A mechanical 5 cent slot machine made by the Jennings co. This machine has four red panels that light up when plugged in.
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Ode D.Jennings Company

1874-1953 Logo

Ode Jennings was born in Kentucky in 1874. In his late 20's he went to work for the Mills Novelty Co where his natural engineering ability soon made him an expert on coin-operated machines. So much so he was given the task of running the Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 World Fair in St Louis . This was a massive building, partly designed by Thomas Edison , and featured (what was said at the time to be ) hundreds of Mills slot machines, it was the only free attraction at the worlds fair but probably made more money than any other. The building was brightly lit at night (Edison's contribution) and attracted a huge number of visitors.

The Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 worlds Fair,St Louis

Two years later in 1906 he left Mills(seemingly on good terms) and founded the Industry Novelty Co Inc whose business was refurbishing Mills machines.

By 1923 the company was called O.D.Jennings & Co and was doing very well despite a misguided attempt to revive the Garbell Typewriter Corp which he had bought out of liquidation, the attempt was a total disaster. In the same year, he was granted a US patent for an improved coin selecting device which could discard coins that were too small. In 1925 he invented and was granted a patent for an anti coin jamming device

In 1925 Ode bought a large house/farm in Schaumburg Illinois and like another country boy turned factory owner, Henry Ford, spent the rest of his life escaping from the factory whenever possible to be a part-time gentleman farmer breeding cattle and horses

By 1936 the company, was, like Mills, making a large range of slot machines in different styles, including a very unusual payout pin table called the Sportsman. This was more like a slot machine that a pin table

Ode Jennings died on 29th November 1953 at the age of 79 having personally run the company for 47 years. Having no children he left everything in trust to his wife on the proviso that it passed to the town and hospital on her death but she seems to have got round that as far as the company was concerned by setting up Jennings and Co in 1954 which purchased the assets of O.D.Jennings and Co from the estate of Ode Jennings.

Jennings and Co were merged with theHershey Manufacturing Co in 1957 although 80% of Hershey's production was Jennings machines. By the early '60s Jennings was the top producer of slot machines in the US with 45% of total sales.

By the mid '60s with laws in the US cutting slot sales to a fraction American Machine and Science Co acquired the failing Jennings Co along with Bell-o-matic (the remains of the Mills Slot division) and merged them to become TJM Corp run by Tony and John Mills but a failure to come to grips with the new electromechanical slot machines Bally had grabbed the market with plus the failure of Mills to protect their business rights in Japan caused the company to close in the 1980s

Ode Jennings wife Jeannette died in 1963 and, as proposed in Ode's will, left the house and lands to the town and donated $500,000 to the local hospital for the building of the O.D.Jennings wing which opened in 1966.

A selection Of Jennings Machines

Most slot machine collectors want at least one Jennings machine in their collection. The early models are always interesting and the later ones are often considered THE classic mechanical slot machine. The Indian Chief figurehead is instantly recognisable even to those not involved in the history of slots. They were always well made with great build quality and the designs have stood the test of time. Here are just a few of Jenning's amazing machines.

For a more complete list click the green button at the top of the page

1920 5c Play 1925 25c Counter model

Dutch Boy Century

4 star Chief One star chief

Dixie Belle Dixie Belle

Century 'Bull Durham' Triple Jackpot

Peacock 'The Witch/Black cat'

Quality Mint Vendor Silver Club

BronzeChief Fortune teller gum Ball Vendor

The 'Little Duke'

The 'Little Duke' was an attempt at something new and did have considerable success. The totally new mech bares no resemblance to the standard Bandit mechs of the day and the machine is much sort after today

The Little duke inside the little Duke

'Little Duke' Patent 1933

Being totally new in design considerable effort was put into educating potential customers as to the Little Duke

Jennings produced a surprising number of different 'Golf Ball Vendors' The console on the left allowed the player to select which type of ball he wanted

Puritan Girl Trade Stim Triplex Chief

Fortune teller gum ball vendor Penny Play

Rockaway The Favorite

Club Consoles

Jennings were always keen on console style machines, this was most likely due to there large upper-class market in clubs.These machines represent some of the most luxurious machines ever made

Cigarola Club console

Plain Case Club Console The Long Shot

Deluxe Club Console 'Prospector' Console

The low level 'Silver Moon' console was another unusual style that had some success

This silver moon boasts a rather ugly raised totalisator and gum vendor !!

The silver moon simply mounted the standard chief mech in a low case and the result was read from the top

The 1946 Challenger Console allowed the player to play 1 or 2 coins at different odds

Victory Chief Target Drop

Jennings made a big thing of this feature so perhaps they were the first to come up with it.

In 1939 Mills introduced the single cherry payout for the first time, Jennings had followed suit by 1941,

The Silver club (shown above) was one of the first to pay on a single cherry

Silver Chief Early silver chief

The 'Modern Vendor'

The very advanced but not very pretty 'Modern Vendor' which used some electronic parts was made in 1940 for use in states that didn't allow gambling but wasn't in production for very long.

The Sportsman Jennings always produced good quality

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In 1948/9 Jennings looked to produce the first of a range of machines that were

to become their most iconic and recognisable machines, Based on the

slightly earlier, more rounded design these had straighter crisper lines and

although many different variations followed they all retained the same basic look and shape.

The first was the 'solid front'

A Selection of the Classic later machines

Governor Tic-Tac-Toe

1946 Standard Chief 1947 Chinese Front

Prospector(Monte Carlo) Buckaroo 4 reeler

For me at least, its hard to find any make of slot machine that looks as good as the Jennings Standard

Jennings Slot Machine 20619