TWO SHOWS - 1994
by Russ Jensen
For the past couple years about this time
I have been doing
an
article called "Three Shows" which covered the "Loose Change
Fun
Fair", the "Arizona Pinball Show", and the "Coin-op Super
Show". Well, this year it's a little different.
First of all, I was unable to attend this
year's Fun Fair
because
it was held during my vacation. I might
not have
attended
anyway, as it was moved back to one of my un-favorite
locations,
the Anaheim Stadium Exhibition Center.
Also I did not attend the 1994
"Arizona Pinball Show",
opting
instead this time to attend the new "Wild West Pinball
Fest"
held a couple months earlier than the other Arizona show.
I did, however, attend Roseanna Harris'
"Coin-op Super Show"
held
early in January. So this years it's
"Two Shows".
COIN-OP
SUPER SHOW
The first 1994 edition of Roseanna
Harris' COIN-OP SUPER
SHOW
was held on January 8th and 9th at my favorite show
location,
the Pasadena Exhibit Center in Pasadena California.
This
year the show was held earlier than usual due to the new
California
antique slot machine collector's law.
The newly revised law, effective January
1, 1994, allows
ownership
of slots 25 years old or older (previously it was pre-
1954). This meant that the Bally
electro-mechanicals from the
mid to
late 1960's were now legal to collect.
Since I have
always
wanted to own one of those, I decided this show would be a
good
chance to check the prices to see if I could afford one.
I again decided, as I have done a couple
of times recently,
to ask
my old friend Nat Ross if he would like to go with me.
When I
called him he said he would like to go but told me he had
already
planned to attend a meeting that day of an organization
he
belonged to - The National Sheet Music Society. However,
since
that show was also in Pasadena - and late in the
afternoon
- we decided we would both attend both events.
Well, I drove to Los Angeles and picked
up Nat at his
apartment,
and we then drove to the show site in Pasadena. After
entering
the show area it was plain to see that slots dominated
the
show - but, of course, that was to be expected. There were,
however,
a few pingames at the show, but more about that shortly.
After briefly checking the prices of
Bally electro-
mechanical
slots at the bigger dealer's booths (such as L.A. Slot
Machine
Co.), I determined that the prices for these machines
seemed
to range from about $1200 up to around $1500.
This, I
thought,
was a little high for me.
After roaming around for awhile, I came
upon a dealer who
had two
nice looking Bally's, but they both were already sold.
When I
asked him what he had gotten for them, and he told me
$800, I
remarked that I would have probably bought one at that
price.
He then told me that he might run into
some more which he
could
sell for around that price, so he took my name and phone
number. He did live about 300 miles away from me but
said he had
a girl
friend in the Los Angeles area and could possibly deliver
one to
me if he found one.
A little while later I ran into a fellow,
Ray Dier, who I
first
met at the first edition of this show a couple of years
ago. When I told Ray that I was interested in a
Bally electro-
mechanical
slot for around $800 he told me he knew someone who
once
had a Bally which he was willing to sell for about that
amount. He told me he would contact the man and call
me
afterwards;
more about that later.
Now to the pins. I counted a total of six pingames at the
show;
most, if not all, in the booths of Herb Silver's "Fabulous
Fantasies"
and Jim Tolbert's "For Amusement Only" outfits. As
far as
decades of manufacturer were concerned, there was one
model
per decade for the 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's, and three
from
the 1970's.
The 1940's pingame at the show was
Gottlieb's SHARPSHOOTER
from
mid 1949. The backglass had a carnival
shooting gallery
theme. The 9 "targets" in this shooting
gallery were numbered
'1'
through '9'.
There were 7 numbered bumpers near the
top of the playfield
which,
when hit by a ball, lit the corresponding 1 through 7
targets
on the backglass. Two "scoring
rubbers" at the bottom of
the
field would light the correspondingly numbered '8' and '9'
targets.
Lighting all nine targets on the
backglass apparently lit
the
kickout hole just below the flippers for "special" replay
scoring. And, of course, high scoring of points could
also
reward
the player with free games.
The 1950's pin at the show was Williams
1957 game JIGSAW.
This
was one of only three pins I know of having a jigsaw puzzle
theme.
The first of these, Rockola's 1933
mechanical marvel
"(WORLD'S
FAIR) JIGSAW", had a jigsaw puzzle in the center of
it's
playfield depicting a map of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
Balls
dropping into playfield holes mechanically turned over
pieces
of this puzzle. Approximately four
years later that same
company
came out with another jigsaw pin (this time with a
backbox);
a rare game called JIG JOY.
Williams' JIGSAW, two decades later, had
a special jigsaw
puzzle
display in it's backbox. Pieces of this
puzzle could be
"put
into place" by the player getting balls to cross a myriad of
roll-over
switches on it's very complex playfield.
This game appeared to have some
fascinating scoring
features. The JIGSAW at the show was in excellent
condition and
was
priced accordingly.
The following is a chronological listing
of the pingames at
the
show:
GAME MANUFACTURER YEAR PRICE
SHARPSHOOTER Gottlieb 1949 1600
JIGSAW Williams 1957 1295
TROPIC
ISLE Gottlieb 1962 1900
CASINO Chicago Coin 1972 575
NIP-IT Bally 1972 875
OLD
CHICAGO Bally 1975 800
To me the prices seemed rather high,
especially for the
later
games from the 1970's.
