THREE SHOWS 1991
By Russ Jensen
Ever since 1981 (with one exception -
1983, I believe) I
have
been reporting on the Annual "Loose Change Fun Fair" around
this
time. Since the show's inception in
1979, it has been an
annual
event each Fall; up until 1990 when they added an
additional
Spring show. I was unable to attend the
Spring 1990
show,
but this year I did attend the Spring as well as the Fall
Fun
Fair.
Also this year, two other changes have
occurred in the Fun
Fair. First of all, Dan Meade (publisher of LOOSE
CHANGE
magazine,
and founder of the Fun Fair) sold out his interest in
the
show to his partner in the show's production for many years
Canning
Enterprises of Maywood CA, a long-time promoter of
antique
shows and "swap meets" in Southern California. This also
resulted
in "Loose Change" being dropped from the show's name.
Secondly, the location of the show was
moved from the
Pasadena
Exhibit Center, where all but the first show in 1979 had
been
held. Many people, including myself,
were not pleased with
this
since we had come to like the location which had convenient
parking,
familiar surroundings, and a close-by hotel where out-
of-town
visitors to the show could stay. You
were also within
easy
walking distance to at least one restaurant.
The Spring
1991
show was held in Anaheim Stadium, and the Fall show at the
Long
Beach Arena.
This year, as I said, was my first visit
to the Spring
version
of the Fun Fair and I found the "turnout" of old pingames
to be
rather disappointing. Shortly after
that I had the
pleasure
of attending for the first time, the Pinball Show in
Phoenix
Arizona; and finally in late September, I again visited
the
Fall edition of the Fun Fair. I am
going to describe all
three
shows here, including lists of the pingames which appeared
at each
show.
THE
SPRING 1991 FUN FAIR
As I said previously, the turnout of
older pingames at this
show
was quite disappointing to me. There
were no games from the
1930's
(compared to 7 in Fall 1990); only 1 game each from the
40's,
50's, and 60's (compared to 2, 6, and 5 respectively in
Fall
1990). The showing for 1970's
electro-mechanicals was quite
a bit
better with 7 (there were the same number in Fall 1990).
There
were also 11 solid-state pins from the 70's and 80's
combined. In addition, there was one "toy
bagatelle", the date
of
which I was unable to ascertain.
This lack of pins was partly attributed
to the lack of
dealers
offering pingames for sale at the Spring show.
Herb
Silvers,
as usual, had a good showing of pins, although dominated
by
solid-states, and his booth was again a "center of 'pin
activity'"
at the show. Arizona dealer Don
Westphal also had a
nice
display of pinball and baseball games.
The other dealer to
have
more than one pingame for sale had his games disassembled,
setting
on end, and I never saw any one manning the booth.
The 1940's game at the show was
Gottlieb's 1948 game
BUCCANEER
which came out around October of that year, just after
Gottlieb's
well-known series of "fairy tale" games (which started
with
the first flipper game, HUMPTY DUMPTY).
The six flippers of
these
games had given way to four on BUCCANEER.
The game had a
three
kickout hole arrangement in the center of the playfield,
and a 1
to 6 numbered bumper series.
The sole 1950's game at the show was
Williams' mid-1955 game
SMOKE
SIGNAL. The artwork on this game of
course had an "Indian
motif". The backglass was in very good condition,
but the
playfield,
sad to say, was extremely poor. This
game appeared to
have a
"spell name" feature and the "gobble hole" which was
popular
with pin manufacturers around this time.
It is also
interesting
to note the 3 posts between the flippers which would
seem to
give the player a much better chance of not "draining"
the
ball. I wonder if these were original
on the game, or added
by
someone who later had the game in his home?
The following is a chronological list of
the pingames I saw
at the
show:
PINGAMES AT THE SPRING 1991 FUN
FAIR
GAME MANUFACTURER YEAR
-------------------- -------------- -----
BUCCANEER Gottlieb
1948
KING OF
SWAT (BASEBALL) Williams 1955
SMOKE
SIGNAL Williams 1955
BASE
HIT (BASEBALL) Williams 1967?
PLAYTIME Chicago Coin 1968
CASINO Chicago Coin
1972
WINNER Williams 1972
TRAVEL
TIME Williams 1973
TOP
SCORE Gottlieb 1975
BLUE
CHIP Williams 1976
EIGHT BALL (SS)
Bally 1977
FREEDOM Bally 1977
HOT
TIP Williams 1978
DOLLY
PARTON (SS) Bally
1979
GORGAR (SS) Williams
1979
STELLAR
WARS (SS) Williams
1979
XENON (SS) Bally
1980
CENTAUR (SS) Bally
1981
FLASH
GORDON (SS) Bally
1981
JUNGLE
LORD (SS) Williams 1981
SPEAKEASY
(2-PL SS) Bally 1982
SPACE
SHUTTLE (SS) Williams
1984
RAVEN (SS) Gottlieb
1986
5-IN-1
ELECTRIC ? ?
After that disappointing showing of old
games at the Spring
Fun
Fair, I decided that if the situation did not greatly improve
by the
Fall show I might discontinue my coverage of the show,
especially
if they kept moving around.
