The Rock-Ola Plant at 800 North Kedzie in 1981, was founded in 1926 as Peerless Weight & Vending Machine Co. by David Rockola and adopted its founder’s name in 1934. The 600,000 square foot Kedzie Road Plant was near complete shutdown by 1981 with som minimal vending machine production. The company eventually moved to Addison Illinois where Mr. Rockola would still show up every day into his nineties. After his death the company was sold in 1992.
RealStill has always been suspicious of Cleveland’s claim to a pop genre’s history, that startred as a rabid promotion to snag the hall at all costs.
Jukeboxes were invented here and became a huge business. The Kedzie Plant had its own powerhouse, and an underground shooting range because it produced M-1 carbines during WW II.
AMI, Evans, Seaburg and Wurlitzer also had Chicago plants producing jukes, and, Chicago, in general, was a leadiing manufacturer of analogue gaming machines.