PINGAMES AT THE 1985 FUN FAIR

 

 

     Well, here it is time to report on the pinballs that put in

an appearance at another Loose Change Fun Fair.  As in the past

several years, this year's show was held at the Pasadena Exhibit

Center in Pasadena, CA.  This time it occurred on the weekend of

October 12 and 13.  The size of the show, both in exhibitors and

visitors, appeared to be about the same as last year, at least

there were no empty booths and the aisles were still fairly

crowded.  There was, however, one thing that I, and several

others I talked to, were disappointed in.  That was the fact that

this year the show's producers did not provide a program listing

the exhibitors and where they were located.  Your were therefore

"on your own" when it came to finding your favorite exhibitors.

 

     As far as pinballs were concerned there were eleven games

that I made note of, and which will be described here, plus one

other interesting non-pinball.  The years of manufacture ran the

gamut from 1932 to 1976 with no games from the 1940's, only one

from the Fifties, one from the Sixties, and three from the

Seventies.  This year there were no "solid state" electronic

pinballs.  A few machines were 'repeats' from previous shows, and

there were three, or possibly four, machines that I consider

"classics."

 

     Several pin collectors were at the show and met and

discussed their collections and traded info and "small pinball

world stories."  As in the past, the show was a good meeting

place for these folks, including myself, even though there were

not a large number of pingames to be seen.  This year we did not

get a group photo of pin collectors, but we almost did.

 

ZIG ZAG

 

    There were four pingames at the show from the 1932 era.  One

of the early ones was a game called ZIG ZAG.  This game had been

at the 1983 show also and still remains a mystery to me as far as

its manufacturer is concerned.  Hopefully Dick Bueschel can come

up with the missing information one of these days.  This game was

larger than many 1932 era machines.  It was a standard "pin-and-

ball" game of the period with a mostly green playfield.  The game

was somewhat reminiscent of another 1932 pin, DUTCH POOL by Abt.

 

BALLYHOO

 

      Another 1932 era pingame at the show was a "classic" game

called BALLYHOO.  This little counter top game was not only

responsible for much of the pingame frenzy which began in 1932,

but was also responsible for a great company getting its

corporate name.  When coin machine entrepreneur Ray Maloney

designed this little game late in 1931 he needed a name for it.

Well, he finally decided to name it after a very popular satire

magazine of the day called "Ballyhoo", a magazine which was

somewhat similar to "Mad" magazine today.  I also understand that

the playfield design of BALLYHOO was taken from a cover design of

one issue of that magazine.  When he later decided to form a new

company he called it "Bally" after BALLYHOO, and the rest is

history.

 

      The BALLYHOO at the show was in near 'mint' Condition, one

of the nicest ones I've seen.  This early "pin-and-ball" game was

extremely popular and it has been reported that over 50,000 were

sold, making this first Ballygame one of the most popular games

in pingame history.

 

FIGURE 8

 

      Another 1932 vintage game which was "brought" to the show

was FIGURE 8, made by Butler Speciality Co. of Chicago.  That

outfit was apparently one of the myriad of small manufacturers

who put out one or two machines at the start of the pinball craze

in 1932 but quickly faded from the scene.  As far as I can tell

this was the only pingame to be made by butler.

 

      The reason I said "brought" to the show was that this, and

one other game, were actually sold before the show officially

started.  As many of you probably know, the night before any show

of this kind is used for the exhibitors to set up their booths,

and during this time much buying and selling between dealers

takes place.  Well, at this show buyers were also allowed in at

this opportune time if they were willing to pay a "bonus" for

this early admission.  As a result of this, my good friend and

fellow collector Richard Conger purchased FIGURE 8 and DROP KICK

(to be described shortly) on Friday night before the general

public was admitted.  He was kind enough, however, to let us

photograph these machines.

 

     FIGURE 8 was a counter-top pingame whose playfield was

divided into two circular sections with a small opening between

them, hence the name.  Each playfield section contained a center

scoring hole and other holes located around it.  Hedges of metal

pins were used to 'guard' the higher scoring holes in the fashion

typical of all the "pin-and-ball" games of this era.  This

machine was in excellent physical condition, a worthy addition to

any collection of early pins.

