H. C. Evans & Company of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

was once a leading manufacturer of

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

equipment and supplies - both honest and crooked - in the

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. It was established in 1892 and collapsed in 1955. It was succeeded by Evans Park & Carnival Device Corporation, which was still in business in June 1961 but no longer trades, and by Evans Supply Company, which was trading in 1962 but no longer trades. In addition to casino equipment and supplies, the company manufactured and sold trade stimulators, pocket novelties,

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

supplies, fair ground games and shooting galleries.

History

Established in 1892, the firm was incorporated in 1907. By 1909 it was located at 125 Clark Street,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. By the 1920s, the firm had moved to 1528 W. Adams Street,

. In 1929 it claimed to be the oldest firm of its kind in existence and, with of office and factory space, the largest factory in the world engaged in the exclusive manufacture of the types of products for which it was known. On April 26, 1944, a representative of the firm, Dick Hood, was appointed to a planning committee of the coin machine manufacturing industry. The committee was concerned with the transition of the coin machine factories from war production back to their former use. Mr Hood's contribution to the firm was acknowledged in its 1909 product range, which included "''The Dick Hood Cage the only perfect cage ever manufactured.''". In December 1948, the firm purchased the phonography inventory of

Mills Novelty Company The Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated of Chicago was once a leading manufacturer of coin-operated machines, including slot machines, vending machines, and jukeboxes, in the United States. Between about 1905 and 1930, the company's products incl ...

, a manufacturer of

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

es and then launched its first jukebox. In about October 1953, the firm's President and Chief Executive Officer, Dick Hood, died. In March 1954 the firm introduced its last coin-operated console slot machine, named ''Saddle and Turf''. The firm collapsed less than a year later. In 1961 Evans Park & Carnival Device Corporation was located at 1509 N. Halsted Street, Chicago 22, Illinois. Its catalogue included the Evans 'Herby'

Kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance ...

supplied by Evans Supply Company of 794 Central Avenue,

Highland Park, Illinois Highland Park is a suburban city located in southeastern Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 30,176. Highland Park is one of several municipali ...

Crooked casino equipment

From about 1914 the firm published a catalogue known as "The Secret Blue Book", which included details of crooked casino equipment supplied by the firm. By 1929 the catalogue had been discontinued because "''during the past several years this book has been copied and infringed upon by numerous unscrupulous individuals''". The 1929 catalogue offered the firm's customers "special dice", "special prepared cards", and "electro magnets". Special

dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

included staples such as white or transparent "filled dice" or "shaped percentage dice" but also items said to be proprietary to the firm: "tapping dice", "gravitation dice", "new idea crap dice" and "novelty dice". In the case of special prepared

cards {{Redirect, CARDS, other uses, Cards (disambiguation){{!Cards The CARDS programme, of Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation, is the EU's main instrument of financial assistance to the Western Balkans, covering spec ...

, that is

marked cards Card marking is the process of altering playing cards in a method only apparent to marker or conspirator, such as by bending or adding visible marks to a card. This allows different methods for card sharps to cheat or for magicians to perform ma ...

, the firm claimed to have been leaders in their manufacture since the end of 19th Century. The cards listed in the catalogue were "marked for size only"; to have the suit show as well cost a further 25 cents. Prepared cards also included "luminous readers" and the associated equipment ("ruby ray" glasses and visors or eye shades). The firm's "Giant Electro Magnet" was promoted as "the latest development in electromagnetism for the control of dice". It was available as a separate component or incorporated in a regulation card table, and used with transparent "electric dice".

Pinball and other coin-op games

Pinball and other coin-op games sold under the Evans brand included the following: * Kings of the Turf (1935) - Pinball * Big Ten (1935) - Pinball * Olympic Games (1935) - Pinball * Tango (1935) - Pinball * Clipper (1936) - Pinball * Lite A Basket (1936) - Pinball * Poker-eno (1936) - Pinball * Roll-ette (1936) - Pinball * Ski-Ball (1940) - Other * Play Ball (1941) - Pinball * Bat-A-Score (1948) - Pinball ''Ski-Ball'' was protected by

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

No. 2,181,984, granted on 5 December 1939 to Joe H. Warner of

and assigned to Duane W. Price, also of Chicago. However all 5 claims in that patent specify that they are for a bowling machine. This would be very easy to get around with a competing manikin based Skee Ball or golf machine.

Jukeboxes

In December 1948, H. C. Evans purchased the complete phonography inventory of

, a manufacturer of

es - including a model named the ''Constellation'' (model number 951). Mills had become financially troubled by January 1948. In 1949, H. C. Evans launched its first jukebox, also named the ''Constellation'' (model number 135). This was followed by the ''Jubilee'' (in 1952, model numbers 245 and 278), the ''Century'' (in 1953, model number 2045), and the ''Holiday'' (in 1953, model number 4045). In addition, a 50 select jukebox, the Evans Jewel, was introduced in 1954; only one is known to exist at this time.

Karts

A couple of

karts Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size moto ...

were sold under the Evans brand. The first was the Evans ''Special'' (or ''SPL''). The second was the Evans ''Flyweight''. The karts were known for their handling.{{cite web, url=http://www.vintagekarts.com/evans61.htm, title=1961 Evans Kart Catalog, accessdate=2006-08-27

References

H. C. Evans and Company catalogue 1909-1910

H. C. Evans and Company Incorporated catalogue from 1929

Evans Park & Carnival Device Corporation catalogue "Club, Park and Carnival Equipment" from 1961

External links

Forum, serial numbers, classified ads and more

More H. C. Evans Catalogs Jukebox manufacturers Kart manufacturers Defunct manufacturing companies based in Illinois American companies established in 1892 Slot machine manufacturers Gambling companies of the United States Gambling companies established in the 19th century Pinball manufacturers