A look at Ann Arbor pinball history

The 1991 Polk Directory lists Double Focus at 632 Packard in 1991, with Tony Haddad as owner.

The 1973 Polk Directory has Draggin' Inn (which I have heard as Dragon Inn) at 204 S. Fourth Ave. I have a photo somewhere of that building as Harry's Army Surplus with the paint scheme.

In October 2006, Google rented Pinball Pete's and gave out free plays as part of a recruiting effort on campus.
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Tom Yager created the rec.games.pinball USENET newsgroup on 20 November 1990 for the discussion of pinball machines. Discussions can include history, ownership, maintenance, playing techniques, plans for new releases, places to play, announcements of events, related paper items and generally anything having to with pinball machines (or pins for short).

Here are a couple gaps, in the 80's there was an arcade at the SE corner of Pacakard and Platt, it was called SideDoor, situated in the back of the building where the Little Ceaser's is now. Also, on Packard road at Anderson there was a place called Shelly's that served ice cream and had some video and pinball games, circa 80's too. Then there was also an Arcade at Briarwood, in Sears I believe. Frozen cokes!

Closer to home than Las Vegas' Pinball Hall of Fame is Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, www.marvin3m.com

Great Story: Thank you for taking the time to write this. I do have a few questions - If pinball was illagle in 1954, when did it become legal? I have a game from 1955, so maybe it came up from Ohio or something? Also, it would be interesting to figure out the Pinball Petes family history. Didn't there used to be 3 of them? Did they buy out the other guys?

Good stuff. News doesn't all have to be new. Thanks again.

Thanks @EyeHeartA2, I'm trying to figure out when pinball was legalized in Michigan.

One hint is from the liquor control code:

MICHIGAN LIQUOR CONTROL CODE OF 1998 (EXCERPT)
Act 58 of 1998

436.2023 Pinball machines.
Sec. 1023.

The commission shall not prohibit licensees from allowing pinball machines on the premises for the purpose of amusement.

History: 1998, Act 58, Imd. Eff. Apr. 14, 1998

A 2003 retrospective at Eastern:

Pinball, Pinball, Pinball, is running at Eastern Michigan University

April 4, 2003 - Pinball, Pinball, Pinball, a history and retrospective of pinball machines and pinball artists, is running at the Ford Gallery (114 Ford Hall) on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan from February 1 to February 25. The show is co-curated by pinball enthusiast David Silverman and Eastern Michigan Art Professor Richard Rubenfeld.

Pinball, Pinball, Pinball will then travel to the Riverside Art Gallery at 76 North Huron Street in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The show runs from March 2 through March 29. Riverside Gallery is open Wednesday, Noon to 6PM; Thursday to Saturday, Noon to 9PM; and Sunday, 1:30 to 4PM.

Pinball, Pinball, Pinball is an exhibition of pinball machines, backglasses, and other pinball rarities from David F. Silverman. Visitors will see early pinball machines from the time the flipper was created all the way through the machines of today. They will experience the extensive variety of pinball themes, including card games, sports, and film, as well as the many types of artwork used by the great pinball artists.

Gary Stern says, "Pinball, Pinball, Pinball is one more event demonstrating the continuing strong interest in pinball."

Visitors to Pinball, Pinball, Pinball are often the sort of people who purchase games for their homes, when operators are done with them, sometimes at higher prices than originally paid by the operators.

via http://www.sternpinball.com/PR_020305_michigan.shtml

Update on the fire story just posted calling the blaze 'suspicious':

http://www.annarbor.com/news/fire-at-pinball-petes-being-treated-as-suspicious-fire-officials-say/

A paragraph from a Cigar Aficionado story from 1996:

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,608,00.html

"Tim Arnold stopped counting when his collection of pinball machines topped 1,000. "It's beyond a hobby," he says. "It's a sickness." A former owner of amusement arcades near Lansing, Michigan, Arnold decided to keep his old pinball machines rather than accept the "insulting" $50 a piece offered in trade by dealers of the new machines. He bought a building and started stacking--and the machines added up. "The floors were sagging, the back wall was ready to come down," Arnold recalls. "There was stuff back there that I didn't even know I had." It took him about two years during the early 1990s to move his collection from Michigan to a specially built aircraft hangar behind his new home in Las Vegas."

