Bimbo Baby Automaton Arcade Machine. German, c.1950. Fontaine’s Auction Gallery
Isn’t this the cutest? There are already two bids on this circa 1950 “Bimbo Baby” arcade machine featuring a monkey orchestra. It has a starting bid of $1,000 and a pre-sale estimate of $2,000-$4,000. The sale is on Saturday morning at Fontaine’s Auction Gallery in Pittsfield, Mass., not far from where my Dad once had a real live monkey on the midway.
Bimbo Baby Automaton Arcade Machine. German, c.1950, coin operated automaton box lights up inside with 6 figural cabana monkeys on a tropical decorated stage, the figures dance, shake and play their instruments; has a speaker built into the base which plays music through a Tefi Spezial-Band cassette (tape in cassette is unwound). Animated mechanism is in good working condition. 38 in. high x 24 in. wide x 23 in. deep.
Now if somebody would just drop a dime in the slot and make a YouTube video of the toy monkeys dancing and playing, we’d be delighted.
One of the Monkeys in Bimbo Baby Automaton Arcade Machine. German, c.1950. Fontaine’s Auction Gallery
Update: Found on YouTube! There are quite a few videos of “Bimbo Box,” the larger version, in operation…
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Amusing the Zillion 
I have a vague recollection of seeing an arcade machine like this when I was young. I think it was in the lobby of a Sheepshead Bay Department store. I also think that it malfunctioned often, and so it didn’t last.
I’ll have to ask my older sister if she remembers. This would be in the early 60s.
That’s neat. I’ve never seen anything like it, at least not with 6 monkeys! Will have to ask some of my friends in the business
I think this one had three, all facing forward.
Ms. T
Would you expand the info about your father having a live monkey on the midway? I remember when we were on the road coming across an “organ grinder.” If anyone gave the monkey less than a quarter he would throw it back at the person!!
jack
Roebuck, my father’s monkey, was there to attract people to his popcorn and peanut stand, which was left up front with no customers when the carnival owner moved the merry-go-round to the back end of the midway. My dad trained Roebuck to sit on a trapeze. It was a free show. This was in the 1940s. You couldn’t get away with anything like that today. Organ grinders with monkeys are rare too. I wrote about it in “Memoirs of a Carny Kid: Monkeys on the Midway”
https://amusingthezillion.com/2014/03/19/memoirs-of-a-carny-kid-monkeys-on-the-midway/