At about 2:30 we decided to leave the
show. All in all the
show
was very good, with a good number of dealers, despite the
lack of
many pingames. But, as I said earlier,
the emphasis for
this
edition was supposed to be slots - and it certainly was.
After having a late lunch at a Chinese
fast food place, Nat
and I
headed for the sheet music meeting which was held on the
campus
of a local community college.
One of the features of the meeting was a
sheet music auction
to
which I even contributed a few pieces I had around the house,
making
a few bucks in the process. The guest
speaker of the
afternoon
was a show-business music arranger who had done
arranging
for people such as Ricky Nelson - a very interesting
speaker!
I met a lot of very nice people there,
including the club
secretary
who I found out not only had a couple pingames, but she
also
had a copy of my book - proving once again that it certainly
is
"a small pinball world".
Attending this show was something
different
for me, although old-time popular music has always been
of
interest to me ever since I was a young teenager.
After the meeting was over in the early
evening I drove Nat
back to
Los Angeles and then headed for my home.
EPILOGUE
Well, I finally got a Bally slot machine
- but not for
several
weeks after the show. Later that
weekend Ray called me
saying
he talked to his friend about the slot, but he said he
wasn't
sure he still wanted to sell it.
About a week after that I got a message
on my machine saying
to call
the same fellow regarding his slot.
When I called him he
said it
was a Bally and he would sell it for $850.
But when I
asked
what model it was he said he didn't know, but would look.
After awhile he told me he discovered
that it was not a
Bally
at all, but was a Seeburg. Since there
was no
documentation
that I know of on those machines - but there was on
the
Ballys - I decided I did not want to pay that much for a
"odd-ball
brand".
After another false alarm - a machine Ray
thought was in
good
condition by wasn't - Ray called me one evening saying he
had
found a good Bally model 809 nickel "fruit machine" that I
could
have for $850. After telling me he
would even bring it to
me to
look at (a trip of about 70 miles) that evening I said
"OK".
Ray and his wife got to our house a
little over an hour
later
and set up the machine. I decided it
was exactly what I
was
looking for and bought it on the spot.
I later discovered it
needed
a little electrical work, but since that's my "forte" (and
I had a
good book on those machines) it wasn't too much of a
problem. And besides, I learned quite a bit about the
circuitry
and how
the Bally electro-mechanicals work.
Since then I bought another great book on
Bally electro-
mechanicals
written by Marshal Fey, and my good friend Phil
Anderson
in Reno gave me an original Bally service manual, so
documentation
wise I am really in good shape. I love
my machine
and
enjoy playing it in the evenings - so your's truly is now (at
least
somewhat) "into slots".
THE
WILD WEST PINBALL FEST
Last year at Pinball Expo '93, Arizona
pinball
operator/collector
Dann Frank was touting a new pinball show he
was
planning to hold in the Phoenix area in the Spring of 1994.
This
sounded kind of nice to me at the time since it's not quite
so hot
in Phoenix that time of the year (I might even be able to
drive). So I sort of decided I might attend.
Well, when the time for that show drew
near I received a
special
invitation from Dann, including a custom "historian"
badge. I decided I would definitely attend the
show.
My friend Sam Harvey (who also received a
special invitation
and
badge) and I decided we would either fly or drive together.
One of
the airlines was offering a "two-for-one" fare to Phoenix
at that
time which sounded good to us.
Well, when we investigated we found there
was only a limited
number
of seats available on that deal and those were already
booked
in advance. So we decided we would
drive together in
Sam's
mother's car.
On the morning of Friday, April 30, I
drove to Sam's house
(about
80 miles) and within a half hour after I arrived we were
off for
Phoenix. We had a very pleasant drive,
the time passing
pretty
fast as we listened to Sam's great "doo-wop" rock-and-roll
tapes -
some great music indeed!
The weather was great - in the upper 70's
or low 80's, I
believe. We stopped for lunch in Blythe, California,
on the
California/Arizona
border. After a couple more hours of
driving
and
listening we arrived at the Sahara Resort Hotel in
Scottsdale,
the site of the show, around 4 PM.
After checking into our room we headed
for the Exhibit Hall
for the
"Friday evening preview", admission to which was free to
anyone
spending two nights at the hotel. When
we entered the
hall we
found that many games, and several dealer's booths, were
already
set up - others being in the set-up process.
From the number and quality of games we
could see it looked
like we
were in for a good show. We wandered
around the hall for
several
hours looking at games and renewing old pinball
acquaintances
- people we feel like are "family".
When dinner time came we went out to eat
with a small group
of
"pin buddies". We went to a
nice restaurant a few blocks
away. The place had a "sports motif"
with a large collection of
sports
photos and memorabilia displayed on all the walls
throughout
the large dining areas.
The food was very good - they specialized
in barbecued ribs,
by the
way - but the prices were somewhat high, but I guess that
was to
be expected. We all had a nice meal
with much good
pinball
conversation - a relaxing interlude.
We then returned to the Exhibit Hall for
awhile for more
looking
around and visiting. Many stayed quite
awhile longer I
am
sure, but as for me, after about an hour or so I went up to
bed.
The next morning we got up and first went
to the special
room
where the hotel offered a free Continental Breakfast. The
very
friendly gentleman who served us remembered us from other
shows
we had attended in past years. After
that, Sam and I went
to the
hotel coffee shop for our "regular breakfast".
