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RePlay Magazine Podcast - Glenn Streeter

Replay Magazine Podcast·podcast_episode·46m 19s·analyzed·Apr 15, 2026
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TL;DR

Jukebox entrepreneur Glenn Streeter recounts 50-year career arc from antique radios to Rockola acquisition.

Summary

Glenn Streeter, founder of Antique Apparatus and former owner of Rockola, discusses his decades-long career in collectible jukeboxes and coin-op entertainment. The interview covers his journey from antique radio dealing (starting 1977) through jukebox restoration and manufacturing, culminating in the acquisition of Rockola in 1992 for $1.167 million. Streeter reflects on notable celebrity clients (Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, George Harrison), manufacturing innovations, and the role of serendipity and mentorship in his business success.

Key Claims

  • Glenn Streeter purchased Rockola in 1992 for $1,167,000, mostly paying for the name.

    high confidence · Streeter stated directly: 'You're not going to believe this, but it was like $1,167,000. And most of that was for the name.'

  • A Wurlitzer 850 ('Peacock') jukebox restored by Streeter and sold to Freddie Mercury sold at auction for $513,000.

    high confidence · Streeter recounted the sale and noted it was not his highest-price jukebox, suggesting verification via auction records is possible.

  • Streeter had a contract with Apple to manufacture 100 Yellow Submarine jukeboxes, sold 99 before making the first one.

    medium confidence · Streeter claims he published the story in Replay magazine, but the detail is anecdotal and not independently verified in this content.

  • Yoko Ono personally called Streeter requesting a Yellow Submarine jukebox for Julian Lennon's 15th birthday, but Streeter declined as the contract was fulfilled.

    medium confidence · Streeter told the story directly; details are dramatic and memorable but remain unverified third-party claim.

  • Streeter's company manufactures between 30-50 different jukebox models using only one cabinet design and one door design.

    high confidence · Streeter stated this as manufacturing practice: 'Only make one cabinet and one door. Now, the cutouts on the door vary, but it's all one cabinet.'

  • Michael Jackson purchased a Rockola 1428 jukebox with green plastics for Quincy Jones after the Thriller album release.

    medium confidence · Streeter recounted direct experience delivering the jukebox and meeting Quincy Jones in Bel Air, but verification would require independent confirmation.

  • Streeter appeared on the cover and two inside pages of Sharper Image magazine, leading to orders of approximately 135 jukeboxes that Christmas season.

    medium confidence · Streeter stated: 'On the cover and the two inside pages. And they ordered, like, if my memory is correct, about 135 jukeboxes that Christmas season.'

Notable Quotes

  • “ECAS was paid for this because they were subsidizing my sales for two years and paying me to give away jukeboxes, which was stupid. And the house is still here and ECAS is not. Kind of ironic.”

    Glenn Streeter @ Early in interview — Illustrates Streeter's business acumen and how a failed manufacturer's subsidy ironically funded his dream home.

  • “I got a contract with Apple to make 100 yellow submarine jukeboxes... I sold 99 of them. I kept serial number one... months later after I got done, Yoko Ono called me, of all people.”

    Glenn Streeter @ Mid-interview — Signature story demonstrating Streeter's unique position in pop culture and The Beatles universe.

  • “Freddie Mercury came in with Roger Taylor. They bought two jukeboxes in like 15 minutes... The jukebox I'd restored a Wollitzer 850... I sold it to him for $6,500... it sold for $513,000.”

    Glenn Streeter @ Mid-interview — Demonstrates celebrity market for Streeter's restored jukeboxes and significant appreciation in value.

  • “I was delivering their Christmas orders in February and March and they're screaming at me... they were doubling their money... I was selling, back in those days, they were $49.95 wholesale and they were selling them for $9,600 plus shipping.”

    Glenn Streeter @ Late interview (Sharper Image experience) — Shows extreme markup and market demand for Streeter's products through retail channels.

  • “I delivered the jukebox to Quincy Jones on a Saturday... He was in Bel Air... we down on the floor going through a 78 RPM rhythm and blues and jazz records... He was just a total gentleman.”

    Glenn Streeter @ Late interview — Personal anecdote illustrating Streeter's direct relationships with music industry legends.

  • “luck comes by and people jump, some people jump on the bandwagon. And most of them say, oh, I was going to do that, but they didn't.”

    Glenn Streeter @ Near end of interview — Streeter's philosophy on seizing opportunity and the difference between intent and action.

  • “I can't believe I ended up buying Rockola. I got into this business. I mean, from radio collecting... I don't make the music... Very blessed. Very blessed and very, very appreciative.”