1999 Tim Arnold interview with the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

http://www.rockabillyhall.com/COLRockRon03.99.html

"In the mid Seventies, in Van Nuys, Ray Campi recorded for my label, ROLLIN' ROCK RECORDS, a song titled "Pinball Millionaire" which appeared in the LP "Rockabilly Rocket" (Rollin' Rock LP-013). Little would I know that 25 years later, in Las Vegas (where else??), would I actually meet this Pinball Millionaire in the flesh!!! His name is TIM ARNOLD and he owns the largest pinball collection in the world! He actually owns every single pinball machine ever made (bar six !!!) "

One more about history of regulation of video games; this from the Michigan Attorney General in 1986:

http://www.ag.state.mi.us/opinion/datafiles/1980s/op06401.htm

Opinion No. 6401

November 25, 1986

CHILDREN AND MINORS:

Regulation by home rule city of presence of minors upon premises of video game establishment

CITIES, HOME RULE:

Authority to regulate video game establishments

Regulation of presence of minors upon premises of video game establishment

Fees for licensing and regulating video game establishment

A home rule city may license and regulate establishments which provide video games on the premises for public use.

A home rule city may prohibit the use of games in video game establishments by minors under sixteen or eighteen years of age who are not accompanied by a parent or guardian.

A home rule city may regulate time periods of the day during which minors may patronize video game establishments.

The fee imposed by a home rule city for a license for a video game establishment must bear a reasonable relationship to and not be disproportionate to the costs involved in licensing and policing such activity.

Forbes Magazine has a 2007 interview with Tim Arnold:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0521/184a.html

In 1976 he opened the first of what would become seven locations in his Pinball Pete's arcade chain. The economics were awesome. He would pay $1,800 to buy a new machine, which would then suck in $400 a week in quarters. Michigan had no sales tax on pinball, and there were no permits required. "It's no wonder that pinball started off as a bandit industry run by the mob," says Arnold. "I've had conversations with drug dealers about who had the more lucrative business. With arcades, once you deal in your silent partner, Uncle Sam, you don't have to worry about laundering your money."

When tastes turned to video, Arnold lost interest in arcades. But by the time he sold out to his younger brother in 1990, Arnold had accumulated $4 million in savings, one quarter at a time. "We wore out steel ice-cream scoops shoveling quarters," he says.

from DailyKos some memories of Ann Arbor pinball:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/16/794063/-Playing-the-Silver-Ball

"In the late 1970s during my last couple years in my hometown of Ann Arbor, inspired by that song from the Who’s rock opera "Tommy", I became a pinball wannabe wizard, making time each day I was on campus for my college classes to drop a few dollars worth of quarters in the slot and transcend my muggle life into the world of metal spheres, plastic flippers, bumpers, targets, spinners and those accursed ball-eating gutters. Inspired by reading Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine some years earlier, it was a time in my life where I was experimenting with living in the moment, at times aided by smoking marijuana, and beginning to wrestle with life at a more metaphysical level."

Other venues for pinball included local bowling alleys and bars.

The excellent Warren Buffet biography, "The Snowball," published last year, details the small pinball empire Buffet built in Washington, DC when he was a teenager in the 1940s. Like Tim Arnold, he discovered he could make a lot of money fast. He and a friend bought used machines, installed them in soda shops and bars, and split the take with the shop owners. He ran into some shady characters but it was one of his early successes!

More on The Who connection, from their concert guide; they played the Grande Ballroom in 1969 and though I don't have a set list from that show I'm pretty sure that songs from Tommy were on that list based on the other shows near that time.

http://www.thewholive.de/konzerte/zeige_konzert.php?GroupID=0&Tag=&Monat=&Jahr=&Stadt=&Halle=&LandID=0

02-05-1969: London, Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Heaven And Hell, I Can't Explain, Fortune Teller, Tattoo, Young Man Blues, Overture, 1921, Amazing Journey, Sparks, Eyesight To The Blind, Christmas, The Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, Do You Think It's Alright, Fiddle About, Tommy Can You Hear Me, Go To The Mirror, Smash The Mirror, Miracle Cure, Sally Simpson, I'm Free, Tommy's Holiday Camp, We're Not Gonna Take It, Summertime Blues, Shakin All Over, My Generation
more information...

