Coin Slot's Guide to Paces Races 7

Guide

Congratulations on your ownership of a PACES RACES.

These are the words that should probably have been carried in an owners manual for the early models of the remarkable and revolutionary PACES RACES machine manufactured by the Pace Manufacturing Company in Chicago between 1934 and1936 and sold exclusively by a separate sales company called Pace's Races Inc. during this period. But they were never said for the simple reason that a manual was never issued. There is a manual for PACES RACES to be sure, but it is for the later models made after June 1936 which differ in many mechanical, operating and servicing points from the earlier machines. As such this later manual is produced separately as Coin Slot Guide No.16 in the larger context of servicing the many models of the Baker Novelty BAKER'S PACERS, the H.C. Evans EVANS/ PACES RACES and the later models of PACES RACES produced by Pace. This Coin Slot Guide is solely concerned with the pioneering and prolific production of the 1934-1936 period.

The introduction of PACES RACES and its high price tag for the day--$500.00 in 5c play and $600.00 in 25c play-- was so stunning to the coin machine industry that nobody had any idea if the machine would catch on. The one prophet of success was E. W. Pace himself, the dynamic yet reclusive owner of the Pace Manufacturing Company. Pace put his reputation and all the money he could borrow on the line to reengineer, redesign, produce and introduce the machine after it had been brought to him in rough form by its inventors, Homer S. and Bradlee W. Williams of Youngstown, Ohio, a father-and-son team that developed the marvelous race game as the ultimate development of pneumatic action player piano technology operated by a paper roll. It took a lot of new engineering and a seemingly endless series of changes to make the game market-ready, and even at that point changes were repeatedly being made month after month after the introduction of the machine. Yet Pace still had faith in its worth and its performance, and expressed his personal thoughts in both candor and crow in its earliest advertising. This initial statement, signed by E. W. Pace, is reproduced word-for-word on page 9 of this CoinSlot Guide as it appeared in a late 1934 introductory direct mail piece.

The waryness of success and the ever-changing mechanical features of PACES RACES in this early period precluded the preparation of any definitive instruction manual for the machine. Quite obviously it would have been foolish, for the next, change order would have made the piece obsolete only that, most operators in the 1934-1936 period were so fearful of anything electric; and so totally lacking in sophisticated—electro-mechanical skills, any printed manual would have gone begging. The whole idea at this stage of marketingwas to have seriously troubled machines shipped back to the "Service Department" of Paces Races, Inc., in Chicago, or to have a non-operating PACESRACES deadlined briefly while a serviceman was rushed out from Chicago to get the machine back on location as rapidly as possible. These servicemen didn't need manuals; they worked from blueprints. Thus the original PACES RACES manuals as such were really only blueprints backed up by frequently revised typewritten instruction for these servicemen designed to keep up with the many change orders on the drawings.

Finding the original working blueprints

It has long been known that the PACES RACES manual Form 78 dated June 1936 was generally available--either found as a rarity in its original, or obtained as a reprint having been reproduced by at least two sources--but that it did not meet the needs of an owner of an early PACES RACES machine. This was particularly vexatious as many if not most of the surviving machines are from the 1934-1936 production period, a testimony to the fantastic sales success of the machine and the well-placed faith and promotion by Edwin W. Pace. The search was on for the original servicing data used by the roving Paces Races, Inc. servicemen. In one fortunate stroke of luck all of it was found at once, and a complete assemblage of blueprints, printed instructions and promotional material was discovered in mint condition still sealed in a large envelope with a Fall 1935 postmark. The find was made by "Juke Box Johnny" John Finkler of Ixonia, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1978 when he located a practically brand new 1935 PACESRACES still in the hands of a former Waukesha,Wisconsin, operator. The literature was in the old envelope, taped inside of the machine cabinet."Juke Box Johnny" graciously loaned the material to the author to create this Coin Slot Guide sothat all collectors could share the knowledge.