 

MONTE CARLO

 

      The other 1932 pingame at this show was Genco's MONTE

CARLO. This same machine had been shown at the 1983 Fun Fair.  It

was the second pingame to be put out by Genco.  Genco's first

pin, BUSTER BALL, was sold at last year's show.  MONTE CARLO was

a very compact counter-top pingame with a painted cast aluminum

playfield.  The playfield contained numerous scoring holes and

deflecting 'pins' which were actually part of the playfield

casting, an extremely well built little game.  This little game,

by the way, gave the player 5 balls for a penny and had its coin

slot in a very unusual place, in the center of the right hand

"side rail" of the machine's cabinet.

 

DROP KICK

 

      The other game purchased before the show actually opened

was a game called DROP KICK put out by Exhibit Supply in the

later part of 1934.  The ad for this game boasted of "live power"

due to the use of an electric 'kicker' mechanism, a popular

pingame accessory since the introduction of electric action to

pingames by Harry Williams about one year earlier.

 

       DROP KICK'S action feature was extremely clever.  During

the game, anywhere from 1 to 8 balls could be shot by the player

into a channel near the top of the right hand side of the

playfield. this channel, called the "Drop Post Gateway", held

those balls until the player succeeded in skillfully shooting a

ball into the special "Drop Kick Hole" in the top center of the

field.

 

      At that time the held balls would be released, one at a

time, by an ingenuous "star wheel" device at the lower end of the

"Drop Kick Gateway."  Each ball would then roll down to the

"electric kicker" device, called the "Kick-Off Post", and be shot

up into the upper areas of the playfield containing the higher

scoring holes.

 

      This "live power" of DROP KICK was yet another example of

the ingenuous variations of the electric action principle used by

pingame designers of the 1934-1936 era.  The DROP KICK brought to

the show was in excellent condition and was a prize addition to

the fantastic pinball collection of Richard Conger of Sebastopol,

California.

 

ROCKET

 

      Just as Harry Williams' introduction of electricity for

pingame action (with CONTACT in late 1934) started the craze for

electric action pingames, such as DROP KICK which was just

described, the introduction of electricity for the purpose of

operating automatic coin payout mechanisms by Bally (with ROCKET

at approximately the same time) started a parallel craze for

electric payout pins.

 

     This classic pioneer payout, Bally's ROCKET, also appeared

at this years show.  A ROCKET, incidentally, was also seen at the

1983 Fun Fair.  ROCKET was a well constructed machine with many

polished metal fittings.  The example at the show appeared to be

in excellent condition and seems to be fairly rare today.  As a

personal sidelight, when I was eleven or twelve years old a

friend and I found a ROCKET discarded in an alley and brought it

home in a "coaster wagon."  When we could not figure out how it

worked we later discarded it.  I sure wish now I still had that

classic machine, but in those days many classic pins could have

been purchased in excellent condition for from 10 to 20 dollars.

 

RAY'S TRACK

 

      That concludes the discussion of the 1930's era pingames

appearing at the show, but before we go on to the later model

machines I would like to make brief mention of a non-pinball, a

rare departure for me, but I choose to include this machine

because of its extreme rarity and also that it enables me to pass

on a bit of "Bally trivia."

 

    In 1935 the Pace Mfg. Co. came out with a new type of payout

coin machine.  It was called PACE'S RACES and was a large console

which simulated an actual horse race with 7 mechanical horses

running down a track.  The player would bet on one or more of

these horses by placing a coin into the numbered coin slots, one

corresponding to each horse.  The machine would then start,

causing the horses to advance by different amounts until one

finally crossed the "finish line."  If a horse you bet on 'won'

you would be paid accordingly.

 

     As an interesting sidelight, the mechanism used to advance

the horses used pneumatic "player piano" technology, using a

perforated paper roll to "program" the horse's motion.

 

     When this machine was first introduced at a trade show it is

said that most of the operators present said it would never sell

because of it's whopping price tag of over $500.  But they were

wrong, and the machine became a great success, rivaling the then

popular payout pinballs and slot machines.