THE
ARIZONA "PINBALL SHOW"
In June 1990 a group of Arizona
collectors decided to put on
an all
pinball show in the Phoenix area. The
advertisements for
the
show sounded very tempting, but the thought of the 100 degree
plus
temperatures (I HATE HEAT!!), especially if I drove in my
non-air
conditioned car, finally caused me to decide to stay
home.
This year, however, I was made "an
offer I could not
refuse". A couple of weeks before the Arizona show my
good
friend
Sam Harvey called and told me a young couple he knew were
driving
their van to the show and offered to take Sam (and me if
I
wanted to come) along with them. Well,
the thought of being
driven
there (after I drove the 60 or 70 miles to Sam's house) in
an air
conditioned van sounded OK to me, so I said "yes".
On
the day of the start of the show, Friday June 14, we left
Sam's
house with those young pinball fans, Pat Feinauer and his
girlfriend
Angie, just before noon. Sam's mother,
who lives a
few
houses down from Sam, graciously packed some delicious tuna
salad
sandwiches for all of us, and with the sodas that Pat and
Angie
brought along we did not have to stop for lunch. The ride
was
quite nice with all that pleasant company and good food, and
before
we knew it we had arrived in the Phoenix area.
After a little problem finding our way to
the hotel (the map
provided
with the show brochure left a lot to be desired) we
arrived
at the hotel which was located in the Phoenix suburb of
Scottsdale. The hotel was a very nice resort type hotel;
after
all,
Scottsdale is a well-known winter resort area.
After
checking
into our rooms we went directly to the Exhibit Hall to
join
the festivities, which had started several hours earlier.
Before I start describing the show, let
me first remark that
this
show, unlike the annual Pinball Expo in Chicago, had no
seminars
(well, actually there was one on Saturday which dealt
only
with solid-state game systems). For
this reason I could
"relax"
more, not having to take copious notes, and have more
time to
enjoy the games, and to visit with the great "pin people"
who
were there.
Speaking of good people, during the show
I got to meet,
among
many others of course, two people whom I had wanted to meet
after
reading articles and letters by them in Pinball Trader and
Pingame
Journal. These two were fellow Southern
Californian Bill
Cowles
and Oklahoma collector Bart Bush who incidentally had a
very
nice display of pingames which he had brought with him all
the way
from Oklahoma.
Of course, I also got reacquainted with
many old pinball
friends,
including one I had not seen for many years, Jim
Tolbert. Jim, back in 1978, had published a small
magazine
called
"Amusement Review" in which I started my "writing career".
It was
nice seeing Jim after all those years.
The Exhibit area consisted of two large
rooms, with the
second
being sort of an "overflow area" and also where the new
GILLIGAN'S
ISLAND machines, which were used in the pinball
tournament,
were located.
The pingames on display in the exhibit area could generally
be
grouped into three categories: games which were "on display"
for
viewing and playing (but knot for sale); games for sale which
were
also set up to be played; and finally, "as-is" machines at a
lower
price which were not set up.
The machines ran the gamut from a few
early games from the
1930's,
through some 50's and 60's classics, to 70's electro-
mechanicals
and the later (right up to 1991) solid-state
machines. If one wanted to play a game from almost any
era it
was
possible at this show (although games from the 30's and 40's
were
very limited).
Before I describe a few of the
"classic" pingames to put in
an
appearance at the show, I want to digress for a moment on
something
of a personal nature. My sister
Suzanne, it turns out,
now
lives in Tucson, Arizona not too far away from Scottsdale.
Well,
at my invitation, she and her husband Tom drove up and met
me at
the Exhibit Hall Saturday morning.
After my showing them
around
the hall we had a nice lunch in the hotel coffee shop. My
sister
still remembers the old pingames I had when we were
growing
up. It was nice to be able to visit
with them as I don't
get to
see them too often.
Well, back to the games! Probably the earliest game there
was a
small, brightly colored "pin-and-ball" game, FLASH. It was
probably
produced in 1932, but I am unsure of it's maker. A
similar
Bally game of 1932, GOOFY, was also shown.
A game from the 30's, whose operation was
very interesting
to me,
was Exhibit's 1937 payout pingame, BAZAAR.
When the
player
inserted a coin, a group of "score values" would randomly
light
up on the short backboard. When the one
ball was shot, the
bumpers
it hit increased a score projected on the backboard. If
his
final score matched any of the score values which were lit at
the
start of the game, the player would receive a coin payout of
2 or
more nickels, depending on the "odds" which also were lit at
the
start of the game. A very novel game
indeed!
Skipping to the 1940's, there were two
nice games from 1949.
Gottlieb's
BUTTONS AND BOWS certainly must have been named after
the
popular song of the same name from the Bob Hope movie
"Paleface",
one of my favorite movies and songs when I was a kid.
The
backglass art featured an old western town with a fancy woman
walking
down the street in her "buttons and bows". The playfield
had two
"reverse action" flippers near the bottom, just above the
game's
only eject hole. A rollover button in
the center of the
playfield
was used to advance the game's "bonus feature".
The other 1949 game was Chicago Coin's
PIN BOWLER. This
appears
to be a very nice bowling theme pin, having a "bowling
score
system" as well as standard scoring.