After eating we went to the Exhibit Hall
for the Saturday
session. When we entered I noticed that Dann had a
special deal
going
with the local Big Brothers/Sisters organization. Any "big
brother/sister"
who brought their "little brother/sister" to the
show
got a free admission for the kid. In
addition, that
organization
held a raffle at the show of a pinball machine, all
proceeds
going to that charity - good idea Dann!
I'm sure the youngest attendee to the
show was 10 month old
Jennifer
Stathatos whose family had the room below ours at the
hotel. When I remarked to her mother Terry how her
baby was
peacefully
sleeping through all the pinball noise, she said that
Jennifer
had heard the same at home, even while she was carrying
her,
and was used to it by now.
In addition to a couple of local people,
dealers at the show
included
Jim Tolbert and Judy McCrory's "For Amusement Only" from
Berkeley,
California; Bob Nelson's "Gameroom Warehouse" from
Wichita,
Kansas; and Herb Silver's "Fabulous Fantasies" from Los
Angeles.
Pinball author and advertising flyer
dealer/collector Bill
Kurtz
from Ohio had a booth selling his books and flyers and
publicizing
his up-coming new large illustrated coin machine
book. Bill has not been seen at a pinball show for
many years
and it
was nice to see him again. He was also
to be the featured
speaker
at the evening banquet - but more about that later.
There was a good assortment of pingames
in the hall for
sale,
viewing, and of course playing. As far
as the decades of
manufacturer
were concerned there were 2 from the Thirties
(strictly
mechanical), 1 from the Forties, 5 from the Fifties,
and 32
from the Sixties. From the 1970's there
were 23 electro-
mechanicals
and 13 solid-state pins. There were
also 34 from the
1980's
and 16 from the current decade.
One of the more interesting earlier pins
at the show was
Williams'
1955 game PETER PAN. This was one of
several pingames
that
company put out around that time with a special type of
"match
feature".
If a player deposited a second coin
before beginning a
game -
with only one coin the match feature worked in the
traditional
way - the game was set up to look for a "match" after
each
ball (instead of only the last ball).
If the player was
lucky
enough to match on all five balls - a very rare situation,
I might
add - he won a large number of replays.
In order to accommodate this feature the
game's replay
counter
displayed 3 digits instead of the usual two.
This second
coin
super match feature, and the high counting replay counter,
made
these games candidates for gambling payoffs, and this
provided
at least a little competition to the "bingo pingames"
prevalent
at that time.
Williams, by the way, was not the only
company around that
time to
offer a "second coin bonus feature".
For a short time
Gottlieb
put out a few games with what they called a "double
award"
feature. On these games the depositing
of a second coin
would
cause any replays earned by the player to be doubled.
The PETER PAN at the show was in
excellent condition, and
was
priced accordingly. The artwork was
most likely by prolific
pinball
artist George Molentin.
Another interesting pin at the show was
Williams' BEAT TIME
from
1967. The backglass artwork, done by
pinball artist Jerry
Kelley,
showed a four man rock group called "The Bootles",
obvious
caricatures of "The Beatles".
The game itself is not
particularly
special, however, except for that tie-in.
A rarer game, I am sure (this is only the
second one I have
seen),
at the show was Bally's BALLY HOO from 1969.
That name
(but
only written as one word), of course, was the name of the
game
that got the company started back in 1932 - in fact the
original
BALLYHOO was named after a popular satire magazine of
the
time, and the company then named after the game. By the way,
there
was another BALLYHOO made by the company in 1947.
The 1969 BALLY HOO was a four-player pin,
it's predecessors,
of
course, both being only single-players.
The artwork on this
BALLY
HOO, featured a circus motif, promoted, I am sure, by the
popular
usage of the word "ballyhoo" denoting a "noisy shouting
or
uproar". The game's playfield was
of the asymmetrical design
prevalent
on most Bally pins of the period.
The following is a chronological listing
of the pingames at
the
show:
PINGAMES AT THE WILD WEST PINBALL
FEST
