The Early History of Sega - Service Games Part 1 - the Prehistory of Service Games

In recently came across some solid information about one of Sega's predecessors - Service Games. If you're read much on the early history of Sega, you've probably learned that it was formed via a merge of two existing companies: Rosen Enterprises and Service Games, the latter of which was founded in the early 1950s to distribute games on US military bases, first in Hawaii, and later overseas.

Unfortunately, beyond these basic facts, you probably didn't learn much else. About the only work that goes into the predecessors of Sega in any detail is Steven Kent's seminal Ultimate History of Video Games. While it does a good job discussing Rosen Enterprises, however, it goes into much less detail on Service Games and what little information it does have isn't entirely accurate (or at least incomplete).

Nonetheless, Kent’s book remains -perhaps the most thorough telling of the early history of Sega. And that’s part of the problem. You would think that for a company as important as Sega, its full history would be well known and well documented. Sadly, in my opinion, it is neither. Not only do most sources barely cover the company’s early years but they generally ignore its non-console history altogether. Even Sam Pettus’ Service Games: The Rise and Fall of Sega, is guilty. Of the book’s 386 pages (using my current Kindle settings), probably three of them talk about Sega’s pre-console history and arcade games probably don’t even get that. It’s really a shame, because Sega has probably produced more arcade games than any other company on the planet – well over 500 video games alone. Even the company itself does not seem to be aware of its own history and has listed 1951 as the date of its founding.
In this article, I will try to give a more accurate account of Service Games and its early history. I don’t pretend that this will be a comprehensive history and given the conflicting information that’s out there, I have no doubt that I will get some things wrong myself. One problem with researching Sega’s early history is the dearth of information in existing sources. Another (that seems endemic to video game histories) is that even those works that do have seemingly accurate information do not identify their sources. Nonetheless, I did find some sources that provide what seems to be some solid facts about Service Games and its founders. Two of them are legal documents (always a great source for hard dates and other info).

One is the case Martin Bromley and Allyn Bromley v. Commissioner United States Federal Tax Court, filed December 9, 1964 and available at this link

The other is a 1971 Senate investigation with the laborious title, “
Fraud and corruption in management of military club systems. Illegal currency manipulations affecting South Vietnam. Report of the Committee on Government Operations United States Senate made by its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. November 2, 1971”.

You can read the entire 2,000 page version here

Most of the information in this post, aside from the biographical info, is taken from these sources.

Service Games actually appears to have been formed in 1945 by Irving Bromberg, his son Martin, and James L Humpert. Before we get to the company, however, let’s talk about the men who founded it.

NOTE – information below was taken from various sources available on Ancestry, including the 1920, 1930, and 1940 federal census, 1925 New York state census, Social Security Death Index, California Death Index, World War I Draft Registrations, New York Marriage Index, city directories from Los Angeles and Honolulu, and various ship passenger lists. This was made a bit difficult by the fact that there were two Irving Brombergs living in LA at the time, both with sons named Martin.

Irving Bromberg and Dave Robbins in 1937

 
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Irving Bromberg was born on June 10, 1899 in New York. On June 15, 1918 Irving, who had just turned 19, married Jeannette Blumenthal. In September 1918, Irving registered for the World War I draft in Brooklyn, listing his occupation as a salesman of glassware. On August 6, 1919 Irving and Jeannette’s son Martin Jerome Bromberg was born. On the 1920 census, Irving was still selling glassware. From 1923 to 1930, he served as president of the Greenpoint Motor Car Corp of Brooklyn and from 1930 to 1933 he operated a vending and coin-operated amusement machine distribution company called Irving Bromberg Co. in Brooklyn, Boston, and Washington DC (Fraud and corruption… 1971). On the 1930 census, Irving listed his occupation as a salesman of “chewing gum” (by then, they had a second child: daughter Ehthelda, who had been born in 1924). In 1933, he sold the New York office to Leon Taksen, who had managed the office (Billboard 7/29/33).  Though the July 1933 issue of Coin Machine Journal included an ad saying that the Supreme Vending Company of Brooklyn (Wm Blatt pres) had purchased the Irving Bromberg Company of Brooklyn. That same year Irving moved to Los Angeles and opened up either another company called Irving Bromberg Co. or another branch of his existing company



Ad for Irving Bromberg Co in Los Angeles, 1934

 


Irving Bromberg Co, New York 1932
 
 
 

 
 The March 1933 issue of Coin Machine Journal reported that Bally had opened "another office at 1034 W. 7th , Los Angeles, Calif., under the management of Irving Bromberg. The April 1933 issue of Automatic Age reported that "Irving Bromberg of Los Angeles has taken over the Pacific Coast representation of the Universal Novelty Mfg Co". So it seems he moved to LA in early 1933. Around September 1933, the Irving Bromberg Co and SS Glaser of LA merged (Automatic Age 9/33). Though it seems they operated under the name Irving Bromberg Co as ads continue to appear using that name.