It too had the
"reverse
action" flippers at the bottom of the field. This was
one of
the best looking Chicago Coin games I have seen as far as
the
artwork was concerned. Chicago Coin
woodrail flipper games
are
fairly rare compared to other company's games.
A true "classic" pingame of the
1950's at the show was
Gottlieb's
QUEEN OF HEARTS from 1952. The
backglass artwork was
so
striking that pinball aficionado Steve Young chose it to make
a
poster from a few years ago. This was
certainly a prime
example
of the great playing card theme games for which Gottlieb
was so
famous. It also featured five of the
"gobble holes" which
were
used quite extensively during the mid Fifties, and the
flippers
were facing in the right direction too!
Another fairly rare "gobble hole
Gottlieb" at the show was
their
1954 game LOVELY LUCY. It has been
rumored that the then
popular
"I Love Lucy" TV show was the inspiration for this game,
but the
face on the backglass sure doesn't look like Lucille
Ball! This game had a "number sequence"
employing 5 "dead
bumpers"
and a "nest" of 3 pop-bumpers near the top of the
playfield,
in addition to it's 5 "gobble holes".
Another rare 50's flipper game to be seen
was Gottlieb's
(SWEET)
ADD-A-LINE dating from 1955. This game
only had two of
the
dreaded "gobble holes", but boasted four pop-bumpers. It's
"number
sequence" feature was apparently connected with the eight
lines
of four numbers depicted on the backglass, but exactly how
this
worked I don't really know. It's
obviously Roy Parker
backglass
had that artist's usual "comical touches".
Probably the most unusual and rare
flipper game of the
1950's
to appear at the show was Bally's 1956 game BALLS-A-
POPPIN'. This beautifully restored machine was the
pride and joy
or
Arizona collector Jay Stafford. For
quite some time is was
rumored
that this was the only flipper game Bally put out in the
mid
1950's while they were concentrating on their "in-line"
("bingo")
pingames.
I myself discovered, while looking at
back issues of
BILLBOARD
magazine several years ago, that Bally produced two
other
flippers during that era: CIRCUS, which was almost
identical
to BALLS-A-POPPIN'; and CARNIVAL, which used "score
reels"
for scoring instead of "lighted panels" as were used on
the
other two.
BALLS-A-POPPIN' got it's name from the
fact that at one
point
in the game it was possible to have many balls in play at
once (I
believe the maximum was 7 or 8), this being the first
true
"multi-ball" pingame. Sam
Harvey's friend Pat (who had
driven
us to Arizona) was so intrigued with playing this game
that he
insisted on Sam getting his own CIRCUS working as soon as
possible
after returning home.
There were many "classic" 60's
pins at the show such as
Gottlieb's
SLICK CHICK, BOWLING QUEEN, BUCKAROO, and BANK-A-BALL,
just to
name a few. But the game I have chosen
to describe is
the
first pingame I bought in the early Seventies after my
interest
in pinball was revived at that time.
The game is Williams' 1966 pin EIGHT
BALL. This game was an
excellent
"pool theme" game with a 15 pool ball sequence feature.
A novel
semi-circular "run-around" in the center of the playfield
provided
a little added action. The artwork on
both the
playfield
and backglass well depicted the pool game motif.
There were also, of course, many
electro-mechanical pins
from
the 70's (more than any other era in fact) at the show, and
many
solid-state games as well. But, I won't
attempt to describe
any of
these "later games". The
following is a chronological
listing
of all the games that were there:
PINGAMES AT THE 1991
ARIZONA PINBALL SHOW
(AIS) -
"AS-IS" CONDITION NFS -
NOT FOR SALE
NAME MFG YEAR
PRICE
_________________________ ___________ _____ _____
FLASH ? 32
GOOFY
Bally 32
BAZAAR Exhibit 37
600
FORMATION Genco 40
600
BALLY HOO Bally 47
TREASURE CHEST Exhibit 47
125
BUTTONS AND BOWS Gottlieb 49
NFS
PIN BOWLER Chicago Coin 49 400
FIGHTING IRISH Chicago Coin 50 650
HAYBURNERS Williams 51
600
DOMINO Williams 52
NFS
JUMPING JACK (UPRIGHT) Genco 52
95
QUEEN OF HEARTS Gottlieb 52
NFS
LOVELY LUCY Gottlieb 54
NFS
SOUTHERN BELLE Gottlieb 55
SWEET ADD-A-LINE Gottlieb 55
NFS
BALLS-A-POPPIN' Bally 56
NFS
DELUXE OFFICIAL BASEBALL (AIS) Williams 57 150
FALSTAFF Gottlieb
57 NFS
MAJESTIC Gottlieb 57
500
CYPRESS GARDENS (BINGO) Bally 58
SHORT STOP
(BASEBALL) Williams 58
MISS ANNABELLE Gottlieb 59
UNIVERSE Gottlieb 59
SLUG FEST
(SS BASEBALL) Williams 5?