 

    Well, the idea of PACE'S RACES was soon copied.  The Baker

Novelty Co. came out with BAKER'S PACER and Bally soon followed

suit with their entry into the field, a machine called RAY'S

TRACK, which was named for Bally's founder Ray Maloney.  I'm sure

you will also note the 'play on words' as it sounds like "race

track."  Anyway, RAY'S TRACK is extremely rare, but one did

appear at this years Fun Fair at the booth of Falletich

Enterprises, a rare gem in excellent condition and what may be

only the second machine of its type to surface in recent years.

 

A-B-C

 

     From the 1930's the pingames at the Fun Fair took a

chronological leap to 1951 with United's A-B-C.  Just as ROCKET

was the first of the class of machines known as "electric

payouts", A-B-C was one of the first of another class of

pingames, the "in-line" pinball, or "bingos" as they came to be

called.  As many of you who have read my past articles should

know, "bingos" were created by the industry to take the place of

the very popular "one-ball horserace" pingames which were all but

outlawed by the passage of the Johnson Act in 1950.

 

     Three variations of this new form of pin appeared at about

the same time, early in 1951.  These were A-B-C, Universal's FIVE

STAR, and Bally's BRIGHT LIGHT, each of a somewhat different

form, but all possessing three common characteristics:  No

flippers; a playfield of numbered holes; and a scoring method

involving lighting numbers in a line on "cards" pictured on the

backglass.  Of these three pioneer bingos the format used by

Bally finally won out and became the basis for most "bingos" to

come.

 

    The playfield of A-B-C was round with 25 holes, numbered 1 to

25, around its periphery, somewhat resembling a Roulette Wheel.

The field sloped toward the center where a "pop bumper" was

located.  Balls were released onto the playfield by a standard

pinball plunger mechanism and would circle the field where they

would each eventually drop into a hole.  Any balls rolling toward

the center of the field would be repelled by the pop bumper until

they finally landed in a hole.

 

     The backglass contained three 25 number "cards", labeled

'A', 'B', and 'C', each containing a different arrangement of the

numbers 1 through 25.  These cards resembled the cards used in

the game of "bingo", and this is why machines using this idea

became known as "bingo pinballs."  Before starting a game the

player would deposit one to three coins.  The first coin would

enable card 'A' for scoring, the second, card 'B', and the third,

card 'C'.  The player would then shoot his 5 balls which would

eventually land in playfield holes, thus lighting 5 of the 25

numbers on the card(s) selected.

 

      If the player succeeded in lighting 3, 4, or 5 numbers in a

line on any selected card he would receive a number of replays; a

small amount for 3 in line, a larger amount for 4, and a very

large number for 5 in line.  This type of scoring is why the

industry called the 'bingo' machines "in-line games."

 

     The A-B-C at the show was in excellent condition, except for

a missing top glass, and is indeed a very interesting novel type

of machine with some historical significance.  This machine also

had a feature which allowed a player to try to win the right to

use an extra (6th) ball by insertion of additional coins after

the normal 5 balls had been played.  This feature was apparently

not on all models of A-B-C as I once owned one of these machines

which did not have it.  Incidentally, this type of "extra ball"

feature was found on most of the later model "bingo" pinballs,

most allowing the player to try for up to 3 extra balls.

 

CUE TEASE

 

     The one pinball at the show from the 1960's was Bally's CUE

TEASE.  For some reason games from this era have been quite rare

at the Fun Fairs.  In fact, I can only remember seeing one other

Sixties pin at past shows.  It was also a Bally, called GRAND

TOUR, and was at the show three or four years ago.

 

     Sixties pins are very popular among many collectors, due

primarily to their varied, fascinating, and challenging play

features.  Many collections, such as that of Sam Harvey (who

incidentally took all the photos accompanying this article), are

dominated by games of this era.  The Bally pins were not quite as

challenging as those by their competitors in the sixties,

especially Gottlieb, but were well built and usually had

interesting artwork.

