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Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream
An aspiring tycoon partners with a racketeer to build a jukebox that makes millions, then takes the fall for the largest money laundering scheme in history.
Caught between the Mob and the feds in a plot to save the casinos in Havana from Castro’s revolution, Wolfe Rabin pulls the biggest money-laundering scheme in history, but his hubris leads to the conspiracy unraveling in a sensational trial. At a time when there was a jukebox in every restaurant, diner, bar, barracks, arcade, and canteen, Rabin’s trajectory from inventor to promoter to outlaw is set against the Mob’s growing infiltration of the jukebox industry. In a world of music, machines, and money, popular culture and organized crime collide in an epic drama of invention and greed. David Rabinovitch’s investigation into his own family history pieces together an epic puzzle that begins in Chicago with the invention of a jukebox and spans the casinos of Havana and the financial giants of Europe, leading to what the FBI called “the biggest bank robbery in the world.”
Caught between the Mob and the feds in a plot to save the casinos in Havana from Castro’s revolution, Wolfe Rabin pulls the biggest money-laundering scheme in history, but his hubris leads to the conspiracy unraveling in a sensational trial. At a time when there was a jukebox in every restaurant, diner, bar, barracks, arcade, and canteen, Rabin’s trajectory from inventor to promoter to outlaw is set against the Mob’s growing infiltration of the jukebox industry. In a world of music, machines, and money, popular culture and organized crime collide in an epic drama of invention and greed. David Rabinovitch’s investigation into his own family history pieces together an epic puzzle that begins in Chicago with the invention of a jukebox and spans the casinos of Havana and the financial giants of Europe, leading to what the FBI called “the biggest bank robbery in the world.”
- GenresNonfictionHistoryCrime
221 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 2, 2023
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Rowman & Littlefield for an advance copy of this history on the confluence of musical jukeboxes, organized crime, one man's dream and how his schemes all went wrong.
"Put another nickel in/ In the nickelodeon/ All I want is having you /And music, music, music." I first heard this song on the Muppets years ago, and than when the television channel Nickelodeon used to run it when they first began. The song Music, Music Music, is very catchy, a sort of musical earworm that won't leave the mind once heard. Though instead of music, music, music, the line money, money, money, would fit better. Nickels and jukeboxes made for a great team. Drunks wanted to hear that sad song that made them drink, teens wanted to move and swing, and hear the song that could make the others dance with them. And a lot of loose coins, in a lot of loose places were of interest to others, those with an aversion to taxes, or reporting royalties to record labels, and with a lot of places to hide these coins that could become paper so easily. Lots of paper. Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream by investigative reporter David Rabinovitch, is a personal look at jukeboxes, crime, and one of men who planned to make a fortune, only to nearly lose it all when the music ended.
William Rabinovitch was born in a small town in Canada, the son of a self-made man, who had big dreams and even better for those dreams loose morals. As a teen Rabinovitch made money smuggling hooch or alcohol over the border during Prohibition, before moving to Chicago to make his name, which he changed to Wolfe Rabin, to seem more American. The end of Prohibition meant that bars needed entertainment and soon Rabin was in the jukebox business, which when World War II started he retooled his equipment to become part of the arsenal of democracy, making money manufacturing rifles for Uncle Sam. After the war, the money was drying up, and soon Rabin was back into jukeboxes, only this time with silent partners who had a scheme to shave money out of their jukeboxes, cheating Uncle Sam, and the artists and companies out of royalties, but making a lot of money for a select group. Which it did until things started to go spectacularly wrong.
A very well-written story that is not only a crime story but a personal story. Wolfe Rabin was Uncle to the writer David Rabinovitch, who never met each other. Rabinovitch knew little about his uncle, his father was not one to discuss him, and most of this has been gained by research by the author. The story is both personal, and very informative, discussing crime, the making of various jukeboxes, the corruption that seemed everywhere, and how much money could be made just by playing music. The story moves well covering a lot of time, and a lot of different ideas, technical, criminal and about family, and never bogs down. One thing becomes quite clear Wolfe Rabin was quite a character.
Recommended for both music fans and organized crime fans. There is enough about both to keep readers interested and wanting to know more. A nice companion piece to T. J. English's book Dangerous Rhythms about the mob and jazz music.
"Put another nickel in/ In the nickelodeon/ All I want is having you /And music, music, music." I first heard this song on the Muppets years ago, and than when the television channel Nickelodeon used to run it when they first began. The song Music, Music Music, is very catchy, a sort of musical earworm that won't leave the mind once heard. Though instead of music, music, music, the line money, money, money, would fit better. Nickels and jukeboxes made for a great team. Drunks wanted to hear that sad song that made them drink, teens wanted to move and swing, and hear the song that could make the others dance with them. And a lot of loose coins, in a lot of loose places were of interest to others, those with an aversion to taxes, or reporting royalties to record labels, and with a lot of places to hide these coins that could become paper so easily. Lots of paper. Jukebox Empire: The Mob and the Dark Side of the American Dream by investigative reporter David Rabinovitch, is a personal look at jukeboxes, crime, and one of men who planned to make a fortune, only to nearly lose it all when the music ended.