Entities

Glenn StreeterpersonRockolacompanyAntique ApparatuscompanyRandy ChiltonpersonFrank SchultzpersonDonald RockolapersonFreddie MercurypersonYoko OnopersonMichael Jacksonperson

Signals

  • ?

    historical_signal: Glenn Streeter's career narrative spans 50+ years of coin-op entertainment history, from antique radios (1977) through jukebox restoration to Rockola acquisition (1992) and manufacturing legacy through 2019 sale.

    high · Streeter's direct testimony of DBA in 1977, Rockola purchase in 1992, sale to Alexander in 2019.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Streeter implemented single-cabinet manufacturing strategy mid-career to reduce tooling costs and production complexity, producing 30-50 model variants from one base cabinet design.

    high · Streeter stated: 'Only make one cabinet and one door... we make probably close somewhere between 30 and 50 models... we were able to shorten up the cabinet on the touchscreen digital jukebox because you didn't have the mechanism.'

  • $

    market_signal: Sharper Image resold Streeter's jukeboxes at extreme markup ($49.95 wholesale to $9,600+ retail), indicating strong consumer demand and premium pricing power for curated collectible jukeboxes.

    high · Streeter stated: 'they were $49.95 wholesale and they were selling them for $9,600 plus shipping.'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Streeter's restored Wurlitzer 850 sold for $513,000 at auction (Sotheby's) years after he sold it to Freddie Mercury for $6,500, demonstrating dramatic appreciation in high-end jukebox collectibles.

    high · Streeter recounted: 'I sold it to him for $6,500... it sold for $513,000.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Streeter acquired Rockola in 1992 at crucial inflection point when company was exiting market; company sale was facilitated by law firm Rudnick and Wolf; Donald Rockola motivated by desire to exit rather than financial need.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.139

0:00
Welcome to Replay Magazine's podcast where we'll dive into the legends of interesting stories within the world of what we call coin-op entertainment. That's games and amusement machines you find in arcades, fun centers, bars, restaurants, and beyond. Replay has covered this business for 50 years and is joining forces with industry veteran and former association president Randy Chilton. He is chief revenue officer for National Entertainment Network owned by Japanese amusement giant Kittleton Jenda. And now, here's Randy in this month's Replay Podcast. Glenn Streeter, founder of Antique Apparatus and bought Rockola and ran that and is retired and currently living in Palos Verdes. Did I say that right? Rancho Palos Verdes. I've seen pictures of the view at your back door and we can see the humble abode of which you live in. So it looks like you're pretty dark, comfortable.
1:00
My dream house. I bought this property in 88. I tore down the original house and built this. It's a version of a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie style, which I modified and added to it. If you can see behind me at all, from the back doors of this dining room I'm sitting in to the front door is 60 feet. And from the library section to my left, all the way to the doors over here is 40 feet. But that includes the kitchen and hallway. And it's gorgeous. And it was my dream. I was able to do this after 20 years of not being able to afford it. It's everything I wanted. I wish I had put it in a basement, but I didn't. But I've got a seven hole putting green in my backyard and it's a little over half acre in its own peninsula. The guy that built this whole development kept his property for himself.
2:04
And I found out a couple of years after I was here, because when I moved in in 88, there was double phone lines all over the house and outside by the pool and everything. And I couldn't figure that out. And then neighbors told me that Johnson stayed here when he was vice president. And so the Secret Service put in the phone lines, but he came out to inaugurate the new modern restaurant at the airport. So I did verify that, just looking it up. And like I said, I tore it down and built this and everything's custom made. The floors are quarter-shot oak. All the cabinets are quarter-shot oak. Upstairs on this side from front to back is the whole master suite and across the whatever you call it, walkway going across, that's the office over the kitchen. And that's pretty much it. Well, it looks like a beautiful home. It's nice that you can do that. Yeah, I left out one thing. ECAS was paid for this because they were subsidizing my sales for two years and paying me to give away jukeboxes, which was stupid. And the house is still here and ECAS is not. Kind of ironic. Oh, that's true. Kind of ironic. I love it when it works out like that. Well, your night history goes back years, I mean, many years, and I can't exactly remember. Why do I remember that maybe in Kansas we were buying antique apparatus jukeboxes? Is that possible? No, I think the first encounter I had with you was probably when we were in Hawaii for the Denny's. Oh, yeah. And we played golf on Lanai on the lower part. Oh, Manelli Bay, yes.

Donald Rockola did not marry or have children, and the family wealth came primarily from lakefront real estate in Chicago and New York City.

low confidence · Streeter provided this genealogical information from his personal understanding but acknowledged uncertainty: 'The only thing I can think of is the kids must, his kids must have gotten the inheritance. I don't know.'

Glenn Streeter @ Late interview — Streeter reflecting on the improbability of his career trajectory and maintaining humility.

