Turntable

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Bob New could be the only person west of the Mississippi who still builds turntables.

Not the kind used to play records. New makes turntables that rotate cars in driveways.

The driver pulls in head-first, hits a button to activate the turntable, and the car rotates 180 degrees so he or she can pull out head-first, without the hassle or danger of backing into traffic.

As home improvements go, it’s among the most unusual on the market. And pricey, at $25,000 each.

New’s Turntable Specialties Co. in Glendale hasn’t been exactly cranking them off an assembly line. He’s made only 200 turntables since 1948, with the projects involving hillside mansions, movie sets, auto dealerships, a church, a bar and even the city of Tucson, Ariz., for an exhibit about the O.K. Corral.

Given the limited demand, 77-year-old New has kept the business as a sideline to his car sales and leasing operation.

“Every one I build I get a kick out of,” he says. “Everyone who has them likes them. Although it’s not going to be a household item, the prospects appear greater than they’ve ever been.”

New says the devices have been around nearly as long as cars. Back in the 1920s, they were a popular feature of mansions in Pasadena and Beverly Hills. But in those days, it usually was the chauffeur who did most of the work by pushing the car in a semicircle once it was on the turntable.

New got into the turntable line when he made one for his own used-car lot. An early brochure cheerfully proclaims that a turntable “makes driving out of the garage a pleasure instead of a panic.” It also showed a smiling housewife waving to her husband as he pulled out of the driveway, front-end first.

New designs and sells the devices, but contracts out the steel fabrication and installation, which he oversees. Typically, an architect or contractor who is building or remodeling a house will contact him, then New will send the drawings and specifications for how deep the hole needs to be and requirements for wiring and drainage.

New has handled a variety of customers over the years. In the 1970s, he built a turntable for comedian Ernie Kovacs. He also did projects for Lockheed Martin Corp. and Universal World Church in Los Angeles, which uses the device to display a 21-foot “tree of life” adorned with gold and jewels.

“It makes the whole thing sparkle and radiate and gives the viewing audience a chance to see it from every side,” says George Marko, an elder at the church.

Architect Ron Goldman designed and built a house in Malibu with a turntable covered in Indian sandstone.

“It’s not just a gimmick, it’s functional,” he says. “It made the courtyard more interesting.”

Not long ago, New received an inquiry from a taxidermist in Chicago who wanted to build a turntable to display a stuffed bear and elk fighting in the window of a sporting-goods shop. But the steep price tag kept the project from going ahead.

That’s the case with many potential customers. But New said cutting corners to reduce the cost never works out.

“We build them right. When in doubt, we build them stronger than they need to be,” he says. “No one gets more angry than when they have a turntable that doesn’t turn.”

New remembers installing a doughnut-shaped turntable in the 1950s to rotate a bar around a stationary bartender. To cut costs, he used a cheaper metal. But that caused the barstools to gently sway.

“Patrons thought they were drunk,” he recalls.

New is confident he could ramp up production from a couple of turntables a year to at least a turntable a month if homeowners only knew what they were missing. With a turntable, he says, driveway space now needed to turn around cars could be used to add a room or install a pool.

“We’re sensing these things are starting to take hold,” he said. “With properties being built in the hills and the cost per square foot (rising), we can save money with the turntable. It allows you to utilize the ground you paid so dearly for.”

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