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A.I. Fruitee (Indian)

Unknown, c. 1930s or 1940s (est.), 29 ³/₄". This machine is a mystery to me. It's 29 ³/₄" tall, 6 ³/₄" wide, and 3" deep and is wall-mounted.

I bought this on eBay in August 2004 because the graphics were interesting, because I'd never before seen a machine with an Indian heritage, and because it was reasonably priced. Before I bought it I'd suspected that it was a British machine used in India during the British occupation of that country (which ended in 1947), but a large English penny doesn't fit the coin slot. Neither does an American penny or nickel. Not having a stash of old Indian coins around, I can't try one of them for size and fit so the coinage remains a mystery to me. Perhaps when my friend Madhu visits he can help me figure it out.

I don't know how "free animal pictures" played into this machine, but a promise is a promise so I assume it delivered. Perhaps the edible goodies were wrapped with small pictures of wild animals, cute kitties and puppies, ugly domestic livestock, or Ohio State football players---excuse the redundancy---but since I got no product with the machine I don't know.

This machine is 100% original. The eBay description for this machine stated "no key," so I expected to have to futz with it or take it to my locksmith. When I opened the package and snipped away the bubble wrap, an original key was laying in the bottom of the product cup. I tried it, and sure enough it worked. It must have been somewhere in the machine and shaken loose during shipping. For good reason we fear the trauma that we know machines undergo during transport, but twice now during shipping something good has shaken loose on a machine I received. The other time that happened, an 1884 Indian head penny shook loose from an Autosales L-vendor, so this phenomenon obviously has something to do with the word "Indian" being associated with a machine.