930's photoshop.
Expanding outside of pinball, she promoted Kenney’s “Targette” shooting game, in which she demonstrated exquisite taste in dogs and the proper technique of handling a rifle in four-inch heels.
A photo from Billboard Magazine showing "Babe Kaufman and Her Force" which is about a dozen white dudes all wearing some variation of the same hat posing in front of a 1930's truck.
And to avoid seeming too effeminate, Babe’s employees were nicknamed “Her Force”.
It’s hard to tell if they’re supposed to look like mobsters in this photo or if that’s what any given dozen white dudes looked like in 1934.
An article from Automatic Age magazine, December 1934 (p.105) with an article showing off Kaufman's new New York Office with the headline "Come Up and See Me Sometime".
By late 1934, she opened her new location at 455 West 42nd Street in New York.
(Note the casual sexism in the adjacent article about the game that uses a live mouse as its gimmick.)
Love that her reputation sent the competition scrambling to protect their machines because Babe would just troll locations, loading them with slugs.
A gossip tidbit from a newspaper report that claimed that Paul Gerber, the proprietor of the Sherman Hotel Playground, rushed back to his arcade outlet when he heard the news that Kaufman was coming to town so he could shut down operations—better to lose some business than to have her fill the machines with slugs.
At a time when the industry was absolutely flooded with competition, she spoke in a no-compromise marketing language with a can-do attitude.
And she developed a bit of a reputation, based on this gossip column snippet of her arrival in Chicago 👀
A newspaper story entitled "Babe Kaufman Launches Own Business Venture" with a picture of Babe waving at the door of a United Air Lines airplane, apparently heading off to go take over Chicago.
Now a single mom in her mid-30s, she made regular appearances at trade shows, flaunting her connections in Chicago.
Also notable: commercial aircraft 93 years ago was WAY more of an adventurous endeavor than it is today.
Clip of a news article "Babe Kaufman Sues for Divorce and Children" dateline New York, June 17.
For good measure, she sued for divorce from her husband — “asking for custody of the four boys, but is not asking for alimony”.
That is some quality 1930’s chutzpah!
A page from Billboard Magazine, June 24, 1933 with a couple of stories about Kaufman: One with the headline "Fast Plane Brings Woman Jobber on Business Trip" and another that reads "Approve New 3-Cent Coin".
She could also be found taking a leading role in the industry: speaking at gatherings like the Coin Machine Manufacturers Association, making splashy headlines by traveling in an airplane, and helping usher in the new 3¢ coin!
A typical ad for Kaufman, which showed a line-drawing portrait of her (and it's not particularly flattering tbh) with the words "America's Only Woman Jobber" circling her head along with a description of "This Week's Special" on a Bally table called Airway.
“Branded out” might be slightly more accurate. While she wasn’t the only woman jobber in the industry, it wasn’t too much of an overstatement.
Nonetheless, she prominently declared herself as “AMERICA’S ONLY WOMAN JOBBER’ in all of her ads.
A very early ad for Irving Manufacturing & Vending Inc. Co. from New York advertising their low prices on reconditioned machines.
Babe Kaufman started with a company called Irving Manufacturing & Vending Machine Inc.
Sometime in 1933, she branched out on her own.
An ad for "Quick Silver" which claims to be "Endorsed and Sold by the Nation's Leading Jobbers" and seems to be a modification made to extent pinball tables that would offer a replay feature and extend their llife cycle.
Jobbers purchased and distributed machines to operators — though on a smaller scale than the large, specialized distributors — and acted as service agents.
Pinball table busted? Call your jobber.
Want the hottest new machine? Jobber.
It’s hard to overstate the size of the pinball boom of 1932.
Over 150 pinball manufacturers opened in Chicago alone. The need to distribute and maintain these countless thousands of entertainment machines expanded the coin-op industry as a whole.
Which is where “jobbers” come in.
A full-page ad from Billboard Magazine, September, 16, 1933, with Babe Kaufman's picture in the center with the headline "America's Only Woman Jobber from Coast to Coast" with lots of marketing text around.
Cap off International Women’s Day with this thread and tribute to an early pinball legend.
Meet Babe Kaufman — America’s Only Woman Jobber!
Skinner's line from the Simpsons where he was only going to the burlesque house to get directions on how to get away from there
#AT40
Jezza, if it's gonna be an #AT40 train wreck, there's no one other than you that should be conductor! ✌️
All y'all back to the DeLorean — cant hide here any longer. See you next week!
*stumbles back into the arcade all red-eyed* "man, that dude can hit some notes higher than Zeppelin"
Casey paving the way for litigation against Sugarloaf in the intro — turn it up #AT40 rockheads, this is our final stop
Narrator: the bag was empty the following Thursday
"We've been listening to 'Snookeroo', the B-side the past few weeks, but now we've got clearance to play the side that references the 'ten-pound bag of cocaine'. Here's Ringo Starr!"
standing on the shoulders of Wikipedia 😜