Quincy Jones
person
George Harrisonperson
Ricky Nelsonperson
Roger Taylorperson
Joel Friedmanperson
Ry Cooderperson
Charlie C.person
Tom Catellaperson
Sharper Imagecompany
Alexanderperson
Apple Recordscompany
Atwater Kentcompany
Replay Magazineorganization

high · Streeter stated: 'Donald Rockola just wanted out. He didn't need the money. The family owned real estate.' Acquisition price: $1.167M primarily for the name.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Frank Schultz served as critical mentor and business advisor to Streeter post-Rockola acquisition, helping him navigate commercial distribution and supply chain management.

    high · Streeter stated: 'Frank was a lifesaver because I didn't really know that much about the commercial side.'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Joel Friedman's company (Streeter's former parts supplier) attempted to knock off Streeter's products but failed due to lack of distribution network for home market; Streeter had worldwide dealer network and distributors.

    medium · Streeter stated: 'The other mistake he made was they tried to knock off my product thinking they would put me out of business. But he didn't have to distribute. His distributors were not set up for selling to the home market.'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Streeter secured exclusive contract with Apple Records to manufacture 100 Yellow Submarine jukeboxes; All Beatles members including Yoko Ono had to approve design; extremely limited edition with strong collectible potential.

    medium · Streeter stated: 'All the Beatles had to sign off on it. Yoko signed off on it... I sold 99 of them. I kept serial number one... 20 some years. And I sold it for just under $20,000.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Streeter's business received extensive media coverage across multiple platforms: Sharper Image magazine (cover + 2 pages), Playboy (twice), History Channel (Gary Stearns), Cheers actor vehicle, celebrity/music industry features.

    high · Streeter stated: 'We've been in a lot of magazines. We've been in a lot of catalogs, on a lot of TV stations, been on the History Channel... been in Playboy four times.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Streeter characterized as humble and sincere by industry contacts, despite significant business success and celebrity clientele relationships; attributes much success to luck and seizing opportunities.

    medium · Interviewer stated: 'one person described you as the most humble man I've ever known.' Streeter responded: 'I'm sure that I started most of those rumors myself.'

  • ?

    historical_signal: USS Barbel (SS-580) submarine, where Streeter served, was used for final scenes in 'The Hunt for Red October' film before becoming museum display; Streeter was assigned during 18-month overhaul period.

    high · Streeter stated: 'The last boat I was on was the barbell of 580 out of Hawaii. And the last thing it did before they put in a display was the hunt for Red October movie.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Streeter developed mechanical conversion process to upgrade vintage Wurlitzer bubblers from 78 RPM to 45 RPM capability by engineering and reproducing internal gears, enabling compatibility with modern records.

    medium · Streeter stated: 'I found the gears in a jukebox from the golden age with these gears in it, converted to 45 and I just reproduced them, took them to a machine shop and made them so I was able to convert these to a small turntable.'

