THE AUGUST 1994 COIN-OP SUPER SHOW

 

by Russ Jensen

 

 

     In my article last time ("2 Shows"), I described the January 1994

edition of Roseanna Harris' COIN-OP SUPER SHOW as well as the first WILD

WEST PINBALL FEST held in Arizona.  This time I am going to report on the

second 1994 edition of the COIN-OP SUPER SHOW.

 

     That show was held on Saturday and Sunday, September 17, and 18, with

a special "preview" the preceding Friday evening.  As has been the case for

the past several shows, the show was again held at my favorite show

location, the Pasadena Exhibit Center in Pasadena, California.

 

     This time my good friend, pinball and jukebox collector Ron Tyler,

decided to go with me - in fact he even drove.  So Ron picked me up

Saturday morning and we proceeded to make the approximately one hour

freeway drive to Pasadena.

 

     After arriving at the show site, and parking in the convenient

underground garage, we proceeded to the large area outside the show

entrance.  The show had not opened yet so we bought our admission (using

the nice "senior discount") and located my friend pinball collector,

historian, and author Rob Hawkins.

 

     During the previous weeks Rob and I had talked by telephone and agreed

to meet before the show to conduct some "business".  First of all, Rob had

borrowed some of my pinball brochures to copy which he returned to me, and

in return brought me some nice color copies of some of his brochures from

his great brochure collection.

 

     Last, but certainly not least, Rob had "scanned" the text of my book,

"Pinball Troubleshooting Guide", into his computer and brought me a copy of

that data on a computer diskette.  Something I had wanted for quite some

time.

 

     After completing my pre-show business with Rob, and depositing my

brochures in the trunk of the car, Ron and I entered the show area.  The

first thing you saw as you entered the hall was a large roped-off display

of "mint" examples of collectable coin machines, including a beautiful

Gottlieb HUMPTY DUMPTY pingame (the first flipper game, released in late

1947) owned by collector/dealer Herb Silvers.

 

     As we began roving down the aisles looking at all the nice items on

display, by friend Ron was quite interested in the juke boxes and

associated items offered for sale, as well as the pinball related items.

Ron was quite interested in discovering the high prices of many juke-

related items.

 

     The first booth we encountered which had pingames was the "For

Amusement Only" booth of Jim and Judy Tolbert which contained three 1970's

vintage pins, plus many pin-related items, including books and parts.

While glancing at the various publications for sale there one book caught

my eye.

 

     The book cover, brightly decorated with pinball pictures, had only the

single title "PINBALL" in large letters.  When I first spotted the book I

thought to myself "what!  A pinball book I have never seen before!"  I

quickly picked it up and began flipping through it's pages which were

loaded with full color illustrations.

 

     It wasn't long before the mystery was solved.  I immediately realized

that I did own the original version of this book, but that was somewhat

different.  My book had a soft cover with different illustrations on it and

the text was in German.

 

     I had obtained my copy of the original book from German author

Heribert Eiden at Pinball Expo '93 the past year.  I, of course,

immediately bought the English version I just found (and now own both),

which I could not pass up at the low price of only $15.

 

`    Later, after I had seen the rest of the show, I discovered that most

of the other pins there were located in Herb Silvers' "Fabulous Fantasies"

booth.  Herb had a total of eight pins on display, including the only

1950's vintage pin at the show, Gottlieb's 1958 two-player pin BRITE STAR.

His other pins included two from the 1960's, one from the 1970's, one from

the 1980's, and four from the current decade.

 

     Other than those on display by Jim Tolbert and Herb Silvers, there

appeared to be only two other pingames at the show.  One of those was a

Williams DARTS from 1960 which was almost immediately sold.  The other was

Chicago Coin's 1966 game KICKER which was not even set up.  When I ran into

my good friend Sam Harvey later he told me several times how he regretted

not buying DARTS for himself.