NAME MFG DATE PRICE
-------------------------- -------------- ----- --------
BALLYHOO Bally 1932 NFS
WAMPUM
BANK Sunnisam
Games 1932 NFS
CITATION (1-BALL) Bally
1949 600
PALM
BEACH (BINGO) Bally 1952
ARABIAN
NIGHTS Gottlieb 1953 NFS
PETER
PAN Williams 1955 950
BALLS-A-POPPIN' Bally 1956 NFS
CYPRESS
GARDENS (BINGO) Bally 1958 NFS
JUNGLE Williams 1960 450
WORLD
BEAUTIES Gottlieb 1960
FOTO
FINISH Gottlieb 1961 NFS
SLICK
CHICK Gottlieb 1963 1500
STAR
JET Bally 1963 NFS
ROYAL
FLUSH Gottlieb 1964 NFS
TENTH
INNING (PITCH & BAT) Williams 1964 NFS
APOLLO Williams 1965
BANK-A-BALL Gottlieb 1965 1500
COWPOKE Gottlieb 1965
KINGS
AND QUEENS Gottlieb 1965 NFS
POT-O-GOLD Williams 1965 200
SKY
LINE Gottlieb 1965 NFS
CENTRAL
PARK Gottlieb 1966 850
EIGHT
BALL Williams 1966 NFS
TV
BASEBALL (PITCH & BAT) Chicago Coin 1966
BEAT
TIME Williams 1967 200, 450
DERBY
DAY Williams 1967
DIAMOND
JACK (AAB) Gottlieb
1967 NFS
KING OF
DIAMONDS Gottlieb 1967
TWINKY Chicago Coin 1967
175
ALL
STARS (PITCH & BAT) Chicago Coin 1968
DAFFIE Williams 1968 NFS
LADY
LUCK Williams 1968
ON
BEAM Bally 1968 NFS
ROYAL
GUARD Gottlieb 1968 350
BALLY
HOO Bally 1969 NFS
EXPO Williams 1969 NFS
GALAHAD Bally 1969 250
GRIDIRON Williams 1969 NFS
SEVEN
UP Williams 1969
ZIP-A-DOO Bally 1969 300
AQUARIUS Gottlieb 1970
FOUR
MILLION BC Bally
1970 NFS
SEE
SAW Bally 1970 NFS
SEE
SAW (WHITEWOOD) Bally 1970 NFS
SUSPENSE Williams 1970 NFS
VAMPIRE Bally 1970 NFS
ROLLER
COASTER Gottlieb 1971 275
CASINO Chicago Coin 1972
MONTE
CARLO Bally 1972
WILD
LIFE Gottlieb 1972
HIGH
HAND Gottlieb
1973 NFS
JUBILEE Williams 1973
JUMPING
JACK Gottlieb 1973 400
TRAVEL
TIME Williams 1973 NFS
LUCKY
ACE Williams 1974
TRIPLE
ACTION Williams 1974 NFS
HI
DEAL Bally 1975 450
OUT OF
SIGHT Gottlieb 1975 600
BLACK
JACK (SS) Bally 1976 350
CAPTAIN
FANTASTIC Bally 1976 1600
GRAND
PRIX Williams 1976 NFS
PIONEER Gottlieb 1976 NFS
PLAYBOY Bally 1976 NFS
SURE
SHOT Gottlieb
1976
TOLEDO Williams 1976 200
HOT
TIP (EM) Williams
1977 350
JACKS
OPEN Gottlieb 1977
MUSTANG Gottlieb 1977 NFS
SOLAR
CITY Gottlieb 1977 250
STRIKES
AND SPARES Bally 1977 NFS
DISCO
FEVER Williams 1978 75
KISS Bally 1978 NFS
STRANGE
WORLD Gottlieb 1978 NFS
VOLTAN Bally 1978 NFS
GORGAR Williams 1979 NFS
SPACE
WALK Gottlieb 1979 NFS
TOTEM Gottlieb 1979
ALIEN
POKER Williams 1980 NFS
EIGHT
BALL DELUXE Bally 1980 NFS
FATHOM Bally 1980 NFS
FIREPOWER Williams 1980 450
FLASH
GORDON Bally 1980 NFS
PANTHERA Gottlieb 1980 350
SPIDERMAN
(THE AMAZING) Gottlieb 1980 NFS
BLACK
HOLE Gottlieb 1981
CENTAUR Bally
1981 NFS
MEDUSA Bally 1981 NFS
PHAROH Williams 1981 NFS
SPECTRUM Bally 1981 NFS
BABY
PAC-MAN Bally 1982 NFS
HAUNTED
HOUSE Gottlieb 1982
THUNDERBALL Williams 1982 NFS
GRANNY
AND THE GATORS Bally 1983
JOUST Williams 1983
READY,
AIM, FIRE Gottlieb 1983 NFS
PENNANT
FEVER (PITCH & BAT) Williams 1984 NFS
GRAND
LIZARD Williams 1986 NFS
PINBOT Williams 1986 NFS
ROAD
KINGS Williams 1986 350
STRANGE
SCIENCE Bally 1986
F-14
TOMCAT Williams 1987
FIRE Williams 1987
HARDBODY Bally 1987
MONTE
CARLO Gottlieb 1987
BANZAI
RUN Williams 1988 NFS
CYCLONE Williams 1988
ESCAPE
FROM THE LOST WORLD Bally 1988 NFS
TAXI Williams 1988 850
TIME
MACHINE Data East 1988 1095
BIG
HOUSE Gottlieb 1989 695
ELVIRA Bally 1989 1400
FUN
HOUSE Williams 1990 NFS
SIMPSONS
(THE) Data East 1990 1195
CACTUS
JACK'S Gottlieb 1991 NFS
CAR
HOP Gottlieb 1991
HARLEY
DAVIDSON Bally 1991
FISH
TAILS Williams 1992 TOURNEY
GETAWAY
(THE) Williams 1992 NFS
STAR
WARS Data East 1992 NFS
INDIANA
JONES Williams 1993 TOURNEY
JUDGE
DREAD Bally 1993 SHOW
POPEYE Bally 1993 SHOW
STAR
TREK (NEXT GENERATION) Williams 1993 NFS
TWILIGHT
ZONE Bally 1993 SHOW
WIPE
OUT Gottlieb 1993 SHOW
RESCUE
911 Gottlieb 1994 SHOW
TOMMY Data East 1994 NEW
At around noon on Saturday, as has
happened in past years
when I
attended pinball shows in Phoenix, my sister and her
husband
drove up from Tucson to have lunch with me.
When they
arrived,
we, along with my roommate Sam Harvey, walked to the
large
mall across the street from the hotel to eat.
The mall had an area with tables
surrounded by small stands
serving
various types of foods (Pizza, Mexican, Deli, Chinese,
etc.). We each got the food of our choice and sat
down together
to eat
it. After enjoying our lunch and good
conversation we
returned
to the Exhibit Hall. After showing my
visitors around
the
hall for about a half hour they left to return home.
