Serial number 815 is the earliest known enclosed horn Gabel Automatic Entertainer. This AE was made about 1910 by the Automatic Machine And Tool Company, of Chicago. This cabinet style was manufactured until about 1930, with slight variations in the coin entry and cabinet detail.
The AE is famed for its complex system that installs a fresh needle in the soundbox after each record played. The sound is amplified by a horn system that is enclosed inside the cabinet.
John Gabel guaranteed his company a monopoly in the coin operated phonograph market by patenting several important features of the AE, the most powerful patent being the needle changer.
Found by the current owner in downtown Los Angeles in 1980, the pictured machine was finally restored in 2001.
Gabel's Automatic Entertainer was produced by Gabel Co. in 1917.
Gabel Co. released 6 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1901. Gabel Co. was based in United States.
Other machines made by Gabel Co. during the time period Gabel's Automatic Entertainer was produced include: Merchant, Automatic Entertainer, Starlite, Junior Elite, and Rainbow
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