09-05-1969: Detroit, MI, Grande Ballroom
more information...

10-05-1969: Detroit, MI, Grande Ballroom
more information...

11-05-1969: Detroit, MI, Grande Ballroom
more information...

16-05-1969: New York, NY, Fillmore East
more information...

17-05-1969: New York, NY, Fillmore East
Heaven And Hell, I Can't Explain, Young Man Blues, It's A Boy, 1921, Amazing Journey, Sparks, Pinball Wizard, Do You Think It's Alright, Fiddle About, There's A Doctor, Go To The Mirror, Smash The Mirror, I'm Free, Tommy's Holiday Camp, We're Not Gonna Take It

And a couple of articles from the Michigan Daily:
http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1996/sep/09-26-96/arts/arts8.html
http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1997/jan/01-28-97/news/news6.html
and some video (I haven't watched them completely so I hope there's nothing offensive in here):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZZrZ0AmO7I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNb9NYlxqgo

There was a Weather Report Mr. Gone poster in Mickey Rats. I remember staring at it while tripping on acid when I was in Jr. High at Slauson. Not a care in the world. Those were the days

Does anybody else remember when Pinball Pete's operated a low-power radio station out of the South U. location that burned the other night? In other words, the rock music that they blasted throughout the building was also available on an FM frequency that could be heard for about 1 block from the arcade. I remember seeing some good quality turntables in the office plus a record library, and I think there was a sign on the outside of the building that said something like "Listen to Pinball Pete's Radio" and listed the frequency.
I thought it was a cool idea, considering the population density of the area. The station had a pretty large potential audience with University Towers right next door and all of the restaurants and stores along South U. that could get the station. This would have been in the late seventies.

In 1972-73 there was a parlor on Liberty near the Michigan Theater called the Crossed eyed Moose. It lasted a couple years. It was a nice place. It even had the Playboy machine featuring Patty McGuire aka Mrs. Jimmy Connor.

There was an arcade (I forget the name, dang it) in the Plymouth Mall around 1979-80-81 time period in the corner where Arbor Hills Animal Clinic is now. I remember sometimes skipping school at Clague and heading over for some fun (probably on my way to see Empire Strikes Back down at the Campus theatre). Mostly video games, but there were a couple pinball machines too. There was also a cool gaming store there where I bough my first Dungeons and Dragons and Traveler game sets! My first job as a dishwasher was at the Epicurean Italian restaurant/bakery there too. Memories of a misspent youth!

I think there may have been an arcade in Arborland for a short while in the mid to late 80's too, back when it was an indoor malll. anyone know what happened to that green stone whale that used to be on the east side of Arborland's court yard?

A reader writes:

"My memory of that location comes from early1972. My husband and I were living in the house next to Chicago Dog with our 2 little ones.  Our daughter, only about 6 months old, was having a crying jag one night and my husband, creative thinker that he was, suggested we pop her in the back pack and go for a walk which ended at Pinball Pete's.  She loved the lights and noise, and went nicely to sleep after our short visit. She's still in Ann Arbor but with 5 kids of her own, she rarely has trouble sleeping now."

@treetowncartel -

I was able to find a reference to an arcade chain called "Aladdin's Castle", and it looks like they were at Arborland.

Wikipedia (and of course wikipedia is trustworthy when it comes to video games) says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin's_Castle

"The shopping-mall arcade chain that became Aladdin’s Castle began as American Amusements, Incorporated, in the early 1970s. It was purchased and renamed Aladdin’s Castle by Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1974. Over the next several years, the number of store locations grew from 20 in 1974, to 221 in 1980, to 360 when the chain was spun off in 1989."

"Namco Limited purchased Aladdin's Castle, Inc, in 1993, merging it with Namco Operations to create Namco Cybertainment (NCI), becoming the largest arcade operator in the world."

There's a good thread on Ann Arbor Is Overrated about the "olden days"

http://www.annarborisoverrated.com/2007/03/07/those-were-the-days/

with some pinball nostalgia.