MERRY-GO-ROUND Gottlieb 60
BOBO Williams 61
500
FLIPPER FAIR Gottlieb 61
NFS
FASHION SHOW Gottlieb
62 NFS
LIBERTY BELLE Gottlieb 62
SLICK CHICK
(AIS) Gottlieb 63 400
SWING ALONG Gottlieb 63
NFS
BOWLING QUEEN
Gottlieb 64
HAPPY CLOWN Gottlieb 64
ALPINE CLUB Williams 65
BANK-A-BALL Gottlieb 65
BUCKAROO Gottlieb 65
COWPOKE Gottlieb 65
800
EIGHT BALL Williams 65
FLIPPER POOL Gottlieb 65
NFS
LUCKY STRIKE Williams 65
350
A-GO-GO Williams 66
200
MASQUERADE Gottlieb
66 600
APOLLO Williams 67
KING OF DIAMONDS Gottlieb 67
NFS
MAGIC CITY Williams 67
SING ALONG Gottlieb 67
500
HEARTS AND SPADES Gottlieb
69 550
BASEBALL Gottlieb 70
600
CARD TRIX Gottlieb 70
FLIP-A-CARD Gottlieb 70
FLIP-A-CARD Gottlieb 70
250
SEE SAW Bally 70 500
STRAIGHT FLUSH Williams 70
200
SUSPENSE Williams 70
225
TRAIL DRIVE Bally 70
250
ASTRO
Gottlieb 71
450
BIG FLIPPER Chicago Coin 71 250
EXPRESSWAY Bally 71
EXTRA INNING (AIS)
Gottlieb 71 100
FOUR MILLION B.C. Bally
71
FOUR SQUARE Gottlieb 71
375
LOVE BUG Williams 71
250
CASINO Chicago Coin 72
FAN-TAS-TIC Williams 72
350
FIREBALL Bally 72
1200
FLYING CARPET Gottlieb 72
200
GRANADA Williams 72
75
GRAND SLAM Gottlieb 72
175
LINE DRIVE
(BASEBALL) Williams 72 995
SPANISH EYES Williams 72
250
SPANISH EYES Williams 72
300
DARLING Williams 73
350
HIGH HAND Gottlieb 73
200
JUBILEE
(AIS)
Williams 73 100
MONTE CARLO Bally 73
NFS
NIP-IT Bally 73 NFS
ODDS AND EVENS Bally 73
NFS
TRAVEL TIME Williams 73
BIG BRAVE Gottlieb 74
275
BOW AND ARROW Bally 74 300
BOW AND ARROW Bally 74
350
ABRA-CA-DABRA Gottlieb 75
75
ATLANTIS Gottlieb 75 200
ATLANTIS Gottlieb 75
400
EL DORADO Gottlieb 75
125
FAST DRAW Gottlieb 75
OLD CHICAGO Bally 75
PAT HAND Williams 75
450
SATIN DOLL Williams 75
150
WIZARD Bally 75 650
ALADDIN'S CASTLE Bally 76
BUCCANEER Gottlieb 76
200
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC Bally
76 600
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC Bally
76 1200
CARD WHIZ Gottlieb 76
250
FLIP-FLOP Bally 76
325
HOLLYWOOD Chicago Coin 76
PIONEER Gottlieb 76
350
SURFER Gottlieb 76
350
CLEOPATRA
(SS) (AIS) Gottlieb 77
50
DISCO Stern 77
250
EIGHT BALL
(SS) Bally 77 250
EVIL KNIEVEL Bally 77
175
MATA HARI Bally
77
NIGHT RIDER Bally 77
225
BLACK JACK Bally 78
325
JOKER POKER
(SS) (AIS) Gottlieb 78 50
LOST WORLD
(AIS) Bally 78 100
PHOENIX Williams 78
SINBAD
(SS) (AIS)
Gottlieb 78 150
STRIKES AND SPARES Bally
78
DOLLY (PARTON) Bally 79
550
FLASH Williams 79
GORGAR
(AIS)
Williams 79 150
GORGAR Williams 79
KISS Bally 79
METEOR Stern 79
450
PARAGON Bally
79 450
PARAGON Bally 79
300
SOLAR RIDE
(AIS) Gottlieb 79 50
STAR TREK Bally 79
STAR TREK Bally 79
175
STELLAR WARS Williams 79
400
SUPER SONIC
(AIS) Bally 79 150
TRI-ZONE Williams
79 350
ALIEN POKER Williams 80
ASTEROID ANNIE Gottlieb 80
BLACK KNIGHT Williams 80
350
SEAWITCH Stern 80
SILVERBALL MANIA (SS) (AIS) Bally 80 150
SPACE INVADERS Bally 80
250
TORCH
(SS) (AIS) Gottlieb 80 50
XENON Bally 80
450
CAVEMAN Gottlieb 81
EIGHT BALL DELUXE Bally
81 600
EIGHT BALL DELUXE Bally
81
HYPERBALL Bally 81
450
MEDUSA Bally 81
BMX Bally 82
DEVIL'S DARE Gottlieb 82
300
VECTOR Bally 82
JACKS TO OPEN Gottlieb 83
ATILLA THE HUN Game Plan 84
75
SPACE SHUTTLE Williams 84
COMET Williams 85
EIGHT BALL CHAMP Bally 85
EIGHT BALL CHAMP Bally 85
FIREBALL CLASSIC Bally 85
SORCERER Williams 85
GENESIS Gottlieb 86
GENESIS Gottlieb 86
GRAND LIZARD Williams 86
PINBOT Williams 86
RAVEN Gottlieb 86
F-14 TOMCAT Williams 87
BACK TO THE FUTURE Data East 90
CACTUS JACK'S Gottlieb 91
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND Williams
91
CAR HOP Gottlieb 9?