    • 4:07
    And yeah, I think somebody bought the whole island, didn't he? The guy that owns Prime? Oh, Beezo? Very possibly. I think so. Well, this is my putter now. That's your putter. Yeah, I have neuropathy, so I have two walkers and a wheelchair and a motor scooter and this cane, but I can still drive. Well, the cane works out great. You can just turn it upside down and it is your powder. Well, it's a great back scratcher, that's for sure. Yeah, life's good. No complaints. Well, I hear you entertain a bit in that nice house of yours. So before this is over, we can talk about how you get on that invite list. That's pretty spectacular. I hear you throw some big events from your friends.
    5:08
    Christmas and Super Bowl parties. There you go. It's about all it takes. Yeah, he and Jay have been here a couple of times.
    5:17
    Yeah, we're fortunate. We got good friends. That you started as an antique radio collector back in the day. That was your passion and it kind of still is your passion. Yeah, I DBA'd the name Antique Apparatus in 1977 and I was selling antique radios. I got one here to show you. Holy cow! Turn around the other way. Everybody say hi to Key. There's Key. Hey everybody. We don't have a podcast without a T. This is an Atwater Kent breadboard. And they're the only company that made these like this. And there's the wiring on the bottom.
    5:59
    This is a factory made radio. 1923. And this is a cable because you had to run on batteries because they didn't have power supplies back those. So that was what I was dealing in. And I got to be the biggest dealer of this antique radios in the world. And I had Marconi's, I had DeForest, I had Incredibles. And I had a buddy, his name is Charlie C. of C Scandies. And he was financing me buying collections. And we were just having a ball. It was great, but I've sold most of those. I've just kept the breadboards for myself and some advertising. There's light up advertising in the cases over here.
    6:55
    But that was 1977. And then a buddy of mine told me about some jukeboxes for sale in Denver. So I went jukeboxes. So I went around checking, seeing people that were doing these. And I met Tom Catella, who's gone from restoring jukeboxes to making Italian sausage. So he's smart to get out of the jukebox business, but it's been a very blessed life. I have been very fortunate. And I met a lot of people along the way when I was restoring jukeboxes.
    7:37
    But one little story that's interesting, and I watched the video with Eddie, the two-part series, and he started off talking about meeting the Beatles and John Lennon was such a gentleman and all that, and it was great. But I don't know if you remember, but I got a contract with Apple to make 100 yellow submarine jukeboxes. Oh, wow. I did not remember that. Yeah, and it was actually given to me. My buddy Alan Black, Sound Leisure in England, he had the deal through another buddy who had the license with Apple, some kid he grew up with. And it was for $200. And he said something about, well, I want to sell them in America. And he says, call Glenn. And they split the contract and they gave me, just gave it to me. And I used to talk to the directors of Apple and everybody was super nice. All the Beatles had to sign off on it. Yoko signed off on it. And I ran two little tiny articles in replay in the other magazine. And I sold out before I made the first one. I sold 99 of them. I kept serial number one. How'd you care about? 20 some years. And I sold it for just under $20,000. But the funny thing was, months later after I got done, Yoko Ono called me, of all people. And I was down on the factory floor, and I took this call. I said, who is this? And she told me. And she wanted to buy a yellow submarine jukebox for Julian's 15th birthday. This was years ago. I didn't care for it that much. I was happy to tell her I couldn't do it. My contract was, they were all sold. I didn't have the parts anymore, blah, blah, blah. But I turned around to Betts and they bought three from me. So everybody was happy. And that's my Beatles story, except for George Harrison came in with my retail store when I was restoring jukeboxes. He came in with Ry Cooter and they signed my apron, which I have a lot of autographs on. If you can see this. I used to buy t-shirts. This was my logo for MT Caporetus County. Oh, look at all those signatures. Oh, yeah. Oh, there's so many of these people are dead. But you can see Freddie Mercury came in with Roger Taylor. They bought two jukeboxes in like 15 minutes. This is back when I was restoring all these jukeboxes. Uh-huh. And just to tell you a little story quickly, Senebee sold off Freddie Mercury's collection two years ago this past January, and it went for over $50 million and it took a week to sell it. The jukebox I'd restored a Wollitzer 850, which we call a Peacock. I think it was the biggest thing Wollitzer ever made. And I sold it to him for $6,500, totally restored. And I'd actually converted it to 45 RPM because I found the gears in a jukebox from the golden age with these gears in it, converted to 45 and I just reproduced them, took them to a machine shop and made them so I was able to convert these to a small turntable, etc. So I sold them the jukebox for $6,500, which was going price. And they gave me credit because I had branded it on the back and the inside of the floor antique apparatus with electric branding on it And they gave me credit in the catalog and it sold for $513,000. My goodness. Yeah, that was not a record for one of my jukeboxes, but that was right up there. What is the record? I had a Swiss dealer, phenomenal couple.
    12:04
    The husband's dead and the wife sold off the business, but they took to my peacock jukeboxes that I was manufacturing.
    12:14