According to the senate report, Iriving formed a new distribution company called Standard Games Co. in Los Angeles in 1934. A search of the arcade museum's Automatic Age and Coin Machine Journal archives, however, turns up no reference to the company (Perhaps they were doing business as Irving Bromberg Company??) As a distributor, Bromberg played a major role in the popularizing two of the most important early pinball games. The first was Bingo, released in 1931 by the Bingo Novelty Company. Bingo’s claim to fame is that it was sold to David Gottlieb, who modified the game and released it as Baffle Ball, which has been credited with launching the modern pinball industry. Bingo, however, was a national hit in its own right, a fact that pinball historian Dick Bueschel attributes to a salesman named Leo Berman. After Gottlieb began producing Bingo in the Midwest, Berman took the game to New York, where he paid a visit to his old operator friend Irving Bromberg to see if he was interested in becoming a Bingo rep. As Bueschel describes it in his 1996 book Pinball 1

"Bromberg, not having facilities of his own, got ahold of his friend, Hymie Budin, a specialty jobber of roasted peanuts, gum, candy and glass globes for vending machines, and sold him on the idea of leasing window space. That made Budin "the first distributor to have a pin game display in his quarters. That's when he was down on Dumont Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, and Irving Bromberg ... displayed his first three Bingo machines in one of Hymie's front display windows. Hymie just couldn't waste the space in his store, for the men crowded in daily for their supplies of nuts and candies and peanut machines, so he allowed Irving to display his Bingo machines in his front windows."' The display got off to a slow start "and it was some time before Irving could get the operators to even think of buying this sort of contraption." lt wasn't long before "Bromberg had about ten Bingo games stocked one atop another and, after some effort, sold out in a few weeks at the price of $12.50 each." Bromberg was firmly established as a Brooklyn game distributor by late October, 1931."  (quotes are from The Coin Machine Journal, January 1941 and January 1940)

 In Los Angeles, Bromberg had a hand in the success of another influential pinball game – Harry Williams’ Contact. While Contact was not the first pinball game with sound, electricity, and a kicker device as some have reported, it did popularize the features. According to an article by Roger Sharpe in the July 1989 issue of Play Meter, ”Contact did not gain national recognition until it was noticed by a Bally distributor, Irving Bromberg,”

 

Meanwhile, Martin Bromberg graduated from high school and went to work for his father. At some point, Martin went to Hawaii and began selling games to US servicemen stationed there. At the time, Hawaii was still a US territory and mainland distributors were likely not selling games there. Exactly when the Brombergs began selling games in Hawaii is unclear. From passenger lists, we know that Irving and his wife made a trip there in January 1940. According to the 1964 case, “In or about 1940, Irving Bromberg, Glen Hensen, James L. Humpert, and the petitioner [Martin Bromberg/Bromley] formed a coin-operated machine company in Honolulu known as Standard Games." We also know that Martin Bromberg was inducted in the navy during World War II but was placed on inactive duty due to his employment at the Pearl Harbor shipyard (Fraud and corruption…1971). Humpert was also employed at the shipyard. From the wording, it seems that this “employment” was independent of their coin-machine company. According to other source, James Humpert was a friend of Martin’s – a claim that draws some support from the fact that the 1964 case reveals that he and Martin were each entitled to one-third of the profits of the Irving Bromberg Company of LA.

A very bad photo of Marty Bromley in 1941

And a better one from 1989 (Marty's the one on the left)

In any event, Irving Bromberg returned LA and continued to run his distributing companies. (as indicated by many references in Billboard). The January 12, 1946 issue of Billboard reports that Marty and Irving were due to visit Chicago to discuss selling the Irving Bromberg Co of LA to Chicago distributor Al Stern, which they appear to have done shortly thereafter.

The 1964 case claims that Standard Games of Hawaii "...continued until 1945, at which time it was sold."

NOTE - I have removed this part of the article after doing more research and will move it to part two, with the addition of further details

And to clean up some loose genealogical ends:

Irving Bromberg died on January 20, 1973 in Los Angeles.

Martin Jerome Bromley died on September 7, 2008 in London.

Bonus Pictures

Here's a rare photo of an upright Exidy 0077 cabinet from an industry show. They later added some more levels and renamed it Top Secret