J ennings and Co were merged with the Hershey Manufacturing Co in 1957 although 80% of Hershey's production was Jennings machines. Having no children he left everything in trust to his wife on the proviso that it passed to the town and hospital on her death but she seems to have got round that as far as the company was concerned by setting up Jennings and Co in 1954 which purchased the assets of O.D.Jennings and Co from the estate of Ode Jennings. Ode Jennings died on 29th November 1953 at the age of 79 having personally run the company for 47 years. This was more like a slot machine that a pin table In 1925 Ode bought a large house/farm in Schaumburg Illinois and like another country boy turned factory owner, Henry Ford, spent the rest of his life escaping from the factory whenever possible to be a part-time gentleman farmer breeding cattle and horsesīy 1936 the company, was, like Mills, making a large range of slot machines in different styles, including a very unusual payout pin table called the Sportsman. In 1925 he invented and was granted a patent for an anti coin jamming device In the same year, he was granted a US patent for an improved coin selecting device which could discard coins that were too small. Two years later in 1906 he left Mills(seemingly on good terms) and founded the Industry Novelty Co Inc whose business was refurbishing Mills machines.īy 1923 the company was called O.D.Jennings & Co and was doing very well despite a misguided attempt to revive the Garbell Typewriter Corp which he had bought out of liquidation, the attempt was a total disaster. The Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 worlds Fair,St Louis The building was brightly lit at night (Edison's contribution) and attracted a huge number of visitors. This was a massive building, partly designed by Thomas Edison , and featured (what was said at the time to be ) hundreds of Mills slot machines, it was the only free attraction at the worlds fair but probably made more money than any other. So much so he was given the task of running the Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 World Fair in St Louis. In his late 20's he went to work for the Mills Novelty Co where his natural engineering ability soon made him an expert on coin-operated machines.

Ode Jennings was born in Kentucky in 1874. The Rye Heritage Ctr Collection of Working Models.See a Selection of the More Complex Machines at Work.Coin Operated Related Seaside Postcards.Replacement Artwork,logos,etc Available.

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