We Find the Naught Peep Machine
So now you know the mutoscope
I guess you might say it was vaudeville in some way. A friend and I were discussing the ‘peep’ machines we once frequented at Crescent Park’s penny arcade. We called them ‘peep ‘machines because peep meant naughty, and that’s what we wanted.
Crescent Park was a bustling, old-time amusement park on the shores of Narragansett Bay in Riverside, Rhode Island, and operated for 93 years from 1886 until 1979.
The park featured a large midway full of amusement rides, games, and food stands. At one end was the famous Alhambra Ballroom, where many big bands played in the 1930s and '40s. On the other end, on a bluff overlooking beautiful Narragansett Bay, was the world-famous Shore Dinner Hall, which could seat two thousand people at once. The Rhode Island shore dinner that made the hall famous included lobster, Rhode Island clam chowder, clam cakes, fish, corn, and all the trimmings. One of our many destinations at the park was the penny arcade, a venue offering all kinds of value. The greatest value for us kids was naughty. And to the peep machine we bustled. The peep machine was officially named the mutoscope.
The mutoscope was not a machine but a coin-operated for a penny, hand-turned movie viewer, and a projector. Much like today’s Rolodex, it was a flipbook in black and white. The individual image frames were photographic prints on flexible cards attached to a circular core. We viewed the electrically lit cards through a single lens enclosed by a hood, the peephole. The reel was driven by a hand crank.
Each machine held a single reel of a short subject described by a poster affixed to the machine. The speed of the reel was controlled by turning the crank. Turning backward did not reverse the playing of the reel. Stopping the crank reduced the reel's forward tension, causing it to go backward a tad and the picture to move from the viewing position; a spring in the mechanism turned off the light, bringing down a shutter that blocked out the picture. The first "movie" I tried to control was Jiggs and Maggie getting into trouble. Light off. Drat!
Mutoscopes were manufactured from 1895 to 1909 for the American Mutoscope Company by the Marvin & Casler Co., Canastota, New York.
Later, it was licensed to the International Mutoscope Reel Company, which manufactured new reels and machines from 1926 until 1949. The typical arcade installation, like ours at Crescent Park, included multiple machines offering a mixture of fare. That mixture included "girlie" reels which ran the gamut from risqué to outright soft-core pornography.
It was common for the reels to have suggestive titles that implied more than the reel delivered. One title was “What the Butler Saw.” It became vernacular, so Mutoscopes were known in the UK as "What-the-Butler-Saw” machines. What the butler saw, presumably through a keyhole, was a woman partially disrobing. I never saw what the butler saw.
Oh well, it was fun for only a penny. And Crescent Park was our vaudeville venture. And it was not quite naughty enough.
Hidden away in the back woods of Burrillville, at a pond called Spring Lake, lies a treasure not buried in the sand of the pristine 600 foot beach, but in a building that houses fun and memories of generations of summer visitors.
Spring Lake Arcade is reportedly the “Oldest Penny Arcade in America” (1). Here patrons will rediscover games they played in their childhood. Actually, games their grandparents played in their childhood! Everyone is surprised to still be able to play games for pennies! Of course, they are not all penny games. Bring some nickels, dimes, and quarters as well.
The arcade is a blend of old and new. Approximately half the floor space of the arcade is dedicated to games of from every decade starting in 1920. Most of these games are on their original coinage.
Note 1: It is now the oldest Penny Arcade ‘Business’ in America. There are only a few arcades that have penny games still operating. These include Manitou Springs Arcade in Colorado, Half Moon Arcade in NH, among others. Since it’s first drop of a coin in 1930, Spring Lake Arcade has always had penny games. In 1998, the original building was razed and replaced by a modern, dry, and strongly built facility. To see the original building, click here:
Brings back pleasant memories!
But there is still one place where you can still find a Penny Arcade! Spring Lake!
Hidden away in the back woods of Burrillville, at a pond called Spring Lake, lies a treasure not buried in the sand of the pristine 600 foot beach, but in a building that houses fun and memories of generations of summer visitors.
Spring Lake Arcade is reportedly the “Oldest Penny Arcade in America” (1). Here patrons will rediscover games they played in their childhood. Actually, games their grandparents played in their childhood! Everyone is surprised to still be able to play games for pennies! Of course, they are not all penny games. Bring some nickels, dimes, and quarters as well.
The arcade is a blend of old and new. Approximately half the floor space of the arcade is dedicated to games of from every decade starting in 1920. Most of these games are on their original coinage.