#Ice cream truck music box drivers#
#Ice cream truck music box driver#
#Ice cream truck music box portable#

Nichols’ current music box (it looks like it comes straight from the 1970's) - called the Omni 2 ( $225) - is preloaded with 32 songs, all in the public domain. Image Credit: GRUBBXDN via Wikiemedia Commons Read about the history of ice cream truck music, running a niche ice cream business, the art of choosing ice cream truck music, how the ice cream truck business has a strange quirk: it typically sees a bump in the wake of a financial meltdown, and how the current pandemic that has produced a record unemployment rate has been good for ice cream trucks signing up people to drive them with booming sales at The Hustle.

#Ice cream truck music box drivers#

Word spread so quickly in the tight-knit ice cream truck world that ice cream music soon became Bob’s main business.Ĭonvincing ice cream drivers to buy his electronic music boxes wasn’t always smooth sailing.

#Ice cream truck music box portable#

Within just a few years, orders started pouring in from across the country.īob never did any print advertising - he didn’t have to. 1-16 of 109 results for 'ice cream truck speaker' Results Amazon's Choice Pyle Indoor/Outdoor PA Horn Speaker - 8 Portable PA Speaker with 8 Ohms Impedance & 65 Watts Peak Power - Mounting Bracket & Hardware Included PHSP5, White 1,805 2182 List: 27.99 90 days FREE music unlimited. They worked out a deal together: Ralston, who was well-connected in the ice cream vending scene, would promote the new music boxes for Bob in exchange for a small cut of profits.

#Ice cream truck music box driver#

After founding Nichols Electronics in 1957, the WWII vet set his sights on testing TV and radio parts and manufacturing a few one-off products, like a coin-operated foot massager.īut when ice cream driver John Ralston asked him if he could put together an electric music box, Bob decided to give it a go.

Original owner, Mark's father Bob Nichols had no experience with music boxes. Owner Mark Nichols estimates that the company, which he inherited, is responsible for up to 97% of the music boxes in circulation. One company, tiny Minnesota-based Nichols Electronics, controls not just a vast majority of the ice cream music box market it is the market. The electronic music box inside the truck has done its job. The music gets louder, and like a Pied Piper, the ice cream truck draws the neighborhood kids (and even a few adults) to come buy the tantalizing frozen treats being offered. Kids burst through their front doors begging parents for money or go running for piggy banks. From a few blocks away, the faint strains of the 'The Entertainer', 'Pop Goes the Weasel' or 'Camptown Races' can be heard drifting down the street. Kids are playing in their own or neighbor's yards and running through the sprinklers. A lot of technology went into making it sound so archaic, like the sonic equivalent of Instagram.It's a hot summer day in Anytown.

And they’ve been using the same song for 70 years, and that song was written 75 years before that. In 1957, Nichols Electronics improved the electronics of the design, and introduced the digital version in 1985.Īll that to say, when you hear an ice cream truck playing “Little Brown Jug,” you’re hearing an updated version of a 30-year-old digital unit that replicated the sound of a 55-year-old electronic unit, based on a 65-year-old mechanical unit, which was based on the music box, which was invented more than 200 years ago. Ice cream trucks didn’t become ubiquitous until after the Second World War, and that’s when the Nelson Company began manufacturing chime boxes, though they weren’t terribly energy-efficient. In 1927, the first known chime box was custom built, and it played a traditional Polish song called “Stodola Pumpa.” It became its vendor’s trademark. Inspired by their nostalgia for the old ice cream parlours, they went back to the familiar music box technology. Early foot-powered ice cream carts used racks of bells and shouting salesmen to attract customers, but when trucks came along, vendors needed something louder to be heard over the engine. So how did the chime box become the go-to music device? According to ethnomusicologist Daniel Tannehill Neely, 19th century ice cream parlours had music boxes, mechanical cylinders with pins sticking out to pluck the tines of a steel comb as they rotated. When did ice cream trucks begin serenading us with their siren song of relief from the summer heat? Dave Shumka writes that the music long predates actual ice cream trucks: