Marble Vending Machine Trivia

[Steph]

There was a gumball shortage during WWII. Marbles filled the void. As their promoters said, marbles never went stale or rancid.

[psia-antique]

There was a gumball shortage during WWII. Marbles filled the void. As their promoters said, marbles never went stale or rancid.

How complete is your work on the subject? Pictures of the machines? Names of the makeresof the machines? Dates? Any more info will be greatly appreciated.

[marboman]

Thanks Steph for sharing your thoughts,interesting subject.Bo

[mmuehlba]

How complete is your work on the subject? Pictures of the machines? Names of the makeresof the machines? Dates? Any more info will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Steve well it 's pictures you want I have the real pictures of the original machines some place on the computer but will these help . MIKE

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I think this took way to long . Mike

[Steph]

Thanks for the pix, Mike.

Always appreciated.

I agree with the notion that the etched ones which say marbles are fantasy. I need to reread the info but my overall impression was that some machines may have needed to be converted inside to be able to sell marbles but I don't have any reason to think the conversion involved saying there were marbles inside. And then some were designed to be more versatile, giving vendors the choice of what to sell. I don't think those would have been labelled specifically with the word "marbles". Why limit options?

I might try to gather some links, but for anyone who doesn't want to wait, check out Billboard magazine at Google Books. Make gum balls two words. Actually "ball gum" is a good search phrase.