    And they covered the whole outside of the cabinet with blue lapis. Which is semi-precious stone and the front door. They took all the metal off and gold plated it, remade the base so they could gold plate that. And they sold two of them back when the pound was $3 and dollars. And they sold two of them to the Far East, to the Mideast for a quarter million pounds a piece. My goodness. Yeah, that's a lot of money. But those guys, you know, they have our money to burn, as a matter of speaking. But when I was restoring jukeboxes, I started making all the parts because the parts were not available or they were crap. People were making, I mean, and I started making everything. And then I made a cabinet one year and took it to the Chicagoland show, which was the biggest show in the country. Then the canning one was bigger, but it went out of business and stopped doing it in Pasadena. But I took a cabinet to one show and thinking maybe somebody would like to buy a cabinet because it was making all the other parts. And nothing happened. And then I went to Betts and bought an RIFR-45, which looks like one of those free generator boxes. But I took the Mac out and the keyboard, amplifier, all the electronics, shortened some cables and lengthened some cables and installed it in the cabinet. And the next year I went back to the same show. And I had this true story. I had guys that I knew that knew jukeboxes. And they come up with their buddies or their wives or whatever. And they go, look at this. Somebody put a new mechanism in this old cabinet. And then I would tell them, I said, the cabinet's not new. We made it. And, you know, I get a lot of comments like BS, you know. And that was the beginning of it. And I sold, I can remember these numbers because it was late in the year when we came out with them. And the first year I sold 22.
    14:51
    Second year I sold 220. And the third year I sold 660. Wow. And I could never keep up. I was behind. And then Sharper Image picked me up from a little ad I did in the Rob report. And they put me on the cover and the two full inside pages.
    15:13
    And I never looked back after that. My goodness. And tell me, you met David Rockola. How did the whole Rockola thing give us that color?
    15:27
    Well, I went to one of the AMOA shows. And I think it was in Tennessee in the Grand Ole Opry building. It was like a giant atrium. I had the flu and I was sick and I didn't go to the show for two days. And the last day I said, I got to go to the show. So I went and I was walking around. I wouldn't shake anybody's hands. And I got by the Rockola booth and Frank Schultz came out. And he goes, Glenn, he said, they're going to sell the company. And I went, oh, shit. I went back to my room and dictated a letter to my wife and sent it off. And and that's how it started. And then I found out from Frank, God bless his heart. He was great that I had to contact the lawyers, Rudnick and Wolf, which is they're gigantic. And they were in charge of selling the company. And basically they gave it to me. I mean, Donald Roccola just wanted out. He didn't need the money. The family owned real estate. They owned high-rise buildings on the lakefront. And they owned high-rise buildings in New York City. And I heard he bought an outdoor boxing arena in Manhattan and during the Depression, David Roccollo and turned it into a high rise parking lot, an outdoor boxing arena. Can you imagine?
    17:24
    And the family's all gone. Donald never married or had kids. And David, who I did talk to a few times over in Germany. So the only thing I can think of is the kids must, his kids must have gotten the inheritance. I don't know. That's the way it works. And they sold, they made, Jukebox was just part of what they made. They were making all types of products back in the day, weren't they? They made vending machines. They made coffee machines. They had the fastest vending machine in the business. From the time you pushed the button, the can was already there. They made a ton of stuff. I didn't buy the vending side. I found out the numbers were not right on that and there was somebody involved. So anyway, I ended up just buying the jukebox and basically I bought the name. Yeah. And I kept it a secret for almost 30 years and then I published it in Replay. You're not going to believe this, but it was like $1,167,000. And most of that was for the name. I just bought some inventory and Donald was happy to be done with it. Yeah, but he's gone now. I think it was 2017. Yeah. I didn't realize he was gone, but he was 60 some. When I bought the company and his father lived to be 96. He was born in 1896. So I guess they got longevity in the family. Sounds like it. Yeah. You know, talking to a lot of, you know, through this podcast experience, talking to a lot of guys that have successful career experiences, everybody has a story where it kind of made a turn.
    19:22
    And yours was in 1992 when you bought Rockola. I mean, you would have continued making jukeboxes, but that seemed to take it to a whole new level and just redirected your entire career. I just love that part of the story. Well, again, I think I'm very fortunate, but I was the right company and the right guy to buy it because I was already in the manufacturing business. I just took my bottom line up to add it to the gross sales, being in the commercial side of the business. And Frank Schultz was a big help and some of his people. If you remember right, I rented a 10,000 square foot warehouse next to O'Hare and would ship two boxes into there to centrally distribute them. But Frank was a lifesaver because I didn't really know that much about the commercial side. And Joel Friedman called me and I was at the factory and he says, I'm hearing rumors, you know, that you're buying the company, blah, blah, blah. And I was already in escrow and I kind of jumped around with him a little bit. And I said, yeah, maybe with your money. And he's laughing and I could tell he was smoking a cigar. And then I told him, I said, I did buy it. It's an escrow. And I think it sounded like he almost swallowed the cigar. That's pretty funny. He made he made two two mistakes. One, he should have bought the company for what I bought it for and just taking it off the market instead of letting somebody like me come along and get it because I was buying mechanisms and everything from them. And they'd gone through, I think, three or four presidents. And I didn't know next year