Amusement Devices Inc. has been in business for over forty years. It was started by Gordon and Marjorie Jacobson in 1964, with a game room in Kaukauna. The pool hall on the north side of Kaukauna called the Side Pocket was open until the late 60's, when it burned down. A new game room was built after the fire. It was called The Phoenix, the bird that rose from the ashes. In a few years, the game r
oom became a supper club, and then became a tavern called Little Joe's, ran by Joe Jacobson. A number of years later, Eric Jacobson ran it and it was called the Phoenix. Besides running the game room and bar, Gordon and Marjorie started a business that provided pool tables, juke boxes, and pinballs to local businesses. Gordon and Marjorie also owned a restaurant in Kaukauna on the south side called the Iron Horse, with a game room attached to it called the Caboose. Kurt Jacobson ran the restaurant once he graduated in 1974. After closing the restaurant in the late 70's, the building was used for a warehouse and a shop area for the game business. The game route began to grow with the addition of dart boards and the video game boom. During this time Gordon, Marjorie, and Eric Jacobson were mainly running the business. In 1979, Eric's brother Kurt joined the business. Joe Jacobson followed suit, and Amusement Devices, the growing business, moved to their present location on Appleton Rd. in Menasha in 1988. In 2009 we added a retail store, Straight Shot. Today Amusement Devices offers Foosball, Pool Tables, Dart Boards, Video Games, ATM's, Electronic Poker Machines, Pull Tab Machines, a wide variety of self Redemption Games (Plush Animal Cranes, Candy Cranes, Stackers, Keymasters...) Pinball, and Digital Juke Boxes on a commission basis. We run Foosball, Video Golf, and WAMO sanctioned Dart and Pool Leagues throughout the Fox River Valley.