Now a few words about the "special
events" which Dann Frank
thought
up to make the show more enjoyable to all.
Those
consisted
of the "Pinball Rodeo" and "Tag Team Pinball".
The "Pinball Rodeo" was divided
into five "events" in which
each of
the participants could score "rodeo points" depending on
their
ranking in the event (1st Place - 10 points, down to 8th,
9th, or
10th Place - 1 point).
All show attendees could participate in
the rodeo for free;
the
person accumulating the highest number of points in the
combined
events being crowned "1994 Pinball Rodeo Champion".
Several
events utilized specially modified pingames as described
below.
One rodeo event, "Pinball
Poker", was played on a modified
pingame
where the numbers on the score reels were replaced by
playing
card symbols. Players attempted to get
the best "poker
hands"
by changing these "cards" by hitting playfield targets
which
were wired to advance the various score reel positions.
A second event, "Video
Pinball", consisted of trying for the
highest
score on a 1978 Atari video game by that name.
A third
rodeo
event, dubbed "Sudden Death", was to get the highest score
on a
modified Williams' TOUCHDOWN (1967) pingame without getting
a ball
into a special "sudden death" hole which ended the game.
Another rodeo event was called "Wild
West One-Ball". This
consisted
of playing one ball on Gottlieb's 1967 pin KING OF
DIAMONDS,
trying to get as many of the 13 playing cards as
possible
on the backboard, the winners of the event being the
persons
scoring the most cards.
The last rodeo event, "Crazy
Eight-Ball", consisted of
trying
for the highest score on a 1982 Bally EIGHT BALL DELUXE
pin
which was modified with special large curved "banana
flippers".
In addition to the "Pinball
Rodeo" events another "fun
feature"
of the show was what Dann dubbed "Tag Team Pinball".
Players
participating in this event formed two person teams each
team
with a chosen comical name. This event
utilized a specially
modified
1977 Gottlieb MUSTANG pingame, which had a bell mounted
on top
of the backbox wired to ring when a player hit certain
"targets"
on the playfield.
When a team was up to play, one member
played the game while
his
teammate stood behind a "tag line" drawn on the floor five
feet
behind the game. If the player caused
the bell to ring he
must
immediately let go of the game and run back and tag his
teammate
who then runs up and tries to continue play before the
ball
"drains." This continues
until all five balls have been
played
by a team.
There was also a "penalty
system" in connection with the
play,
involving two other tag lines located even further away
from
the game. The four top scoring teams
participated in final
play-offs
at the banquet.
And Saturday night was the night of the
"Wild West Banquet".
After a
nice meal of western barbecue we settled down in our
seats
to hear banquet guest speaker pinball author and brochure
collector
Bill Kurtz who had come all the way from Ohio (the
farthest
anyone had come to the show, I believe).
Show host Dann Frank got up to introduce
Bill. He began by
remarking
that when Bill's name is mentioned many pin players
would
say "I've heard of him".
This, Dann went on, could be
partially
due to the books he has written, but, he added,
"there's
more to the story".
Dann then told us that part of the reason
we were there
today
was due to our guest speaker's "vision" ten years earlier
when he
was one of the founders of the Chicago "Pinball Expo".
Dann
then remarked that the apparent success of his show was due
to a
"core of dedicated collectors/players" which seems to grow
each
year.
He then asked us to imagine what it was
like back in 1985
when
the first Expo was thought of. Dann
said that Bill and the
other
Expo founders had to have wondered if enough people would
come to
make their show successful.
He then commented that, of course, there
were because the
Expo
was successful. Dann then added that he
hoped Bill would
tell us
what it was like - dealing with that "unknown quantity"
when
deciding if they wanted to go forward with the show.
Dann then mentioned Bill's two published
books - "Pinball -
The
Lure of the Silver Ball", and "Slot Machines and Coin-op
Games". He then announced Bill's forthcoming new
book which
would
be somewhat expensive (around $60), but would be worth it
due to
it's approximately 450 photos of coin machines, many of
which
will be in color.
After remarking that he hoped Bill would
touch on the things
that
make pinball important to all of us, Dann said that possibly
Volume
II of Bill's new book might be out around 1998. He then
said
there would be a Question and Answer Session after Bill's
talk. At that point Dann introduced Bill, which
drew a round of
applause.
Bill began by saying that he wanted to
take a moment to
thank
Dann for putting on such a good show - drawing another
round
of applause. He then remarked that we
were all here due to
the
"common ground" of pinball collecting.
Bill then commented that the hobby really
didn't exist 20
years
ago. He then said that pinball
collecting is a lot
different
from collecting such things as stamps and coins.
When you tell a person you collect pins,
Bill went on, their
first
reaction is usually "why do you need more than one?" Twenty
years
ago, he continued, there was really no established core of
collectors.
In those days, Bill said, operators
didn't even think of
selling
their old games for home use, many going to the dump and
eventually
being bulldozed. This is why, he said,
the survival
rate
for older games today is only about 5 or 10 percent, making
it
tough to find certain pins.
Bill then commented that collecting
coin-ops really started
in the
early 1970's - juke boxes first, then pins later. In the
mid
Seventies, he went on, Pete Bilarczyk started publishing his
"Pinball
Wizzard News" (yes folks, he spelled it with two Z's),
the
first pinball "magazine".
This, Bill continued, started getting
collectors from
different
areas of the country in touch with each other.
