CINEJUKEBOX

cinejukebox

Cinejukebox model 50.

cinejukebox

Technical features of Cinejukebox model 50.

cinejukebox

Technical features of Cinejukebox model 50.

Cinejukebox

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Cinejukebox

Here we see the actual fascinating Ferrari Red Cinejukebox which was the last model to come off the assembly line of the SIF (Società Internazionale di Fonovisione). In 1965 the SIF company of Angelo Bottani acquired a new partner, the Milanese industrialist Federico Innocenti, who was very well known and respected in Italy for his imaginative motor vehicles, motor scooters and also steel tube scaffolding. The result was a new model called the Cinejukebox. It had a slightly egg shaped form and it was designed and developed by a team of Swiss architects with the American market in mind. It went into production on the assembly line of the Innocenti factory after the production of motor scooters had closed down when the patent was sold to a company in India. We can note the artistic soft curves and the shinny bright red paint finish reminiscent of motor car bodywork.

This model was the Cinejukebox. It used 40 spools of film like the original Cinebox but it worked also as a Juke-Box and it had 200 songs to choose from. When it was in use only as a Juke-Box, transparent slides projected commercial publicity or a kaleidoscope effect on to the screen. The video mechanism was made in Milan, the sound apparatus was supplied by the American audio firm Rowe-Ami and the end product was assembled in Philadelphia. The Cinejukebox was presented to the Italian public in May of 1966 at the Milan Fair and later in October of the same year it was presented to the American public at MOA (Music Operators of America) at the Chicago Fair. The overall industrial planning was overseen by Mario Colombo who two years later went to work with the Ferrari team at Maranello in northen Italy. The original industrial plan had been to produce 5 thousand machines in one year for distribution in The United States but the Innocenti factory interrupted the production at 400 pieces.

The Cinejukebox is presented by Johnny Charlton who is the ex lead guitarist of The Rokes, the most popular and famous English group in Italy during the nineteen sixties.

[Courtesy of Fausto Casi, director of The Museum of communication devices in Arezzo, Italy].

In: CINEBOX & SCOPITONE |