Seeburg Corporation

Seeburg manufactured jukeboxes under the JP Seeburg and company name for most of its early years. It was a family owned company for some time (to about 1956) and many believe this is when they made some of their most desirable and reliable jukeboxes. When they first began to make jukeboxes the 78 rpm was the record of choice and only a few selections could be played on one jukebox. This changed with the Seeburg model M100A which could play 50 records front and back for a total of 100 selections, an unheard of variety at the time. In 1950, Seeburg came out with the first commercial jukebox designed to play the (then) new 45rpm records. They later increased the number of records from 50 to 80 and 100 per machine. In the 1960's Seeburg bought many other companies, including Williams (pinball and other games). In 1979, the Seeburg Corp, was split into two companies, with the "Seeburg Phonograph Division" spun off. This did not survive, as the court closed it in Sept. 1979. Stern (Pinball Co) purchased the (last rights) to all of Seeburgs production stock on hand (but NOT to the parts dept stock. This was purchased by Los Angeles based JUKEBOXES UNLIMITED in Sept of 1980), and began producing "Stern/Seeburg" jukeboxes. This only lasted a few years, as Stern/Seeburg also was forced to close. A few other attempts were made to use the Seeburg name, all failed. A last ditch effort was made to save the company in the late 80's. This effort was called "The Seeburg Phonograph Company" and was done by some of the "original" Seeburg employees. It was the first company to produce a CD phonograph. It remained in operation for a few years, and several CD jukeboxes were made at that time. Eventually, what was left of the company closed up shop and now nothing remains. Seeburg brought many innovations to the jukebox including more selections, 45 rpm, and CD mechanisms, and untold amounts of chrome and flash.