Many
collectors
at that time (and I know it was the case with me) he
commented,
didn't realize how many other pin collectors there
were. It also helped collectors in different areas
find games
which
were more prevalent in other sections of the country.
In the early 1980's, Bill next told us,
Steve Young came out
with
his excellent pin-pub "Pinball Collector's Quarterly" which,
he
said, helped even more to get collectors in touch with each
other. After that, he went on, there were other
coin-op
magazines
such as Jim Tolbert's "Amusement Review" (the
publication,
by the way, responsible for launching this writer's
"pinball
writing career").
Bill then told us that in the mid 1980's
he was part of a
pinball
club in the Ohio area along with Rob Berk and others. He
said
they came up with the idea that there might be similar
groups
in other parts of the country and thought maybe they could
stage
some sort of "pinball convention".
He said they really
didn't
know at that time what would happen if they did - a sort
of
"shot in the dark".
In the Fall of 1984, Bill continued, they
sent out a
questionnaire
to about 50 or 60 pin people they knew of asking if
they
would attend such a convention. He told
us they got back
about
25 positive responses, but decided to attempt the project
anyway.
Bill said they chose Chicago for the show
site for two main
reasons. First, because the pinball manufacturers
were all
located
there, and secondly it was centrally located in the
country.
As the time for the show approached, Bill
said they wondered
what
would happen if only 25 people actually did show up. Well,
he went
on, the show was successful and the tenth show is coming
up
later this year. He then commented that
the Expos brought
collectors
even closer together - many seeing each other in
person
for the first time at one of the shows.
Bill next told of the beginning of
another great pinball
publication,
Dennis Dodel's "Pinball Trader", which started up in
the
Spring of 1986. He then commented that
the hobby has changed
dramatically
in the past two years.
He then told us that things that seemed
impossible ten years
ago are
now fairly common. One example of that
Bill told us was
"reproduction
backglasses". He said that due to
these more games
can be
"salvaged" which in the past could only be used as "parts
machines".
As to what's in the future for pinball
collecting, Bill said
it's
hard to say what people will collect - remarking that the
hobby
is constantly changing. As an example,
Bill told us that
today
people are beginning to collect more "personalized" things
such as
original pinball art which he said in the past nobody
seemed
to want.
Bill then told us that he wrote his book,
"Pinball - The
Lure of
the Silver Ball" (with coauthor, Englishman Gary Flower),
back in
1988. He said it was the first pinball
book to be
published
since around 1979. Bill then added that
at that time
he
tried to bring new information into the hobby, including
something
on the newer solid-state pingames.
In the 1982/83 period, Bill next
remarked, the coin machine
industry
trade magazines were predicting the end of pinball -
with
pingames possibly ending up only in museums.
But, he
continued,
pinball made a comeback in the mid 1980's.
Bill next told about his later book,
"Slot Machines and
Coin-op
Games". He said it was the first
book dealing with other
collectable
coin-ops. Bill then remarked that many
pinball
collectors
also have a few other types of games such as bowlers,
baseball
games, gun games, etc. These, he said,
were the kind of
machines
he also tried to cover in his book.
Bill then told us he had recently
completed work on his
forthcoming
book, which he said could be out early in July. He
said
that he tried to make it the "ultimate book for coin-op
collectors". It will be fairly expensive, he went on, but
will
have
photos that many collectors will like to see.
We were then told that some of those rare
photos would be of
such
pins as Bally's SIX SHOOTER (a six player pin), Game Plan's
LOCH
NESS MONSTER, and Bally's BMX. Bill
then said that photos
of two
rare Gottlieb solid-state pins, KRULL and GOIN' NUTS,
would
also be shown. He said many of those
games have never been
shown
in a book before.
Bill then told us that his publisher
decided to do the book
because
he felt that there was a growing interest in collectable
coin-ops
these days. Also, he believed that
there is a lot of
interest
in nostalgia which would lead to support for that type
of
book. Bill then said that the publisher
wanted this book to
be
"the book that would define the hobby".
At that point Bill began to discuss what
he called "the good
and bad
things" about how the pinball collecting hobby has
progressed
in the past 10 to 20 years. One of the
good things he
said
was that it was easier for people to find pins they were
looking
for due to cross-country connections and the pinball
shows
which have sprung up, adding that it is also easier today
to find
needed parts and to obtain repair assistance.
As far as "negatives", Bill
began by saying that some people
in
recent years have attempted to "dominate the hobby". He said
that 10
or 15 years ago a collector would sell a game he didn't
particularly
like to another collector at a low price.
Now, he
continued,
they will often hold on to that item for speculation.
Also,
Bill went on, hoarding of certain games nowadays makes it
more
difficult for some collectors to find what they are seeking.
All in all, Bill then commented, the
hobby has come a long
way and
he thinks in the next couple years there may be more
significant
changes. He then remarked that prices
for some pins
have
risen dramatically recently, but he feels that they should
begin
to stabilize. Bill then said that
prices probably won't
come
down very much in the future, and probably will never again
be as
low as they were several years ago.
Finally, Bill told us that he thinks the
hobby has a long
and
promising future, commenting that 15 or so years ago a show
like
this would have seemed impossible because no one would
believe
that pinball people would come together from different
areas
to attend a show. All of us there, he
finally commented,
prove
it is a serious hobby and here to stay, with the number of
conventions
growing even more in the future.
At that point Bill asked for questions
from the audience.
