Pinball wizards get to play with exhibit

By GREGORY R. NORFLEET

gregory.norfleet@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — Is this Mitchell Museum’s main gallery or an arcade?

On Saturday, it was both.

The “Tilt! The Art of Pinball” exhibit, which opened May 6 and runs through July 16, became the center of a four-hour pinball contest on Saturday when Cedarhurst Center of the Arts allowed contestants to play some of the exhibits.

Contestants and visitors came as far as Kentucky, Missouri and various Southern Illinois towns to participate and see the 42 pinball machines that spanned decades.

But pinball machines as art?

Kevin Sharp, director of visual arts for Cedarhurst, said he had the same reaction when told to arrange the display. He said he’s learned a lot in his research.

“This is one of the few industries where art is an integral part of the process,” he said.

Richard Hammond of Washington, Mo., who writes articles for the online magazine Pinball News, called the recognition of the artwork “wonderful.”

“A lot of people haven’t seen this stuff for a long time,” he said, “and they did it with the art in mind.”

Hammond said pinball machines have been largely replaced by digital video games and now are harder to find in contemporary arcades.

“Stern (Pinball, Inc.) is the only company that makes them now,” he said, referring to the Chicago company. “That is, the only one known worldwide.”

Sharp said the pinball industry has been primarily based in Illinois, more specifically in Chicago. When the industry began in the 1930s, there were only three companies: Gottlieb, Bally and Williams. More would come along as the industry grew, but interest began to wane with the advent of video games.

To compile the exhibit, Sharp drew on the expertise of collectors Rich Grant of St. Louis and Rob Craig of Marion.

“I asked them to give me their ‘dream list’ — the quintessential pinball games,” he said, “and from there, we went looking to see what we could find.”

Pinball games’ “golden age” was in the 1950s, Sharp said, and games seemed to reflect “cultural concerns” or “public fascinations” of the time.

For example, the game “Coronation” came out in 1952, when Queen Elizabeth was crowned. “Grand Slam” was, of course, based on the great American pastime.

The original idea for the display came from David Gilmore, professor emeritus of photography at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Gilmore also snapped pictures at Stern which became part of the exhibit. Contrasting with all the bright colors and flashing lights, his pictures are in black and white.

The primary piece of art in any video game is called the “backglass” — the upright artwork which usually also displays a player’s points.

Collector Arthur Heuer of St. Louis said the picture is actually painted right on the glass — backwards, on the back — in layers. The final layer is silver.

“Sometimes the colors bleed down,” he said, “but these are in pretty good shape.”

Heuer laments that many children today have never seen a pinball machine.

“They really are artwork,” he said.

Secondary artwork can be found on the “playfield” — where the ball rolls and ricochets during the game — and the “side art” — the outside boxes that house the machinery and other artwork, Heuer said.

Games have anywhere from two to six flippers and often were popular in bars and taverns. Heuer said pinball manufacturers chose glass to cover the playfield because it was easier to clean if beer spilled on it.

Hammond said he has purchased pinball games for as little as $100 and many games average $3,500 to $5,000. Williams’ “Medieval Madness” game runs for about $8,000, he said.

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