PLATTSBURGH — They are every child’s delight. A big glass bowl full of bright-colored gumballs for only a penny a shot.
A local service club is looking to make the iconic machines relevant again, or at least take a solid inventory of where they are.
The Plattsburgh Noon Kiwanis Club, long the custodian of penny gumball machines in the area, is searching for the relics that mostly were distributed locally in the 1960s to businesses and organizations and other public places.
The gumball machines were located in dozens of schools/colleges, fire and police departments, manufacturing plants, government agencies, TV and radio stations, newspapers, the airport and other businesses in the Plattsburgh area.
It was hard to enter a location without seeing one of the machines either propped up on a counter or on a pole.
Penny gumball machines became popular in the early part of the 20th century. But over the years, the popularity of the colorful glass globes filled with tiny sweetness waned, and the machines are now an afterthought in many places.
The club is in the midst of updating the roster of machines and retiring those no longer desired or replacing them in locations that still welcome them.
Jerry Gagnier, Gumball Machine Committee Chair, is leading the search.
“I have been going around and looking at businesses that we know of that had a machine,” he said.
“Some had to look, some do not recognize it, but overall not a lot of feedback.”
The machines, estimated to have been installed in the 1960s, were filled and maintained by volunteer members of the club.
“There were some conscientious fillers who would fill the machine before we could, but others weren’t so thoughtful and they would sit empty for some time,” Gagnier said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, maintenance efforts have stopped, but the club wants to resume gumball services.
“I have been responsible for refilling them, but since COVID we have not been able to do much,” Gagnier said
“We are working to identify where they are, to refill them if necessary, or remove them if necessary, but at least find them.”
Most locations now don’t have records or memory of the machines being there.
Gagnier believes many machines may have been lost.
“I go to the businesses I know had them, and they say the building has either changed hands or they are leasing the building and just don’t know,” he said.
The club plans to continue using machines, but new or replacement machines might end up being quarter-use due to rising costs, Gagnier said.
“It will probably be quarter machines rather than penny machines,” he said.
Gagnier would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows the location of one of his club’s gumball machines.
If you have information about a machine, or would like to request one, contact Jerry Gagnier at (518)569-0665 or email jgagnier44@gmail.com