The
first question asked was the name of Bill's new book. He
answered
"Arcade Treasures".
Bill then told us the book would have 450
photographs,
approximately
275 of which are pingames, with many being in
color. He then remarked that it will feature only
"amusement"
games -
no gambling machines or juke boxes - adding that it
should
contain "something for just about everybody".
The next question asked was how many
people attended the
first
Pinball Expo in 1985? Bill answered
that is was about 125,
remarking
that there were more than that at this show.
He then
said
that he and the other Expo founders "held their breath" when
they
planned the first show, commenting that they originally
planned
it to be "a one-shot affair".
Bill then remarked that there were a lot
of changes to their
original
ideas for the show. He then cited as an
example that
the
name was originally planned to be "Pinball Collector's
Exposition"
but was shortened to simply "Pinball Expo".
My friend Sam Harvey next asked how many
others at this show
had
attended the first Expo in 1985? Bill
asked that those
people
raise their hands - there were only 5 or 6 of us.
Bill was next asked how the Expo
originators convinced
Williams
Electronics to provide new pins for use in the first
Expo tournament? Bill answered that it was not easy, the game
manufacturers
at that time having a resistant attitude toward
participating
in such an event.
Bill then remarked that they probably
asked themselves
"what's
in it for us"? He said that this
was because they knew
that
most of the people attending would be collectors, while they
were
used to dealing with distributors and operators.
The first Expo "set the stage",
Bill went on, the
manufacturers
seeing how many collectors there actually were. He
said
that they could see that many of these people were also
serious
players and that they should "treat them right" as they
were
the final users of their games, and without them there would
be no
market for their products.
Also at that time, Bill continued,
pingames were beginning
to make
a resurgence and the manufacturers were "riding high"
with
production up. So they thought that
kind of show might just
be
"a good promotion" for them.
Also, Bill went on, some of the game
designers were also
collectors
and some of them helped convince their companies to
support
the shows. He said it was a "hard
sell" at first, but
the
timing was right, adding that if they had attempted it in
1983
the manufacturers might not have gone for it.
Bill was next asked if he thought there
might ever be any
"reproductions"
of pinball machines? He replied that
the closest
thing
to that he had ever seen was Bally's FIREBALL CLASSIC,
which
they put out in 1986, which was patterned after their
famous
1972 pin FIREBALL.
Bill went on to say that the first
FIREBALL was one of the
most
collectable pins ever and that in 1986 Bally thought if they
reproduced
it they might come up with another "winner". But, he
continued,
many of the players in 1986 had never seen the
original
game, and pinball had changed a lot in 14 years.
Bally discovered, Bill told us, that
"you have to keep
moving
ahead". He then described the
differences in the action
of a
1972 pin versus how games had progressed by 1986. Bill said
that
the old design just didn't translate well and the players in
1986
just didn't like the resulting game.
Getting back to the question regarding
possible future pin
"reproductions",
Bill said that after Bally's bad experience with
FIREBALL
CLASSIC there probably would be no more similar
attempts. He then added that the closest that they
might come
could
be "updates" of past games such as HIGH SPEED being
updated
as "HIGH SPEED II", THE GETAWAY - a new game similar to
an
older one, but with a few additional things added.
Finally, Bill commented that we may see a
few games based on
popular
games of the past, but saying that Arcade games translate
better
into new versions than pins do. So,
Bill remarked, don't
expect
to see many old pins "re-engineered" in the future.
The next question dealt with
"foreign language pins". Bill
began
by saying that there were some games sent to foreign
countries
which were the same as U.S. games but with foreign
translations
of some of the playfield or backglass words.
He
said he
had never seen any of these games himself, only their
flyers.
Bill then said there were some foreign
"bootleg" copies of
American
games, like a 1979 version of Williams' FLASH - a
single-player
pin called STORM. He then said that for
foreign
markets
either of two things often happen.
First, Bill told us, a company such as
Williams might sell a
"license"
to a foreign manufacturer - the "legal way". The
"illegal
way", he went on, is that some foreign outfits illegally
copy an
American pin, making minor changes to it, and take their
chances
that the American manufacturer won't take any action
against
them.
Bill then told us that in this latter
case it is very
expensive
for the U.S. company to sue a foreign outfit, and even
if they
did they probably wouldn't get very much.
Therefore, he
added,
it would cost the company more than it was worth to fight
it.
As an example of an illegal foreign copy
Bill told of an
Italian
manufacturer in 1987 coming out with a "conversion kit"
to
translate another game into a copy of Gottlieb's 1986 pin ICE
FEVER. He then added that many of these
"conversion kits" are
done in
people's basements or garages and therefore very hard to
track
down. Bill then commented that foreign
games seldom make
their
way to the U.S.
Sam Harvey then asked if Bill saw much
chance of collectors
making
overseas contacts to obtain foreign pinball flyers? He
also
wanted to know why it seems to be harder for American
collectors
to get copies of overseas flyers than for foreign
collectors
to obtain our flyers?
Bill began by telling us that the pinball
collecting hobby
is
developing at a slower rate in Europe, the European collectors
being
"a few years behind us". He
then added that they never had
many
older pins in Europe, especially 1950's woodrails.
After remarking that in Europe old
pinball flyers hardly
exist,
Bill told us that he has a good "pipeline" for flyers from
some of
the European manufacturers. He then
went on to say that
as
collecting grows in Europe American collectors will be
developing
more overseas contacts, and material from Europe will
become
more readily available in the future.