The surviving set of blueprints is most revealing, showing steady and rapid PACES RACES development. Quite obviously these are the original market-ready machine blueprints as they all carry an original drawing date of October 11, 1934. Change order dates are religiously entered per standard engineering practice--something that is rarely if ever carried over into printed service manuals as it has a way of frightening machine owners who much prefer to have all instructions finite and practically chiseled in stone--with significant entries on November 20, 1934; January 4, 1935; February 9,1935 and March 4, 1935. The later change order dates vary slightly from one print to another, but all indicate that major or minor changes were made in PACES RACES in November 1934 and in rapid succession in the first three months of 1935. The sole exception of this occurrence is a drawing titled "The Principle of Pneumatics" with an original drawing date of March 6, 1935, indicating a need to solve problems of understanding on the part of the servicemen. While the earlier blueprints show up in much modified and physically changed form in the later Form 78 PACES RACES manual of 1936, the pneumatic explanation never showed up again, making it a particularly invaluable addition to PACES RACES data.

Perhaps the luckiest aspect of the 1978 Finkler find of PACES RACES literature is the completeness of its presentation. Stuck in with the packet of blueprints was a pocket size folder of printed instructions without illustrations that carries the notation: "This is a temporary instruction sheet pending photographs and full repair parts catalog, which we hope to give you very soon but these instructions will be of priceless value to the operator who studies and masters them." Had this separate folder been found without the blueprints, or vice versa, the material would have been all but useless.

The Developmental track of PACES RACES

A great deal of confusion exists over the various models of PACES RACES, with some owners and enthusiasts apparently believing the line to consist of single machine. The confusion sets in when machines that are quite obviously different show up, or are displayed in collections or offered at auctions. The changes over the years were many, both mechanically and in appearance. The original PACES RACES that was first sold in numbers after September 1934 was painted black and trimmed with gold stripes, ultimately becoming known as the 1935 PACES RACES, or "Black Cabinet." The following year the cabinet was stained wood with gold trim, with the 1936 PACES RACES becoming known as the "BrownCabinet." Over the years the cabinet color and trim became more elaborate, leading to a number of highly trimmed "Brown Cabinet" and "LightCabinet" varieties and the final "Red Arrow" of 1940-1941, with the name coming from a graphic element in the cabinet design. Each version also came in a variety of play features including 20-1or 30-1 convertible, cash or check payouts, check separators, special changing odds and even a gold award and jackpot.

To add to the confusion all models of PACES RACES were modified, revamped and even repackaged in new cabinets by the Baker Novelty Company of Chicago who reintroduced the machines as BAKERS PACERS selling them as new machines from 1938 until the middle 1950s. Finally, when Pace sold out the PACES RACES line to the H. C. Evans Company of Chicago in late 1944, Evans continued production as EVANS/PACES RACES and the final original form SUPERDELUXE RACES of 1945, later completely changing the machine to create the EVANS RACES line1947. This Coin Slot Guide only services the early Pace machines. The later Baker BAKERS PACERS revamps, early Evans and later Pace machines are serviced by Coin Slot Guide No. 16, while the final Evans EVANS RACES machines are serviced by Coin Slot Guide No. 30.

How To Use This Manual

This Coin Slot Guide consists of three basic elements,all of which have been blended together for ease of use and understanding, as follows:

  1. The Blueprints have been converted from white-line-on-blue to black line prints for clarity and ease of reading. They are reproduced exactly the same size as the originals that were found in the machine in Wisconsin.

  2. The typography of the pocket-size printed "Instruction For Maintaining Paces Races" has been enlarged for easier reading, and has been split up to appear through-out the manual on pages facing the corresponding blueprints wherever possible.

  3. Original instructions, recommendations, advertising and promotional material found with the blueprints appears on pages 6-9, with other promotional items, advertising and photographs from the authors collection spread throughout the pages to fill out the story of PACES RACES.