if I was going to get supplies or not. So I brought everybody into my conference room and my bankers and all that. He said, I want to buy this company. And it worked out. But the other mistake he made was they tried to knock off my product thinking they would put me out of business. But he didn't have to distribute. His distributors were not set up for selling to the home market. And I had this huge network that I gained through the bigger Congress shows, you know, for rec rooms and homes. And I went to the first show and doubled my dealership overnight. And I had distributors worldwide. I even was selling to a guy in Russia before Putin took over the Crimea. We had a dealer in Mumbai, India, all over the world. And it was great. Anyway, I start to ramble after a while. Oh, you know, your stories are fascinating. I'm going to bounce around here just a little bit. You served in the Navy prior or during your work with the radio collection, correct? Actually, the radio collection came after that. I got a draft notice. I didn't go back to high school. I never graduated, but I had my own business, hiring a neighbor at St. Augustine Beach, which was a tourist town. And I renting those rafts And I took in surfboards and started ended up actually probably the first crewed surf shop in St Augustine Florida
    23:18
    And I made like $4,000 that year. Bought myself a 1959 Chevy with a big sense on the back. Oh, yeah. Oh, bought my mother color TV. And then I got a draft notice and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened. So I went and I joined the Navy and then I ended up in submarine service. And the last boat I was on was the barbell of 580 out of Hawaii. And the last thing it did before they put in a display was the hunt for Red October movie. Well, that's a great movie. Oh, it's a great movie. Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin. Yeah, I watched that. My wife laughs at me because I watch it all the time.
    24:12
    Yeah, interesting. And I had a very blessed life. I got to Hawaii out of electrician school. And the crazy thing was they had just put my boat in dry dock for an 18-month overhaul. And it went 23 months.
    24:32
    And I'm surfing. I mean, I had to go to work every day and had to stay on board every fortnight. But I ended up just I tell you, I'm just the luckiest guy in the world. I ended up with a studio apartment in Waikiki for $90 a month.
    24:51
    I'm the only guy on the boat, including officers. They had another place other than the barracks while they were overhauling the boat. And it was incredible. I mean, if you've ever been to Waikiki, they had a big A-frame down at the beach. I was two blocks from that, right on that street, because there's only two blocks to the Iliwai Canal. And, yeah, it was unbelievable. Well, regardless of your station on Waikiki Beach, we thank you for your service. Yeah. Yeah, I was on the sub-pack rifle team and shooting .45 pistols. And my brother and I were expert shooters. We were taught when we were like 10 and ended up teaching marksmanship at Boy Scout camp.
    25:52
    And in boot camp, I put all the, I had sighted in a rifle and I put all the bullets in a circle like that and I got shooter of the week. My goodness. I got out just before 1970, 69, and Woodstock was a week before that, and I was actually hitchhiking in San Francisco. And this couple picked me up in a Volkswagen bus, of course, and all they're talking about is Woodstock, and I'm going, what's Woodstock? It was crazy. And, but I did go to Altamont where the Rolling Stones performed out in the middle of nowhere. Isn't that the one where they had some people die? Yeah, they hired the Hells Angels to be security. And they knifed a guy that tried to get up on the stage. And some people fell in the canal and that water is just rushing through. You don't stand a chance, but I think two or three people actually died. Yeah, my goodness. Well, that's an interesting part of the history. And you were born in Georgia, correct? Brunswick, Georgia. Glenn County. What did your parents do? What did your dad do? My dad was a lifer in the Navy. That's why I went in the Navy. And he got through the war. He was on escort carriers in the Pacific shooting down kamikazes. He got through the whole war and he was stationed here in San Diego at the training base. And they had a small epidemic of polio. And he went to work one day and he told my mom he had a pretty bad headache. He had polio to bring. They found him slumped over his desk. I was four and my younger brother was one. Oh no. And we went back to St. Augustine, Florida, because that's where my mom was from. And her father, my grandfather, was a politician. He was a state representative to Tallahassee and he owned the local St. Augustine Press and did all the printing for Jacksonville for advertising because he had a... He was a little bit of a color-printed press. So that's what happened. Let's give mom and dad a name. What's your mom and dad's name? My dad's name was Milford. And he said he wouldn't name a dog Milford. He has an old English name. He wouldn't name a dog Milford. So I got the name of the county I was born in, Glen. And my mother's name was Lorraine Shepherd. Beautiful man. Yeah. They were both beautiful. If you can see my dad, he looked like Tom Selleck when he was young. He had a big cliff in his chin and big dimples. But when he took off his hat, he was bald before in his late 20s. Oh, you're still here. I got this from my mother's side. There you go. For the teens. Yeah, this is a cure for baldness. It's called hair. Well, thank goodness for our mom. I have the same story. Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing that story about your mom and your dad. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay, a couple more questions, and we'll wrap this up. I could talk to you all day. May just call you back on my own dime and continue this. So we've already established 1992 as a real flashpoint in your career when you bought Rockola for $1.1 million. So as far as mentors and people of influence that really impacted your life in a very big way, what's a name or two that come to mind? Oh, Ford? I'm going to just throw in this little tidbit. We actually made a jukebox for Mr. Ford, not the original. Of course, it goes way back. But his wife bought it for him for her birthday, and they sent me a wheel off the winning car at Le Mans, and they machined it and drilled holes in it. So that was the grill in the jukebox and we put Cavalier on the front of the cabinet and they made some other stuff.
