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RePlay Magazine Podcast - Glenn Streeter
Glenn Streeter had a passion for antique radios, and got his hobby started in his garage in 1977. He found his way into the coin machine business by hand-building reproduction, nostalgic-styled...
Highlights
- Glenn Streeter purchased Rockola in 1992 for $1,167,000, mostly paying for the name.
- A Wurlitzer 850 ('Peacock') jukebox restored by Streeter and sold to Freddie Mercury sold at auction for $513,000.
- Streeter had a contract with Apple to manufacture 100 Yellow Submarine jukeboxes, sold 99 before making the first one.
- Yoko Ono personally called Streeter requesting a Yellow Submarine jukebox for Julian Lennon's 15th birthday, but Streeter declined as the contract was fulfilled.
- Streeter's company manufactures between 30-50 different jukebox models using only one cabinet design and one door design.
- Michael Jackson purchased a Rockola 1428 jukebox with green plastics for Quincy Jones after the Thriller album release.
- Streeter appeared on the cover and two inside pages of Sharper Image magazine, leading to orders of approximately 135 jukeboxes that Christmas season.
- Donald Rockola did not marry or have children, and the family wealth came primarily from lakefront real estate in Chicago and New York City.
Notable quotes
“ECAS was paid for this because they were subsidizing my sales for two years and paying me to give away jukeboxes, which was stupid. And the house is still here and ECAS is not. Kind of ironic.”
“I got a contract with Apple to make 100 yellow submarine jukeboxes... I sold 99 of them. I kept serial number one... months later after I got done, Yoko Ono called me, of all people.”
“Freddie Mercury came in with Roger Taylor. They bought two jukeboxes in like 15 minutes... The jukebox I'd restored a Wollitzer 850... I sold it to him for $6,500... it sold for $513,000.”
“I was delivering their Christmas orders in February and March and they're screaming at me... they were doubling their money... I was selling, back in those days, they were $49.95 wholesale and they were selling them for $9,600 plus shipping.”
“I delivered the jukebox to Quincy Jones on a Saturday... He was in Bel Air... we down on the floor going through a 78 RPM rhythm and blues and jazz records... He was just a total gentleman.”
“luck comes by and people jump, some people jump on the bandwagon. And most of them say, oh, I was going to do that, but they didn't.”
“I can't believe I ended up buying Rockola. I got into this business. I mean, from radio collecting... I don't make the music... Very blessed. Very blessed and very, very appreciative.”
Entities
- Antique Apparatus· company
- Apple Records· company
- Atwater Kent· company
- Rockola· company
- Sharper Image· company
- Replay Magazine· organization
- Alexander· person
- Charlie C.· person
- Donald Rockola· person
- Frank Schultz· person
- Freddie Mercury· person
- George Harrison· person
- Glenn Streeter· person
- Joel Friedman· person
- Michael Jackson· person
- Quincy Jones· person
- Randy Chilton· person
- Ricky Nelson· person
- Roger Taylor· person
- Ry Cooder· person
- Tom Catella· person
- Yoko Ono· person
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