Saturday evening was set aside for the
banquet. After a
pretty
nice meal, one of our hosts got up on the platform to
begin
the after dinner program. He began by
thanking the people
who
came from "far away", especially the young man, Dave Dutton,
from
England who won the show's pinball tournament, and his wife;
another
fellow from there; and two gentlemen who came from
Hawaii.
He then introduced Pinball Expo producer
Rob Berk so he
could
tell us what to expect at the up-coming Pinball Expo '91 in
Chicago
in October.
Rob began by remarking that this year
there would be "lots
of
surprises". He then introduced his
co-producer Mike Pacak to
tell us
what would be happening in the Expo's Exhibit Hall.
Mike said that one "special surprise" would be the game
auction
to be held on Sunday, and that it would have a minimum of
150
pinballs (as well as other types of games) and would probably
last
until 4 or 5 PM. Mike then said that
this would be "the
grandest
year for exhibits" at the Expo.
Rob then gave us a brief run-down on the
lectures which had
been
set up to that point. He ended by
congratulating the
producers
of the Arizona show for putting on such a fine
presentation.
At that point the featured speaker, Tim
Arnold, was
introduced
to tell us about his extensive pingame collection, and
the
special plans he has for it. Tim began
by joking that this
was the
first banquet he had ever attended where "the waiters
were
better dressed than the guests", a reference to the fact
that
most of us were casually dressed, probably due in part to
the
high temperatures.
Tim then fired up the slide projector to
show us slides of
various
games in his collection throughout his talk.
He said the
games
he would show were from one section of one floor of the
collection
and consisted mostly of games of the 40's and 50's.
He said
that the colored backgrounds of the pictures indicated
which
heads were from complete games and which were only
"partials".
Tim then began relating his personal
history. He said he
started
in the coin machine business in 1969 with a "bubble gum
route",
and bought his first pingame in 1972.
By 1976, he went
on, he
had his own arcade in a college town in Michigan.
Tim then told us that when video games
started getting
popular
there was "money all over the place". At that point, he
said,
he started buying old pingames, including some entire
collections
such as the large Barry Nye/Pat Hamlett collection
and
another in South Carolina.
At the present time, Tim told us, he has
approximately 500
pingames
and is in the process (now about 50 percent complete) of
moving
them from Michigan to his new home in Las Vegas. He gave
us his
phone number in Vegas and told us that if any of us was
ever in
town to give him a call and he would even pick you up
downtown
and take you to his country home.
Tim said he was moving the games himself
and is removing the
backglasses
and packing them in separate boxes for safety.
He
said he
also had about 180 crates of parts, telling us that he
had in
the past bought parts from several large distributorships
which
were going out of business.
Tim then told us that his new house in the
country was
approximately
3400 sqft., and had 1200 sqft. of garage space. It
also
had a tennis court, he went on, which he was going to build
a
building over and use to house many of his games, saying that
this
would result in around 7800 sqft. of display area. This he
said
would give him space to set up 300 to 400 games, adding that
he
might enlarge it later to double the capacity.
He then
remarked
that that part of the country was "a good dry, safe, and
secure
place" to keep games.
Tim next told us that he will first set
the bodies and heads
on the
tennis court to check for "proper matches". After that he
told us
he would start refurbishing each game in a shop area set
up in
one of the garages.
Each backglass, he told us, would be
treated with "Cover
Your
Glass", but no attempt would be made to "retouch" them. The
cabinets
would be cleaned and waxed, but again no modification of
the
paint, unless the entire cabinet had been repainted by an
"amateur". Tim then remarked that most of his effort
will be on
the
"workings" rather than the "esthetics" of the games.
The next step, Tim Went on, would be what
he referred to as
"test
marketing", which he said would be done in "small steps".
If the
public "rejects" the project at any point, he said, he
would
abandon it and just keep the games for himself.
First, Tim said, he planned to start a
"not for profit
fraternal
club" as defined by the IRS, which he described as "a
non-profit
organization without all the paper work".
All money
taken
in, he explained, is given back to charity with none
returned
to the members which simplifies IRS reporting.
Tim next
told us
of some ideas for a name for the organization, most of a
comical
nature.
The requirement to join the organization
was said to be one
dollar
and a driver's license; these being "something of value"
and a
"form of identification" to keep out the "riff-raf". The
club's
monthly meetings, Tim said, would be held in his "tennis
court",
with all games set up for Quarter play and all money
taken
in going to "the charity of the evening". There would also
be a
monthly tournament with a trophy for the "monthly champ".
Tim then said that he may also place a
few of his old games,
set up
for Quarter play, in what he called "nice, quiet
locations"
(a "family pizza parlor", for
example). He said this
way he
could get some "feedback" to see if people will play old
games. The profit from these games would of course
all go to
charity,
and this would be stated on a sign on each game.
The next step, Tim then explained, would
be to get something
like
the "center aisle of a mall", a State Fair, etc., and place
about
100 games there for a week or so, also set for 25 cent
play. A "high score contest", he said,
would be held for each
game
using small prizes donated by the merchants.