    30:33
    They shipped to me that we lit up with LEDs and it said Ford up on the top. The old man Ford and what he did with automation and not automation, what do you call it? Assembly. The assembly line, yeah. You know, one of the things he did, and I'll lead into something else. He actually designed a box for the battery company that was making the batteries that he was putting in his cars. He actually designed a crate and made them screw it together instead of putting nails in it.
    31:14
    And those were the running boards. They were the exact size, the running boards for his cars. He went to frame to frame. Right. He was a genius. And most people don't know this. I've never announced this. But do you know how many models the company makes with all the different Elvis and Harley Davidson and the clear plastic ones, what I call the crystal? But we make probably close somewhere between 30 and 50 models. Mm-hmm. Only make one cabinet and one door. Now, the cutouts on the door vary, but it's all one cabinet. And I changed that about halfway through my career because one piece, one tool wore out. The side metal on the bubbler, 1015, there were six of those. So that tool wore out.
    32:16
    And I had a new, I changed the design and simplified it. And I changed the cabinet at the same time. And then all the cabinets from then on are all the same. We were able to shorten up the cabinet on the touchscreen digital jukebox because you didn't have the mechanism, mechanism inside. So we were able to take five inches off the cabinet and we just made another tool, had the company make another tool that were pressing the sides and we made it wider so we could cut it in half and we get one cabinet out of one pressing versus two pressings to make the .45 and CD mechanisms inside them. Yeah, one cabinet. So, Mr. Ford. Okay, anybody else come to mind? Pretty cool in the success of Glenn Streeter? Well, I think the product was a great salesman for me. Yeah. I've got a couple of stories besides Freddie Mercury, but I had sold a couple of jukeboxes, the new ones. No, actually they were restored ones, to Marlon and Tito of the Jackson 5. And then Michael came in my story, actually came in twice. And the second time, he ended up buying a jukebox from me and happened to be a Rockola 1428 with the green plastics on the top for Quincy Jones after the Thriller album came out. You know, that's the largest selling album in history. I think I had heard that. Yeah. Unbelievable. You know, I could do the Thriller dance. Would you like me to stand up and go through it? Absolutely.
    34:12
    Maybe after we get off this. My wife's going, no, no, no, don't do it. Hey, I delivered the jukebox to Quincy Jones on a Saturday. I want to make sure I did it myself. And he was in Bel Air. He had a Spanish Revival old house with the tiles on the roof and everything. And we down on the floor going through a 78 RPM rhythm and blues and jazz records because it only held 20 records Like the Willitzer only held 24 and played the topside But I was on the floor with him And he was married to Peggy Lipton I didn see her But I did see the kids running around So that was my story about Quincy And he was just a total gentleman My favorite autograph on the apron is Ricky Nelson Ricky Nelson. Okay. Why is that? He's one of the oldest ones. I mean, I remember New Year's Eve. I was out on a date and I heard over the radio in the car that Nelson died in an airplane. Mm-hmm. And I thought Willie Nelson had died. I got home and turned on the radio and they found out it was Ricky. And he was one of my, you know, childhood heroes. I sent a big wreath of flowers and I got a nice handwritten note back from Harriet. And I used to see her out in the valley all the time driving an old faded yellow Mercedes. But it was a tragedy. I heard you sold a few jukeboxes to Howard Hughes along with, no, no, not Howard Hughes. Hugh Hefner. Hugh Hefner. Actually, I didn't sell any to him, but we were in Playboy four times, two times. One is Antique Apparatus in the centerfold, and one is Rocola when he did Twins. It was the Centennial issue, January 2000, and he didn't like the photographs. They came back and got the jukebox again, and I volunteered to help, but they were busy. Too busy for me. Yeah, great story. Yeah. We've been in a lot of magazines. We've been in a lot of catalogs, on a lot of TV stations, been on the History Channel with Gary Stearns and something about money. And then the mailman from Cheers.
    36:49
    Oh, yeah. Yeah. He had that Made in America thing with that big bus and he came to the factory and he shot a whole day at the factory. That was one of the best. And I did a video one time with Pat Summerall narrating it. And I think they charged me $500 extra to say, this is Pat Summerall. How was your Sharper Image experience? Did you say a lot about it? You were on the cover of Sharper Image. On the cover and the two inside pages. And they ordered, like, if my memory is correct, about 135 jukeboxes that Christmas season. And I'm delivering their Christmas orders in February and March and they're screaming at me. And they were doubling their money with women with headsets and taking credit cards on the phone. And I think I was selling, back in those days, they were $49.95 wholesale and they were selling them for $9,600 plus shipping. That's good work. You know, in preparation for this, I always talk to a few people. I get to read a lot of stuff. It's one of the most fun things I get to do because, I mean, I've known Glenn Streeter and of Glenn Streeter, but really just, you know, and he is right there beside you, always does a great job of helping me prepare for these things. But, you know, pretty interesting that people talk about you in very different and complementary terms. You know, I hear, you know, he's a man among men. And one of the notes I wrote down, one person described you as the most humble man I've ever known. So you've been able to maintain your humility and sincerity and friendships through it all. Well, I'm sure that I started most of those rumors myself. Well, yeah, a couple of them did come from you. You know, one of my expressions is luck, you know, comes by and people jump, some people jump on the bandwagon. And most of them say, oh, I was going to do that, but they didn't. I can't believe I ended up buying Rockola. I got into this business. I mean, from radio collecting. And everybody thinks I'm in the music business and I make the phonographs. I don't make the music. Very blessed. Very blessed and very, very appreciative.