 

     The CUE TEASE at the show was set up in the lobby, along

with examples of other types of machines, to give visitors to the

show a preview of what was inside.  This game was in excellent

condition and came out in mid 1963.

 

FIREBALL

 

    In addition to the early 'classics', such as BALLYHOO and

ROCKET, that were at the show, there was one modern era pin which

has certainly become a "classic", for one reason or another.

That was Bally's 1972 game FIREBALL, which, as many collectors

will tell you, is the first machine they will be asked about by

most non-collectors when they are told you are a pinball

collector.  As a result of this game's inordinate popularity its

price, when you can find one, has remained much higher than other

pinballs of the Seventies for a long time.

 

    Why is FIREBALL so popular?  Well, one of the reasons is that

it was pictured in a December 1972 article in Playboy Magazine,

titled "Great Moments In Pinball History."  This article, I am

sure, was prompted by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's personal

interest in, and love of, pinball.  Two other machines (Williams'

SUPER STAR and Gottlieb's KING KOOL), however, were also pictured

in that same article but did not achieve anywhere near the

popularity that FIREBALL did.  Maybe it was its "spinning wheel"

in the center of the playfield, which could propel the ball in

varied, unpredictable directions, or its garish artwork (with a

somewhat "satanic" flare), or its "captive ball" feature, who

knows?  It was probably a combination of these things which has

resulted in FIREBALL generally commanding a much higher price

than all of the other post 1970 pinballs.

 

     This was the first FIREBALL to appear at a Fun Fair and was

in pretty good condition, except for some worn areas on the

playfield.  I understand that the machine finally sold on Sunday

for less than $500, which was considerably less than the $900 to

$1800 price tag which has been attached to most of the FIREBALLs

which have been offered for sale in the past 10 years.  It was a

pleasure to finally see this "modern pinball classic" at a Fun

Fair.

 

WIZARD

 

    Another 1970's pingame to be seen at the show was Bally's

1975 "semi-classic", WIZARD.  This was the first of two Bally

pins (the other one being CAPTAIN FANTASTIC) who's themes were

derived from the rock opera movie "Tommy" which had a pinball

theme.  For those of you who are not familiar with this pin-film

it is the story of a deaf, dumb, and blind boy, Tommy, who

discovers a pinball machine (Gottlieb's KINGS AND QUEENS by name)

on the top of a junk pile and discovers pinball "is his thing."

He then becomes a pinball "wizard", and finally meets and defeats

the reigning pinball champion (played by rock star Elton John) in

a lavish pinball tournament.  Elton's machine in the tournament

was a Gottlieb BUCKAROO fitted with a piano keyboard at the front

of the machine.

 

     The backglass of WIZARD has caricatures of the movie's stars

Ann Margaret and rock singer Roger Daltry (Tommy).  The machine

was in excellent condition and was sold on the last day of the

show for a good healthy price for a game of that vintage.  The

buyer must have recognized it as somewhat of a "classic" machine

in great condition.  The seller, incidentally, was my long time

friend, and former pin collector turned jukebox

collector/restorer, Ron Tyler.  Even though Ron's main interests

have turned to jukeboxes in recent years he still has a love for

pinball and has several pins residing in the house with his

jukebox collection.

 

ROYAL FLUSH

 

    The final game (the machine of the latest vintage) at the

show was Gottlieb's ROYAL FLUSH which came out in 1976.  That,

incidentally, was the second time Gottlieb used that name for a

pin, the first being a "wood rail" from 1957.  This machine was

also displayed in the lobby near the entrance to the exhibit

hall. There is not much to say about this machine as it was more

or less typical of the later model electro-mechanical pinballs.

It was yet another Gottlieb pin with a "card game" theme, a theme

very popular with that company for many years.

 

    That concludes the discussion of the varied pingames

appearing at the 1985 edition of the Loose Change Fun Fair.

Although pins are only a minor item at these shows, there always

seems to be enough interesting ones to make the show appealing to

pin collectors, like myself.  For the past few years the number

of pingames at the Fun Fairs has been relatively stable.  Who

knows what next year's show will bring?  We can only wait and

see, and hope more "classic" pinball machines put in an

appearance.