After more discussion of conditions and
pinball players in
Europe,
Bill remarked that in this country there is at least a
possibility
of finding almost any pingame you might want.
He
said,
however, that is not the case overseas because many older
games
were never shipped out of the U.S.
Bill then told us that overseas
collectors are just starting
to get
organized. He then said that magazines
and newsletters
are
beginning to appear, and that someone in Belgium is trying to
set up
a convention sometime in 1995.
The final question (well, actually is was
a comment) came
from
Los Angeles area collector/dealer Herb Silvers who commented
that he
believes that pinball prices will continue to go up and
not
stabilize as Bill had previously suggested.
He said that
this
should be especially true with electro-mechanicals, citing
as an
example Bally FIREBALL.
In answer to that Bill began by saying
that he thinks higher
pinball
prices in the future will depend very much on the
condition
of the game. He then said that there
will probably be
fewer
"mint" machines and therefore prices on these games will
probably
appreciate.
Bill next remarked that as some
collectors get more "fussy"
they
will be willing to pay more to get exactly what they want.
So, he
summarized by commenting, some pin prices will go up, some
down,
and others remain the same.
At that point Wichita dealer Bob Nelson
spoke up saying that
he
thinks pingame "market conditions" will cause prices to
continue
to increase, adding that it's hard for him to meet the
current
demand for pingames.
Bill then said that that would depend on
the age of the
machine. Nelson replied that "people want games
of any vintage".
Bill next
commented that there always will be a demand for
certain
games so some prices will go up. Nelson
finally made the
comment
"there are more collectors every day".
That ended Bill's talk, including the
question and answer
session. Bill was then given a healthy round of
applause.
As I said earlier, the final play-offs
for the "Tag Team
Pinball"
event were held at the end of the banquet.
This was
done on
stage and was a lot of fun to watch.
The final winning
team
was crowned "1994 Tag Team Champions", with awards also
being
presented to the 2nd and 3rd place teams.
At the end of the banquet Dann Frank
thanked his co-workers.
He then
announced that a 1995 "Wild West Pinball Fest" had
already
been scheduled for March 28 through 30.
After the banquet the Exhibit Hall was
again opened until
the
"wee hours", this being dubbed by Dann as "Midnight
Madness".
Well, I
wandered around for an hour or so and then went up to
bed;
but many, including my roommate Sam, stayed there several
hours
more.
Sunday morning, after a late breakfast,
we returned to the
hall
for our final day of visiting, playing, etc.
The previous
evening
we were talking to one of the people at our table, David
Vogt,
who told us of an interesting old pingame he owned,
Keeney's
THRILLER from 1939. When Sam and I told
him we would
like to
see and photograph it, he invited us to come to his home
on
Sunday.
Sunday afternoon we found Dave in the
hall and he offered to
drive
us to his home in the nearby community of Chandler. After
a
pleasant drive we arrived at his home, were introduced to his
charming
wife, and led to their basement to view their games.
After photographing THRILLER, and several
more of the Vogt's
fine
pingames, and visiting with David and his wife, we were
driven
back to the show. When we arrived we
found we had missed
the Big
Brothers/Sisters pingame raffle, but found out that none
of us
were lucky enough to win the game so it really didn't
matter.
We then made our final "rounds"
of the Exhibit Hall as it
was
just about time for the show to close.
Before we started
home
Sam and I made arrangements with the Stathatos family
(including
10 week old Jennifer) to "caravan" with them as far as
Blythe
California so we all could have dinner together.
After a pleasant trip down the highway
for several hours we
stopped
in Blythe (on the California border) at a restaurant for
dinner. During conversation at dinner I again
discovered that
"it's
a small 'pinball world'".
When the young lady, Terry, happened to
mention she lived in
Torrance
California while going to school, I asked her if she had
attended
Torrance High? When she said she had, I
then asked her
if she
knew my good friend (and pinball enthusiast/author) Rob
Hawkins
who has been a teacher at that school for many years?
Terry told me that, not only did she know
him, but she had
once
been in one of Rob's "shop" classes.
When I later asked Rob
if he
remembered her - she told me her maiden name - he said he
didn't
think so, adding that he had had a lot of students in his
approximately
20 years of teaching.
By the way, Terry also told me she
remembered the many
pinball
machines Rob and his students had at the school. In
addition
to teaching the kids in his class how to work on the
games,
other students could play the games for money at lunch
time,
the "take" being used to help finance the school's
Electronics
Club.
Well, after dinner we headed for
home. After several hours
we
finally arrived at Sam's house around 1 AM.
I then got into
my car
for the approximately hour and a half drive home.
All in all I had a real good time at the
first ever "Wild
West
Pinball Fest" and have to say Dann's first show was a
success.
As I said earlier, Dann has the second edition of his
show
planned for March 28 through 30, 1995.
CORRECTIONS
In my
last article, "Pinball Expo '93 (Part 2)", the small
listing
of games which was titled "TABLE 1 - PINGAMES AT PINBALL
EXPO
'93" should have been labeled "A SAMPLING OF PINGAME PRICES
AT THE
AUCTION". The other larger listing
was correctly titled
as it
was the listing of the games in the Expo exhibit hall.
Also
last time the editors inadvertently left off the photo
credits
for the photos of the last seminar speakers and the
banquet
speaker. These photos were courtesy of
Jim Schelberg of
PinGame
Journal. Thanks Jim! Sorry about the omission!