Tim told us he
thought
he could make between 1 and 15 thousand dollars for
charity
by this method. He then added that he
could "stand and
observe"
what games people would play. Also, he
thought of
having
some sort of drawing, the names and addresses of the
entrants
also being used to start up a mailing list.
The "biggest step" in his plan
(the "end of his dream") Tim
told
us, would be to get what he called a "permanent clubhouse".
For
this he said he would need a large building, in an area zoned
for
business, such as an old supermarket or bowling alley, which
he
hoped might be "donated" (at least in part) by the owner.
This clubhouse, Tim continued, would be
set up as sort of a
"hands-on
museum" (a "fun-time arcade") open to the public and
staffed
by volunteers. The hours he said would
probably start
after 3
PM (so parents couldn't accuse him of keeping their kids
away
from school), and close by midnight so they would not be
bothered
by the "late night crowd". To
enter you would again
have to
show a driver's license and be given a badge to be worn
inside. He then referred to this place as sort of a
"kinder,
gentler
arcade".
Tim also said that smoking, food, and
soda drinking would
not be
allowed around the games, but that a special room would be
provided
for the "nicotine fiends". He
said he really didn't
know
whether or not people would play pre-flipper games because
it
really hadn't been tried yet. Tim added
that this display of
games
of different eras would probably be helpful to "pinball
researchers",
as well as to game designers who could get ideas
for new
games from the great ideas of the past (such as the
"disappearing
pop bumper").
Next Tim told us that one of the
"main guiding forces" for
him
coming up with his plan was that he thought it was stupid to
own so
many games and not have them set up. He
then mentioned
what he
called the "three digit collectors" (those with over 100
games)
who only had 20 or so set up for viewing and playing.
Those
of us with less than 100 pins he jokingly referred to as
"pikers".
Tim said that since he had the space to
set up a large
number
of games for playing that was what he wanted to do. He
next
told us of a "personal goal" of acquiring all the Gottlieb
electro-mechanical
flipper games, of which he now owns a little
more
than half. He handed out to us a
hand-written list of the
electro-mechanical
flipper games by Gottlieb and Williams, with
an
indication of which he had and which he was looking for. Tim
then
said if we find anyone "throwing out" any of those games to
please
save it for him.
Finally Tim said if any of us have any
comments on his plan
(either
pro or con) to get in touch with him, either in person or
by
phone, saying he would also be available at the Expo in
October. (Author's note: more about Tim's
"charitable exploits"
when I
report on that show next time.) Tim
then remarked that he
thought
his plan could be "a lot of fun".
Tim then thanked the show promoters and
turned the podium
over to
Rob Berk to add a little more about the up-coming Expo in
Chicago. Rob then gave us some information on the
plant tour and
the
proposed banquet guest speaker.
At that point Williams/Bally/Midway's
Steve Kordek was
called
up to say a few words. After remarking
that his talk
would
be short because he had an early morning golf date, he
congratulated
the show's producers which drew a round of
applause.
Steve next thanked Tim for the nice
backglass slides he had
shown
during his talk, remarking especially about Roy Parker's
art and
his portrayal of women. He then
remarked that he wished
that he
had sat down with Roy when he was still alive and
discussed
his work with him.
The other great old-time artist, George
Molentin, Steve said
was
still alive but very sick at the time.
He then related to us
a sad
story about how George had recently thrown out some old
records
he had from both the old Reproductions outfit and
Advertising
Posters listing all their artists and which games
each
one had done. He remarked what a gift
that would have been
to one
of us pinball historians, adding that he would have liked
to have
that himself!
Steve then began talking about Williams'
"disappearing pop
bumper"
which they had used on a few games in the late 1950's,
remarking
that GUSHER (one of these games) was one of the
company's
better games of the past. He then told
us that they
had
been thinking about using such a device on their current
games,
but that the added manufacturing cost of 30 to 45 dollars
per
game made it somewhat impractical, although he added that it
was possible
that this might be done sometime in the future.
Steve next said that he was really
enjoying the show and
visiting
with all the attendees. He said that
his company was
doing
everything they can to build great games, but that he
couldn't
tell us what they were currently working on.
He then
remarked
that he thought that their current game, GILLIGAN'S
ISLAND,
was a "sleeper". He said that
this show was really fun
and
that he hoped that we could all attend the Expo in Chicago in
October.
Steve ended by telling us that he hoped
he would last
another
year or two, remarking that he and his wife had recently
celebrated
their 50th wedding anniversary.
Finally, one of the show's producers got
up and told us that
this
year's turnout was bigger than last year and that they hoped
next
year would be even better. He then
remarked that many
people
commented that they would like to see more parts available
for
sale in the exhibit hall, asking exhibitors to try and bring
some
next year. He then thanked all for
attending and said
"let's
all go back to the exhibit hall and play some pinball!"
Sunday morning, after loading up the van
with the two games
that
Sam and Pat bought (there was barely enough room for Sam and
I in
the back seat - we had to squeeze past
a game cabinet to
get
into the vehicle), we drove to the home of local collector
Dan
Frank, who was holding an "open house" for show visitors. A
sign
outside Dan's house proclaimed it the "House of Pinball",
which
it certainly was.
