In 1929, Herbert Mills had died aged 57, leaving a fortune to his wife and eight children. The Mills brothers were raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and continued to live in that area until at least the mid-1930s. His younger brother, Hayden ('Bill') Mills, was born two years later in about 1902. In about 1900, Herbert Mills, the third son of Herbert Stephen Mills was born. Mills, Herbert's second son, was born in July 1898. Mills, the first of Herbert Mills' sons, was born. Mills, the youngest of Mortimer Mill's children was born. One son, Herbert Stephen Mills, was born in 1872 when his father was about 27. The origins of the business lie with Mortimer Birdsul Mills, who was born in 1845 in Canada West (today's Ontario, Canada) but who later became a citizen of the United States, resident in Chicago, Illinois. By the late 1930s, vending machines were being installed by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York. The slot machine division was then owned by Bell-O-Matic Corporation. By 1944, the name of the company had changed to Mills Industries, Incorporated. Between about 19, the company's products included the Mills Violano-Virtuoso and its predecessors, celebrated machines that automatically played a violin and, after about 1909, a piano.
The Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated of Chicago was once a leading manufacturer of coin-operated machines, including slot machines, vending machines, and jukeboxes, in the United States.
