Described by many as one of the most attractive jukeboxes ever made, the Wurlitzer ‘2000’ Centennial was built to commemorate the company’s 100 year Anniversary.

Its sister machine, the ‘1900’, was created for the same reason but its smaller record capacity and cheaper price tag meant that it never achieved the greatness of the ‘2000’ pictured here. The ‘2000’ holds 100 45rpm records, leading to a choice of up to 200 tracks - hugely impressive for the time.

These machines also featured Wurlitzer’s patented ‘Cobra’ pick up system, about which our jukebox engineers wax lyrical. First introduced in 1948, the Cobra system set new standards in audio quality.

Now extremely rare, the 2000 Centennial was introduced in 1956 and only 4000 were manufactured.

Rudolph Wurlitzer was born into a family of musical instrument makers in Germany in 1829 before emigrating to America at the tender age of 24. He began by importing his family’s instruments and selling them in the US market but quite quickly set up a manufacturing business and in 1880 the first Wurlitzer piano was built in the US. Electric pianos came next, shortly followed by the cinema and theatre organs, dubbed ‘Mighty Wurlitzers’, that provided such a stirring accompaniment to the silent movies of the time.

In 1933 the New York based company bought the rights to a patented jukebox mechanism and under the management of Farny Wurlitzer, Rudolph’s successor, they began designing and manufacturing their first jukebox, the ‘Debutante’. Known as the ‘small man’s concert hall’, it enjoyed tremendous popularity and paved the way for even greater success when Wurlitzer’s inspired designer, Paul Fuller, came up with the 'Bubbler' design that we all know and recognise today.