Dan's wife had prepared some delicious
snacks and there was
also
soda and beer available to the guests.
The game room was
lined
with pins, and there were even a few in other areas of the
house. One bedroom had even been set aside as a
storeroom for
parts
and supplies. All in all we had a real
nice time playing
Dan's
games and visiting with him, his wife, and the other
collectors
who had accepted the Frank's gracious hospitality.
After leaving Dan's we squeezed back into
the van and began
the
long drive back to California. All in
all, I would say I had
a very
enjoyable time, saw some really nice pingames, and got to
relax
and visit with many fellow "pinophiles". I think I will
seriously
consider attending the Arizona show next year and
strongly
recommend it to all pinball fans.
THE
FALL 1991 FUN FAIR
After the small "pin turnout"
at the Spring Fun Fair, which
I
mentioned earlier, I was somewhat apprehensive as to what would
show up
at the Fall show. But I decided to give
it a try.
I started out plenty early for the
approximately 75 mile
drive
to Long Beach. It was a good thing I
did because I ended
up on
the wrong freeway (I hadn't been to Long Beach for awhile)
at the
last part of the trip and had to "back track" a little
before
arriving at the show site. The parking
lot was quite
confusing
(no one to direct you where to park after paying the
whopping
$5 fee), but I finally found a place to squeeze in
between
two trucks.
Another reason for my attending was that
my good friend Jack
Atkins
from Ogden Utah had told me that he would be there. I ran
into
Jack just before entering the show area, and we went in
together
and also went to dinner that evening, but more about
that
later.
The show was held at the Long Beach Arena
which was an
indoor
stadium. High above the floor where the
show was situated
you
could see tiers of seats. The floor
area for the show
appeared
to be a little larger than that of the Spring show (held
in
another stadium).
The "pin turnout" in the Fall
was somewhat better than for
the
Spring show, but still not up to par with the Fun Fairs of
past
years. The line-up of games, by decade,
went something like
this: 2 from the 30's, compared to none in the
Spring; one from
the
Forties as in the Spring; 4 and 6 respectively from the 50's
and
60's, compared to only one from each decade in the Spring; 18
electro-mechanicals
from the 70's, up from 7 at the Spring show;
and 18
solid-state pins, 11 having been show previously.
As far as pin dealers where concerned,
the show was again
dominated
by two; Herb Silvers' Fabulous Fantasies from Los
Angeles,
and Don Westpahl's Amusement Sales from Glendale
Arizona. These same people definitely dominated the
pin displays
at the
Spring show.
Mullikin Amusements of Nipomo, California
had one 50's bingo
with a
broken backglass, some nice electro-mechanicals and some
solid-state
games, including Game Plan's SHARPSHOOTER and Stern's
CATACOMB. There was also one dealer selling very late
model
games
to home buyers who could afford their steep price tags.
The
other games (both old and new) were scattered around the hall
in
various dealer's booths along with other items.
I shall now attempt to briefly describe a
few of the more
interesting
older games at the show.
The oldest game at the show was a small,
counter-top pin
made in
Los Angeles sometime in 1932. This
game, called (THE)
MIDGET,
was made by an outfit calling itself the E. E. Junior
Manufacturing
Company. The game had previously
appeared at a Fun
Fair a
year or so ago and was a very well built little game of
the
simple "pin and ball" variety prevalent in that early year of
the
pinball industry. By the way, the only
other 1930's pin at
the
show was the same Exhibit BAZAAR from 1937 described earlier
from
the Arizona show.
The only 1940's game to be seen this time
was Bally's 1949
"one-ball
horserace" pin CITATION. One-balls
have been quite
scarce
at past shows, I being only able to remember one other,
Bally's
1950 game TURF KING a year or so ago.
CITATION was
noteworthy
in "one-ball history" as being the first game of this
type
with what were known as "guaranteed advancing odds". In
past
one-balls the odds received by a player upon depositing a
coin
could possibly be reduced when the next coin was inserted
before
playing a game. With this new system
the odds could only
either
advance or stay the same, a great plus for the one-ball
player.
Of the four 1950's vintage games to be
shown, three were of
the
"gambling type". They
included one of the first "bingo
pinballs",
United's ABC from 1951; a Genco "upright" game called
JUMPING
JACKS (1952); and another bingo, Bally's 1957 game SHOW
TIME,
which unfortunately had a broken backglass.
The Fifties game I have chosen to
describe, however, was a
"near
mint" example of Gottlieb's 1958 flipper game SITTIN'
PRETTY
owned by Herb Silvers. This was
possibly the best
condition
1950's woodrail pin I have ever seen.
The backglass
art
depicted a very colorful "carnival" theme.
The playfield appeared to be "action
packed", with four pop
bumpers,
two "slingshot kickers", with two flippers in the
customary
bottom of the field position. If you
look closely at
the
backglass you will see that the game had a "skill meter"
('FAIR'
up to 'GENIUS') which was found on several Gottlieb games
of the
period.
Another interesting item in Herb's booth
was a coffee table
made
from a late 1930's pingame playfield and cabinet. The
manufacturer's
name, Keeney, was indicated on the field, but the
game's
name did not appear anywhere. It would
have been on the
backglass,
which of course, was not used for the table.
