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Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated
Industry	Slot machines, vending machines and jukeboxes
Fate	Divestment (jukeboxes); divestment and merger (slot machines); and acquisition (vending machines)
Successor	Mills Novelty Co. Restores & sells violanos and other Mills products
Founded	1891 (as M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company)
Defunct	1948 (jukeboxes); 1954 (vending machines); and 1980s (slot machines)
Headquarters	Chicago
Herbert Stephen Mills (deceased); Robert W. Brown CEO
Website	millsnovelty.com

The Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated of Chicago was once a leading manufacturer of coin-operated machines, including slot machines, vending machines, and jukeboxes, in the United States. Between about 1905 and 1930, the company's products included the Mills Violano-Virtuoso and its predecessors, celebrated machines that automatically played a violin and, after about 1909, a piano. By 1944 the name of the company had changed to Mills Industries, Incorporated.^[1]^[2] The slot machine division was then owned by Bell-O-Matic Corporation. By the late 1930s, vending machines were being installed by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York.

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Family[edit]

The origins of the business lie with Mortimer Birdsul Mills, who was born in 1845 in Canada West (today's Ontario, Canada)^[3] but who later became a citizen of the United States, resident in Chicago, Illinois. Mortimer Mills would have 13 children.^[4] One son, Herbert Stephen Mills, was born in 1872 when his father was about 27.^[3] In 1892, Bert E. Mills, the youngest of Mortimer Mill's children was born.^[4] In about 1895, Fred L. Mills, the first of Herbert Mills' sons, was born.^[5]^[6] Ralph J. Mills, Herbert's second son, was born in July 1898.^[6] In about 1900, Herbert Mills, the third son of Herbert Stephen Mills was born. His younger brother, Hayden ('Bill') Mills, was born two years later in about 1902.^[6] The Mills brothers were raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and continued to live in that area until at least the mid-1930s.^[6] In 1929, Herbert Mills had died aged 57, leaving a fortune to his wife and eight children.^[7] The business was continued with Fred L. Mills, Herbert's first son, taking over as president^[8] while his three brothers, Ralph, Herbert, and Hayden held other top management positions.

History[edit]

Mortimer Mills was granted United States patent 450,336 on 14 April 1891 for an improvement in 'coin-actuated vending apparatus'. The improvement allowed the purchaser to select the product being sold and manipulate it so that it was carried to the point of delivery.^[9] Focusing on the devices covered by the patent, Mortimer Mills founded the M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company sometime between 1891,^[3] and 1895.^[4] Over half a century later, the company would promote itself as having been founded in 1889, two years before the date of the patent, and by H.S. Mills rather than his father.^[10]

Mortimer B. Mills's patented 1891 contribution to cigar vending

In 1897, the company launched the Mills Owl, which was the first mechanical upright cabinet slot machine. The machine's design included a circle of owls perched on a lithographed tin wheel. The machine was a great success and the company would later adopt an owl motif as its trade mark.^[11]

In 1898 [1], Mortimer Mills sold a controlling interest in the company to his son, Herbert S. Mills,^[4]^[7] and the name of the company was changed from M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company to Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated.^[3] At that time, the company was located at 125-127 West Randolph Street, Chicago.

In 1904, Mills Novelty Company was an exhibitor at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Its pavilion was run by Ode D. Jennings, who would later establish a competitor to Mills.^[12]

In 1906, Bert Mills left school at the age of 14 to work for Mills. He would later establish a separate company, Bert E. Mills Corporation, and, in 1946, help to develop the first vending machines to sell hot coffee.^[4]

In 1907, Herbert S. Mills collaborated with Charles Fey, the inventor of the slot machine, to produce the Mills Liberty Bell.^[13]

In 1926, the company had moved to a plant of 375,000 square feet (34,800 m²), comprising a factory and administrative building, at 4100 Fullerton Avenue in the northwest of Chicago.^[10] Mills would distinguish itself by being one of only a few firms to manufacture both machines for gambling and vending machines.^[4]

In 1928, Mills entered the market for coin-operated radios and multi-selection phonographs.^[3] Between 1929 and 1948, the company manufactured and sold jukeboxes by the names of Hi-Boy, Troubadour, Dancemaster, Do-Re-Me, Swing King, Zephyr, Studio, Throne of Music, Empress, Panoram, and Constellation.^[14]

By May 1935, the company was run by the four sons of Herbert Stephen Mills: Fred L. Mills was President, Ralph J. Mills was Vice President in Charge of Sales, Herbert S. Mills, Jr. was Treasurer and manager of the plant, and Hayden Mills was Secretary. The family's wealth included a private yacht named Minoco, after the family firm.^[6]

In about 1935, Mills was engaged by Coca-Cola to produce a standing dry automatic cooled vendor for bottles. The result, the model 47, was the first of its kind for Cola-Cola.^[1] By the late 1930s, gum vending machines were being installed by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York. The machines made use of technology protected by United States patents assigned to Mills Novelty Company, including number 1,869,616.^[15]^[16]

In 1940, the Mills company introduced Soundies, short 16mm musical films played in a coin-operated movie jukebox, its projection and sound mechanism made by RCA. Wartime restrictions curtailed manufacturing of the jukeboxes, but the Mills company continued to produce and distribute new films for them into 1947.

During World War II and by 26 April 1944 the name of the company had changed from Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated to Mills Industries, Incorporated. On 26 April 1944, a representative of the firm, D. W. Donahue, was appointed to a planning committee of the coin machine manufacturing industry. The committee was concerned with the transition of the coin machine factories from war production back to their former use.^[2]

In July 1944 it was reported that Fred L. Mills, the then President of Mills Industries, had died at the age of 49 of a stomach aliment in St. Charles, Illinois.^[5]

During World War II, Mills received authorised federal funding to use its industrial facilities to produce bomb carriers, directional antenna, hand control slip rings, and poppet valves.^[17]

On 1 April 1946, Bell-O-Matic Corpo

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