When one does historical research it is quite possible to end up with
more questions unanswered than the reverse.  Such is the case with
writing about Jimmy Johnson who worked for the Western Electric Piano
Company and later Seeburg.

Jimmy took the job with Western Electric as a relatively young man and
worked for them as a salesman and later a director until the bankruptcy
in 1933.  After that, he formed his own company Western Equipment and
Supply Company and began the manufacture of pinball and other amusement
machines.  He even built a prototype for a coin operated phonograph.

When Jimmy died, I "inherited" all of his personal records which
included many photographs, original patents, scrapbooks, negatives and
other ephemera.  He was a pack rat and never threw anything away which
is an historian's dream.  He had many fond memories of his days in the
music and game business and those files were guarded by him until
I acquired them.

Ever wonder what Western Electric Piano Company manufactured after
they stopped making pianos?  I had always wondered that myself but
never gave it much more than a casual thought.  In  Jimmy's collection
of stuff, I found an 8 X 10 inch photograph of a game called Western
Sweep Stakes.  I just assumed that he manufactured it.  In the course
of my research on Jimmy, which will be published in book form at a
later date, I could find no reference to Sweep Stakes in his personal
files.  His first games were manufactured at 850 Blackhawk Street which
was also the address for the Western Electric Piano Company and his
first game is listed as being manufactured in 1933.

Imagine my surprise when I looked in Billboard magazine starting in
1931 and found two games made in 1932 not by Jimmy Johnson, but by
Western Electric Piano Company.  Jimmy was already a director of the
company and his sketch book, in which he drew out his ideas for new
games, shows a mechanism which would certainly fit a game using parts
from the Derby racehorse piano that is so popular today with
collectors.

Thus was born Sweep Stakes, however, preceding that offering from
the financially strapped company was another game called Loop-A-Ball,
which was more like a pinball game than anything else.

There were actually two versions of Sweep Stakes manufactured, however,
the gambling unit in which you chose a horse and if your horse won,
the machine paid out like a slot machine was never advertised in
Billboard magazine, at least none of the ones that I researched.  The
patent number listed in the advert for Sweep Stakes was actually the
one granted to A. Larson for the Derby piano, but you can look that
one up on the world's largest search engine.

I have scans of the two Billboard ads on my web site and also some
color pictures of an actual Sweep Stakes game that was recently offered
for sale.  To get to the link, log on to my web page and click on the
link provided:  http://www.edgaida.com/

A final observation is in order.  Jimmy married in 1930 and the
employees of Seeburg/Western Electric presented the happy couple with
a lace table cloth.  Enclosed with the gift was a card signed by the
employees.  I found it in one of the scrap books.  What is of particular
interest is the fact that as each person signed the card, they placed
WE behind their name if they worked for Western Electric and Seeburg
next to their name if they worked for that firm.  A. Larson heads the
list of names and J. P. Seeburg rounds out the last entry.

Jimmy Johnson moved out of the old Seeburg plant in 1935 and continued
to manufacture games until the onset of World War Two.  The second half
of his life here in San Antonio as owner and operator of San Antonio's
finest amusement park has been chronicled in a book to be released in
late October.  Why do things in chronological order?  Stay tuned for
details.

Ed Gaida
San Antonio, Texas - where it is still raining.