By the style of the bumpers it appeared
that the game was
probably
made between 1937 and 1939. I told Herb
that I would
look at
my copies of Billboard magazine ads from 1937 and 1938 to
see if
I could find an ad for it and identify the game for him.
Well, I
did, but with no luck. Then I looked at
a roll of
microfilm
I had purchased for Billboard during the first part of
1939
and "low and behold" there it was!
The game turned out to be Keeney's UP AND
UP which was first
advertised
in Billboard in late May of 1939. The
ad started out
saying
"Well, maybe not 'Ten Billion Nickels'", which obviously
to me
was a reference to the anti gambling machine article by
that
name which had appeared in Saturday Evening Post only about
one
month earlier. That article, by the
way, was described in my
past
COIN SLOT article "Pinball Literature - Part 1" which
appeared
in the Winter 90/91 issue.
Two of the more interesting solid-state
games at the show
were
Stern's CATACOMB from 1981 (which had a small "pachinko
like"
unit in the backboard); and Game Plan's 1979 pin
SHARPSHOOTER,
which was designed by industry personage Roger
Sharpe. Other very late model solid-state games at
the show
included
three of the latest by the "new kid on the pinball
block"
Data East Pinball. These included their
CHECKPOINT, the
very
popular TV show inspired SIMPSONS, and their latest at the
time,
BATMAN.
A chronological listing of all the pins
appearing at the
show is
as follows:
PINGAMES AT THE FALL 1991 FUN FAIR
NAME MFG YEAR PRICE
------------------------- ------ ------
---------
MIDGET
(THE) E.E. JR. MFG. 1932
625
BAZAAR
(PAYOUT) Exhibit 1937 800
CITATION
(1-BALL) Bally 1949 725
A-B-C (BINGO) United
1951 135
JUMPING
JACKS (UPRITE) Genco 1952 135
SHOW
TIME (BINGO) Bally 1957 125
SITTIN'
PRETTY Gottlieb 1958 2000
FASHION
SHOW Gottlieb 1962 600
SWEET
HEARTS Gottlieb 1963 525
FUNLAND Gottlieb
1966 500
SING
ALONG Gottlieb 1967 600
HEARTS
AND SPADES (AAB) Gottlieb 1969 495
SEVEN
UP Williams 1969 325
4
ACES Williams 1970 725
JIVE
TIME Williams 1970 600
DOODLE
BUG Williams 1971 600
FLYING
CARPET Gottlieb 1972 450
KING
ROCK Gottlieb 1972 650
FLIP-A-CARD Gottlieb 1972 375
CIRCUS Bally 1973 1650
HEE
HAW Chicago
Coin 1973 600
JUBILEE Williams 1973 500
NIP-IT Bally 1973 600
PRO
FOOTBALL Gottlieb 1973 299
SWINGER Williams 1973 500
TOP
CARD Gottlieb 1974 395
WIZARD Bally 1975 360
WIZARD Bally 1975 1095
BLUE
CHIP Williams 1976 250
CAPTAIN
FANTASTIC Bally 1976 650
HOKUS
POKUS Bally 1976 700
RAWHIDE Stern 1977 350
6
MILLION DOLLAR MAN (SS) Bally 1978 350
LOST
WORLD (SS) Bally
1978 650
GORGAR (SS) Williams
1979 600
SHARPSHOOTER (SS) Game Plan
1979 350
CONEY
ISLAND (SS) Game Plan
1980 325
FLIGHT
2000 (SS) Stern
1980 500
BLACK
HOLE (SS) Gottlieb
1981 695
CATACOMB (SS) Stern
1981 575
BMX (SS) Bally
1982 550
DEVIL'S
DARE (SS) Gottlieb
1982 475
SPEAKEASY (SS) Bally
1982 600
X'S AND
O'S (SS) Bally
1983 600
COMET (SS) Williams
1985 1295
CYCLONE (SS) Williams
1988 1895
TAXI (SS) Williams
1988 1895
CHECKPOINT (SS) Data East
1990 2995
SIMPSONS,
THE (SS) Data East
1990 2995
BATMAN (SS) Data East
1991 3295
When it got to be time to eat dinner,
myself, Jack Atkins,
Sam
Harvey, and Sam's friend Pat (yes, the same nice fellow who
drove
us to Arizona) decided to go out to eat.
We took my car,
and
none of us knowing anything about Long Beach, we started
driving
around trying to find a restaurant.
Well, we finally
found
one and eventually got to eat.
When dinner was over we left the
restaurant and attempted to
return
to the show site. By this time it was
dark and the area
was not
very well lit. Well, we made a wrong
turn somewhere and
ended
up on a freeway heading away from our destination. After
deciding
we were not going right we found that the next exit was
closed
for repairs, but we finally got back onto the surface
streets.
After driving for a few minutes we discovered we were back
to the
restaurant where we started. This time,
however, we found
our way
back to the arena. I then let my
friends off to go back
to the
show, but I decided to start out on the approximately two
hour
drive home.
Since the turnout of pingames was a
little better than at
the
Spring show I decided that I probably would not completely
avoid
all future shows, at least not the Fall shows, unless of
course,
they really move them far away.