Wurlitzer Jukebox News An Insight In to the Jukeboxes World

Maryland Press Celebrates ‘Jukebox Hero’

The local Delmarva Daily Times newspaper reported last week on real “jukebox hero,” living in the Maryland city of Salisbury, in the USA.

Phil Adkins is a wizard with electronics and vintage jukebox components – so much so that he has lovingly restored some of the rarest and most beautiful Wurlitzer jukeboxes known to collectors across the world.

photo credit: Dave Keeshan

"Since high school, I have been interested in music. Played in school, jazz and rock 'n' roll bands. In 1981, I was living in Delaware, and I had a large downstairs room with a pool and ping ball tables. I decided to get a jukebox to play 45 rpm records from the '50s and put it in that room," he told the paper.

"I still have it, a 1958 Rockola Model 1458. When I bought it, the seller, Rick Darke, also had half a dozen Wurlitzers from the 1940s. My jaw dropped, because among them was the famous 'bubbler' – the Wurlitzer Model 1015.”

This model is perhaps the most famous jukebox that Wurlitzer ever made, with its warm glow and tubes of bubbling liquids the first thing that many think of when they recall the golden age of jukeboxes.

Phil soon got a call from his friend Rick who had a Model 1015 for him that had been found in the basement of an elderly couple's home.

“When I got it, it was a wreck. It was complete, except the plastics were melted. I probably spent four hours just cleaning it up before I started taking it apart,” he recalled.

“I spent more than 200 hours restoring that jukebox.”

He is now the proud owner of five Wurlitzer jukeboxes, two of which date from the 1930s and three from the 1940s.

He proudly revealed that he has been able to restore them all to their original glory, using original parts where possible – and ordering custom-made components from a US company that makes reproduction parts.