There's a Michigan Daily story from 2000 regarding gang activity at Pinball Pete's:

http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/2000/nov/11-03-2000/news/03.html

"Teenage patrons of Pinball Pete's arcade on South University Avenue say that it is not uncommon for a manager of the game hall to ask them to turn the brims of their baseball caps around.

When employees of Pinball Pete's tell patrons not to wear their hats cocked to one side, they are enforcing the arcade's dress code aimed at eliminating all gang-related clothing and paraphernalia from the arcade.

Pinball Pete's dress code is a reminder that affiliations with gangs or with gang membership exist in Ann Arbor, even if in minor proportions, as compared with the immense gang activity in six years ago."

There was another arcade on South U in the mid-90s. It was called something like "The Bombay," no relation to the chain restaurant or the defunct home-furnishings chain.

It used to be a ladies' shoe store; I think it is now either Panchero's or Nogginz. They had several pins. It would be part of our weekend-evening circuit, including Pete's, Tower Records, and Not Another Cafe. I vividly remember playing Earthshaker and Whitewater. I think Indiana Jones and High Speed 2 too. That would date this memory to around... 1994?

I wish I could get linebreaks going in these

@ Ed, Alladins Castle sounds right, it was there in the days when Best Products, Service Merchandise and Marshall's were the Anchor Stores at Arborland. I also think the the Pinball Pete location that recently burned was called Flipper McGeees for a while. I remember the name, but am not sure about the location.

Bombay also had free popping corn! My parents took me to The Imagination Station once to ride the "Amazin' Blue", but it was out of order and so we left. Of them all, though, I miss Double Focus the most.

So no one remembers Electronic Playground on the south side of Washtenaw near Pittsfield Village? It was there for a short time in the mid-1970's, in the location where Subway is now. There were only ever one or two pinball games there mixed in with the videos, but contrary to the practice then the machines were set up for five balls per game rather than three.

Nice, @victor -- forgot to mention the free popcorn before. Also, the 25c "MONSTER DRINK" at Pete's.

Can we take a moment to catalog the Ypsi pin places? Eastern always had a couple of pins in the black-light arcade in the basement of the Union, not to mention a few at DC2 [Eastern Eateries, the "food court" dining commons].

Putt-Putt on Washtenaw always had Addams Family and two or three of whatever the hot new pins were.

Player's Choice on Cross Street? I was advised never to go in there, we called it "Crack Choice."

Oh, and there was a garish circus-themed arcade in the JC Penney wing at Briarwood for a while in the 90s, called "Fun Factory." After it closed, I happened to visit Universal Mall in Warren one day and found many of its machines at a Fun Factory there. Uni Mall was torn down last year to build a Super Target or something, and I think Fun Factory closed most or all of their continental locations and concentrated on Hawaii.

@treetowncartel - I was told that the Arborland Whale is now a lawn decoration at someone's house in Dexter.

How about Arcade 5 on Church St across from The Blue Frog?

I worked at Pete's from the summer of 1988 through fall of 1990. Also worked at Little Caesars across the street on South U. Caesars sold High Life for a while so there was a time in college when I got free beer, pizza and video games! Good times.

@treetowncartel, here's the Arborland whale, which is now in Livingston County:

http://www.livingstontalk.com/blogs/buddy-moorehouse/what-became-arborland-whale-it-swam-upstream-livingston-county

"Yes, the Arborland whale has a new home now, sitting just south of Pinckney on Baseline Lake. It rests in Mark and Patty Allen's backyard, looking out over the lake as boats and passengers float on by.

Mark Allen was working for one of the companies that handled the mall's renovation a couple decades ago, and he offered to give the Arborland whale a new home. It's been sitting in Livingston County ever since."

Man, to bad about the whale being beached where it is. Countless kids in the 70's and 80's enjoyed playing on it, and you know the parents enjoyed that too.

@barbsi - here's a Blue Frogge photo from 1977, alas no photo of across the street.

http://www.aadl.org/gallery/pictureAnnArbor/a2signs/A2signs218.jpg.html

Finally, something positive written, in regard to this matter. I'm so sick and tire of all the negative thinking, out there.