    39:35
    Yeah. Well, and if you had a little bit worse case of the flu at that AMOA show, you don't come out and Frank doesn't tell you Rock Gold is for sale. How's that for somebody looking out for you? Yeah.
    39:48
    Oh, I just love those stories. Yeah. He was a very kind man. I'm hoping that happens to me someday, Glenn.
    40:00
    Oh, I think you're doing okay. I've heard rumors in the other direction also. I get to do things like this, so it's so much fun. How I got in the jukebox business is crazy. I mean, this buddy of mine tells me there's 42 jukeboxes for sale in Denver. Uh huh. And I went over, I flew over there and a guy picked me up and Mexican fellow with a ponytail down to his waist. And there was 42 jukeboxes in this basement, this building. And I'm literally walking across the top of them because they're just put together like this. Charlie C. and my buddy Peter and Carmel that told me about it, we drove two 20-foot trucks with 42 jukeboxes in them back across the Rocky Mountains, and we didn't have a clue what we were doing. What kind of jukeboxes were they? They were mostly Willitsers. There was Rocolas. A lot of the early wooden cabinets, but there were several 1015s. You know, the bubbler or what I call a bubbler. I actually named those in my early brochures, the bubbler and the peacock and the gazelle. And now everybody calls them all bubblers. Right. Now the new company, and I was 48, I think it was 48 when I bought Rockola and Alexander who bought my company, my British distributor. He was the same age when he bought in 2019, but he was my distributor in England and I had a lot of dealers over there at like four. And he kept asking for distributorship and I finally gave it to him. And he increased sales like five times what all those guys were doing before. Yeah. And yeah, he's got a lot of history wheeling and dealing in Africa and doing all that. And he's an interesting guy and very well connected over in England. The Porsche brother and sister that owned Porsche and Volkswagen and the biggest car company in the world, they were at his wedding. Almost a lot of other people.
    42:29
    Yeah. Yeah, that's a good connection. Well, he sounds like a great guy to be, what do we call that, third generation owner of one of the most famous brands. And Brock Ola, I learned this in the research. I never realized there's an argument to be made that rock and roll came from the term Brock Ola. Exactly.
    42:50
    It wouldn't come from Willits or it wouldn't come from Seabird or AMI. But the old man put the dash in there because his name was not spelled that way. But people would pronounce his name Rockala and he didn't like that. So he ended up putting the dash in there. So they had to pronounce the O. But if you put another R right after the dash, you got rock and roll. You got rock and roll. Of course, that's where it came from. And the other thing, nobody knows, but the term jukebox, when I got into the business, they were called coin-operated phonographs. Nobody called them jukeboxes. And then after a while, and that's a black terminology, and we don't know, you know, they had juke joints. But we don't know if it's something from working in the fields or I don't know if it was a plant. Nobody knows. But they had these juke joints. And no matter how poor, sometimes they were dirt floors, they had a jukebox and always. The jukebox changed everything. You know, it knocked out public, I mean, entertainment in the bars and restaurants.
    44:11
    Couples singing or whatever, the jukebox just kind of took over. I will tell you one story about, you know who Alan Black is? Sound nature in England. I don't know Alan Black. He were on the same track. We started making reproduction jukeboxes about the same time. And we were best friends. And this was a contract. We shook hands. And honorable, super honorable guy. And he told me a story about how they were trying to get this guy in Scotland or someplace to put a jukebox in his place. And they had CD jukeboxes. And they were getting a pound of song or something like that. Back in the early days. And they said they would warranty and they'll take care of it and blah, blah, blah. And he called up one time and he says, jukebox isn't working.
    45:09
    So they trekked all the way up there and they opened it up and the pounds just gushed out on the floor. It wouldn't take any more money.
    45:20
    That's why I quit working. Yeah, I thought that was a great story. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's good stuff. Well, we could continue this because you just have so many stories, but we'll wrap it up. But, well, this is the favorite part. I mean, this has been a real honor, and, you know, Key and I are both very thankful to you for making the time. I know a little scheduling problem that we had a little technical issue, but you stuck with it. You made time for us, and that's a big deal to us. So we really appreciate that. Well, it goes both ways. I appreciate it. And it's good to see your face again. It's been a long time. And this is really great. So thank you. Thank you very much. This has been a real pleasure to reconnect with you. Thanks, Randy. Okay. Thank you. Game over.