 

     The following is a chronological listing of all the pins I saw at the

show:

     NAME                               MANUFACTURER   YEAR      PRICE

 

     BRITE STAR                         Gottlieb       1958      1495

     DARTS                              Williams       1960      SOLD

     PARADISE                           Gottlieb       1965       795

     KICKER                             Chicago Coin   1966       150

     PAUL BUNYAN                        Gottlieb       1968       695

     DROP-A-CARD                        Gottlieb       1971       500

     BON VOYAGE                         Bally          1974       550

     OUT-OF-SIGHT                       Gottlieb       1975       600

     SPACE ODYSSEY                      Williams       1976       500

     LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION             Gottlieb       1989       995

     (THE) SIMPSONS                     Data East      1990      1495

     TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES       Data East      1991      1295

     CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON     Bally          1993      3195

 

     The earliest pin at this show was Gottlieb's two-player game BRITE

STAR which came out in early 1958.  Gottlieb had originated the "multi-

player" pingame almost four years earlier with a four-player pin called

SUPER JUMBO.

 

     Due to having to provide score indication for more than one player, it

was decided to use individual "score reels" for each player rather than the

complicated "light scoring" method used on single-player pingames.

Eventually (around 1960 - the date varied with the manufacturer), however,

the score reels were used on single-player models as well.

 

     The BRITE STAR at the show was in excellent condition   The playfield

boasted many scoring features including 4 "pop-bumpers", 2 "slingshot

kickers", and a vertical "roto-target" assembly.  All in all it appears to

be a very nice pin indeed.

 

     The nicest and rarest of the 1960's pins at the show was Gottlieb's

1965 game PARADISE.  This was also a 2-player pin boasting a very

attractive backglass featuring Hawaiian "hula girls".  PARADISE also had

four pop-bumpers. It had a wide-open playfield which contained four

"kickout holes", a feature totally non-existent on BRITE SPOT.  The

PARADISE was also in excellent condition.

 

     After we had roamed the aisles for awhile, my friend Ron and I decided

to have a light lunch.  After buying a turkey sandwich and soda from the

in-room snack bar we sat down at a table to relax and eat.  My friend Rob

Hawkins apparently had the same idea at about the same time and sat down to

join us.

 

     While visiting again with Rob I told him about an outfit in

Seattle which, in addition to developing film, will put your photos on a

computer disk at a slight extra charge.  In addition, they supply free of

charge the computer software to view them.  My new friend, Gary Marshall, a

bingo pinball fan from Mississippi, had recently sent me information about

that company.  Incidentally, all the pictures I took at the show were later

processed by that outfit.

 

(NOTE:   While writing this article I received my first set of "pictures on

disk".  They really look great!)

 

     In addition to photographing the pingames at the show (which I did not

already have a photo of - I have photos of more than 800 different pinball

machines), I decided to photograph various models of Bally electro-

mechanical slots.  This was partially in deference to the fact that I

bought a Bally 809 "fruit machine" shortly after attending the January

version of this show.

 

     Incidentally, at the show I again saw Ray Dier the fellow from which I

bought my first slot.  The slot photos I took were also "put on disk" as I

have the idea of trying to set up a computer "slide show" illustrating

different models of the Bally electro-mechanical slots.

 

     When we had seen everything there was to see I went to say goodbye to

Roseanna and Bill Harris and tell them how much we enjoyed the show.  We

were told that the COIN-OP SUPER SHOW will continued to be held twice each

year, with the next show scheduled for April 1995.

 

     The show this time was very nice, and I'm looking forward to next

year; possibly both shows, if my vacation doesn't coincide with the April

show dates.

 

     After leaving the show site, Ron and I made another trip to the old C

& H Sales electronic surplus store at the other end of Pasadena, like we

had done in a past year after attending a similar show in town.  Ron wanted

to buy some parts to use in his jukebox restorations.  As I believe I

mentioned in a previous article, C & H had been in business since sometime

in the mid 1940's.  And as a young teenager in the late Forties I had

visited the establishment several times.

 

     When I told the young man at the counter that I had been in the store

about 45 years earlier, he told us that the same man still owned it and was

73 years old.  When I asked if the owner was there that day, the clerk

replied, "no, he only comes in during the week".

 

     After our brief visit to C & H Ron and I began the trip back to

Camarillo.  On the way home we decided to stop for a quick dinner at one of

Ron's favorite restaurants.

 

     After Ron dropped me off at home I noticed it was still early enough

to go play bingo with my wife (she had already left).  So I went to play;

but maybe I should have stayed home because I didn't win a thing!

 

     Well, next year I will try to attend either one or both editions of

the COIN-OP SUPER SHOW.  And, if it keeps growing like it has the past

several years, it will probably be an even better show than it was this

time!  Hope to see you there!