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John Dennison's Penny Arcade Machines

The Dennison Sisters: Engineers and Inventors

The sisters Alice, Eveline and Florence lived together in the Roundhay area of Leeds, and they all stepped in to take on a different aspect of the company. They continued to invent new penny arcade machines and engineer new mechanisms.  

 

Photograph of newspaper clippings. One is titled 'Three Sister Inventors' and the other is titled 'Girls provide the brains'.
Newspaper Cuttings about the Dennison Sisters Penny Arcade Machines

Alice Dennison (1890-1966)

Alice had been a governess and a dressmaker before entering the business. She became responsible for the technical side of the machines and was most noted for developing machines that ran using electricity instead of traditional clockwork. She also worked out new ways of dressing the different models to make sure they still looked good while they moved. 

 

Eveline Dennison (1896-1970)

Eveline had studied at Leeds College of Art and had intended to become a book illustrator. Using her creative skills, she took on the role of set design in the business, often creating models from wood or clay and making sure that all the details looked just right. The machines depicted a wide range of stories and themes, including fairy tales. The sets had to look just right in order to encourage people to pay to see them work.  

 

Florence Dennison (1888-1976)

Florence's story is less documented, but she appears to have run the business side of the company. While this wasn’t as glamorous as working on the machines directly, it was an important role, and she was a key part of the team. 

Colour photograph showing a penny arcade machine. The scene shows a group of people in a room, with an Egyptian sarcophagus in  one corner with a man hiding in it
'Murder in the Museum' Penny Arcade Machine

The sisters took over in 1924, and ran the business until 1944 when it was sold to the Blackpool Tower Company.