Cinejukebox [Model 50]

The Model 50 was the last model made by the SIF Spa.

In 1965 the SIF Spa. of Angelo Bottani acquired a new partner, the Milanese industrialist Federico Innocenti, who was very well known and respected in Italy for his imaginative motor vehicles, motor scooters and also steel tube scaffolding. The result was a new model called the Cinejukebox. It had a slightly egg shaped form and it was designed and developed by a team of Swiss architects with the American market in mind. It went into production on the assembly line of the Innocenti factory after the production of motor scooters had closed down when the patent was sold to a company in India. We can note the artistic soft curves and the shinny bright red paint finish reminiscent of motor car bodywork.

The video mechanism was made in Milan, the sound apparatus was supplied by the American audio firm Rowe-Ami and the end product was assembled in Philadelphia.

The Cinejukebox was presented to the Italian public in May of 1966 at the Milan Fair and later in October of the same year it was presented to the American public at MOA (Music Operators of America) at the Chicago Fair. The overall industrial planning was overseen by Mario Colombo who two years later went to work with the Ferrari team at Maranello in northen Italy. The original industrial plan had been to produce 5 thousand machines in one year for distribution in The United States but the Innocenti factory interrupted the production at 400 pieces.