O. D. Jennings Jackpot, Chicago, post-1925

Three-reel mechanical slot machine, manufactured by O. D. Jennings & Company (Chicago). The patents engraved on the top — January 17, 1922 and November 24, 1925 — date the device to no earlier than late 1925, likely from the second half of the 1920s. The coin mechanism is set for a 1 French franc coin: a version intended for European cafés and bistros.

The style blends two worlds. The mechanism is American (reels, lever, visible jackpot, payout card). The facade, however, is very "Belle Époque / Art Nouveau": textured cast iron, floral motifs, two colorful harlequins, and a red diamond with the Jennings "J." This is typical of machines exported or dressed up for French tastes, which were much more decorative than the Jennings "Chief" models sold in the United States.

The history of "Bell Fruit Gum" candies

On the payout card, one reads A BELL FRUIT GUM. This is no coincidence: it is the legal disguise used by early jackpots.

Around 1910, in the United States, slot machines were often banned as gambling devices. Mills Novelty circumvented the law by presenting them as chewing gum dispensers. The reel symbols became fruits — cherry, lemon, plum, orange — supposedly corresponding to the flavors of Bell-Fruit-Gum chewing gum. In the event of a "win," the machine dispensed tokens or coins... officially in exchange for a treat.

Jennings, a former employee of Mills, adopted this system. The fruits remained, as did the name Bell Fruit Gum, even when no one really believed anymore that one was buying candy. In France, the same terminology was still used in the 1920s–1930s, until the prohibition of slot machines in 1937.