William Rabinovitch was born in a small town in Canada, the son of a self-made man, who had big dreams and even better for those dreams loose morals. As a teen Rabinovitch made money smuggling hooch or alcohol over the border during Prohibition, before moving to Chicago to make his name, which he changed to Wolfe Rabin, to seem more American. The end of Prohibition meant that bars needed entertainment and soon Rabin was in the jukebox business, which when World War II started he retooled his equipment to become part of the arsenal of democracy, making money manufacturing rifles for Uncle Sam. After the war, the money was drying up, and soon Rabin was back into jukeboxes, only this time with silent partners who had a scheme to shave money out of their jukeboxes, cheating Uncle Sam, and the artists and companies out of royalties, but making a lot of money for a select group. Which it did until things started to go spectacularly wrong.
A very well-written story that is not only a crime story but a personal story. Wolfe Rabin was Uncle to the writer David Rabinovitch, who never met each other. Rabinovitch knew little about his uncle, his father was not one to discuss him, and most of this has been gained by research by the author. The story is both personal, and very informative, discussing crime, the making of various jukeboxes, the corruption that seemed everywhere, and how much money could be made just by playing music. The story moves well covering a lot of time, and a lot of different ideas, technical, criminal and about family, and never bogs down. One thing becomes quite clear Wolfe Rabin was quite a character.
Recommended for both music fans and organized crime fans. There is enough about both to keep readers interested and wanting to know more. A nice companion piece to T. J. English's book Dangerous Rhythms about the mob and jazz music.
February 10, 2025
Hi Friends,
Despite the title, there is barely 10% of the book devoted to the inter connectivity of the mafia to the jukebox industry.
Written more as a novel featuring the author’s black sheep uncle, it’s a mediocre mob tale. I also have to round down from 21/2 to 2 stars because he is very dialogue heavy regarding a family member he admits early on to have never met.
The story is well written, the research seems on the level of a 300 level college course, not master’s thesis level.
Wolfe Rabin was probably an interesting, mob adjacent borderline criminal, not someone fully vetted in the multi-billion dollar jukebox skim that the book’s title implies.
The author’s bio mentions Emmy award winner, and this book has the feel of an entertainment script as opposed to a hefty literary historical tome. In fact, I’ve read mafia books where a subplot of coin operator skims warrant more pages than this entire book
I guess I should’ve waited for the movie
Despite the title, there is barely 10% of the book devoted to the inter connectivity of the mafia to the jukebox industry.
Written more as a novel featuring the author’s black sheep uncle, it’s a mediocre mob tale. I also have to round down from 21/2 to 2 stars because he is very dialogue heavy regarding a family member he admits early on to have never met.
The story is well written, the research seems on the level of a 300 level college course, not master’s thesis level.
Wolfe Rabin was probably an interesting, mob adjacent borderline criminal, not someone fully vetted in the multi-billion dollar jukebox skim that the book’s title implies.
The author’s bio mentions Emmy award winner, and this book has the feel of an entertainment script as opposed to a hefty literary historical tome. In fact, I’ve read mafia books where a subplot of coin operator skims warrant more pages than this entire book
I guess I should’ve waited for the movie
October 15, 2023
When I was young putting a coin in a jukebox to hear a song seemed totally inocent, but as David Rabinovich explains that much cash draws in the crooks. Here is a story of a bright ambitious man whose choice of business led him to money laundering for the Mob. It's a story of invention, business, corruption and living large. Wolfe Rabin was the author's somewhat mysterious uncle. Rabinovich set out to discover Wolfe's story and presents it here in a fast paced biography. The tale isn't seamless because the research didn't turn up everything. Sometimes this left me a bit confused, especially in regards to the money laundering and intricacies of the trial that was Wolfe's downfall. But how those outside the law live is always interesting and this story is no different.
Thanks to Rowman &Littlefield and Edelweiss for an adavnced copy of this book.
Thanks to Rowman &Littlefield and Edelweiss for an adavnced copy of this book.
March 1, 2024
This began as the author's curiosity about an uncle he never met and of whom no one in the family spoke. Research led to the ultimate true-crime rabbit hold. How did Wolfe Rabin go from Manitoba-born son of immigrants to self-made jukebox tycoon to entanglements with American and Canadian mob families, stolen bonds, drugs and gun-running?
Very well-written, with equal parts drama/intrigue and interesting historical detail.
In the words of Wolfe's wife, Trudy, "This is BETTER than a soap opera!"
...Okay, so she was talking about Bobby Kennedy, but still...
Very well-written, with equal parts drama/intrigue and interesting historical detail.
In the words of Wolfe's wife, Trudy, "This is BETTER than a soap opera!"
...Okay, so she was talking about Bobby Kennedy, but still...
October 16, 2026
Didn't finish.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews