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66%JJ's BAL-AMi Jukebox Site |
A Multi-Horn Hi-Fidelity Web Site |
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Behind the BAL-AMi Factory Gate Given that BAL-AMi stopped making jukeboxes in 1963, the number of people that were involved in their manufacture is dwindling as time goes on. This page records the memories of some of those employees. If you worked at the BAL-AMi factory, or maybe knew someone who did, drop me a line. Some names I've come across are: Tony Fahy, Ken Calvy, Tom Maher, Irene Goodwin, Roy Pipfer, Len Burton, and Ronnie Palmer
Norman Jones Norman Jones, a retired electrical engineer, now living in Berkshire, was an apprentice at the BAL-AMi factory in Ilford from 1958-61. He recalls, "I knew Sam Norman, he was the step father of a school friend of mine at the time, called William. Sam was married to Elsie, William's mother. Sam gave me an early working break and offered me an apprenticeship at Balfour Marine Engineering in Ilford, where I worked for three years, during which time I assembled, installed and maintained BAL AMi jukeboxes. I was also involved in setting up the factory in Harlow, which was opened to allow for the expansion into electronic “bar bowls” and the conversion of US manufactured AMi Jukeboxes. This involved changing the power supply input and the coin mechanisms. We also had to modify the turntable motor to allow for the different mains frequency in the UK. I have recollections about Sam and his business exploits, including the gallons of orange juice he once purchased and filled the main entrance hall of the factory in Ilford, at a time when there was a national shortage of orange juice, which I think was caused by problems with the crop in Brazil. Also his associations with Bill Larkin of Larkin's peanuts. I remember being in hospital for a while and Bill Larkin coming to see me with enough peanuts and coconut ice bars to feed the hospital for days. Another character to remember was Wilf, who I think was Sam's brother-in-law. He was general manager of the Ilford factory and had a desk in the main entrance where he could see all the comings and goings of people and materials. I was older than William and passed my driving test some months before him. Whilst Sam was abroad in Le Touquet, William and I would be off in his gold Bentley Convertible, with me driving. This was unknown to Sam of course, but with Elsie’s agreement. On one occasion I had dropped William off to go into Boots in Walthamstow and was driving around the block several times before being waved down by a policeman, who wondered what a young lad was doing driving a £40,000 motor car. The policeman showed a lot of interest in the car and before long we had the bonnet open. We thought nothing was going to happen, but just as we were driving away, the policeman said he wanted to see the insurance certificate!!!! That was going to be difficult because it was in the company safe back in Ilford and only Sam and Wilf had the combination. However, Wilf was great and helped us out of the jam. On another occasion, I was driving Elsie's MGA, and smashed up the front wing. Returning to Sam's house in Chigwell, he was leaning against the fireplace as we entered the lounge. Instead of the rollocking we expected, Sam said " hello ‘hoppy’, looks bloody untidy with one wing smashed, take it back out and match up the other side!!" (He always called me “hoppy” because of the limp I had from the polio I had when I was twelve years old) At our look of surprise, he said "if you don't, you might lose your driving confidence". That was the sort of guy he was. I also got to drive Sam's Ferrari around the Walthamstow Greyhound Stadium car park. Got up to about 50 mph without touching the accelerator. It was awesome. I have seen Sam leave the factory in Ilford in the Ferrari and drive a couple of hundred yards on the wrong side of the road to get into a gap in the traffic, well ahead of him! Wow, that was some machine! Another character I knew well and we had plenty of laughs together was Eddie. He was a general handyman (only he was about my age,19) and came out with me when we did the installations to help with the lifting etc. I was not able to carry the heavy stuff. We did the installation of the Hideway unit at the Thatched House pub in Epping. What a laugh that was, trying to get the machine down into the beer cellar. It was a very cut-throat business, with people trying to sabotage machines using washers, foreign coins and even iron filings in the coin mechanisms. If the machines were not bringing in the money and the customers, then the coffee bars and pubs would want them out and replaced with a competitors machine. I looked after about 20 installations around the east end of London and Essex. They ranged from the smoky cafés in Bethnal Green to the Thatched House pub in Epping. I made regular visits to empty the coin boxes and change the record selection as appropriate. My pockets were always full of the centres of EPs!!!!!!!! Each machine had a “times” played recorder and if a record was not playing much, it had to be changed. Staff were allowed to purchase the used 45’s for a few pence, so it was tempting to add a record I liked to a collection on a machine that was not going to play it very much, and then change it a couple of weeks later! One other event that occurred whilst I was working at Balfour, was the accident I had in the company VW van, which caused some concern at the time as I rolled down a railway embankment and landed up on the lines in front of the Southend to Liverpool Street express. It's a wonder I got to 20 years old, let alone 67!
The image below is a certificate I received in 1960 following an in-house training course for the Model "K". You will notice that my certificate is signed by Cecil Jones, a director of the company.
Known to be a friend of the family and with my surname being Jones also, I was treated with some suspicion by the rest of the staff!!"
Julian Huxley I used to work in the amplifier department in the 1950's and 60's when I was a teenager. I remember Sam Norman and visited his house many times - I lived just a couple of miles away from him. They were wonderful days and I can remember building my own first valve amplifier from various bits scrounged from our department! After BAL-AMi stopped making jukeboxes, it started designing and manufacturing one-armed bandits. They did not last for very long and I was then involved in designing and building ice cream machines!! It all became rather depressing after that and I left to pursue my passion for films and photography. __________________________________________________________________
Tony Fahy building a Model G cabinet
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