Recalling Greatness

Recalling Greatness

nos·tal·gia (noun)

“A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations”

A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. I’ve always been a collector. From the time I could understand that there were “more than one” of something. Mom and Dad were lifelong antique dealers, so access to “old things” was a blessing for somebody like me

It all started in 1973 with Wacky Packages. This was before today’s network of convenience stores that now appear on ever corner, so I walked the short distance from our house the “drug store” to buy them. I still vividly remember the excitement of the journey to the store, paying with a few quarters and the intense hope that opening each new pack would bring. Topps did a great job mixing up the cards and stickers because I remember more pleasant surprises at finding a sticker I needed vs a duplicate of one I already had. The journey didn’t end there either. Monday meant I was back in school and could now trade any duplicates I had with other kids that were collecting as well. It was a cool time.

The Wacky Packages obsession followed with comic books (supplied by a kind soul from my Dad’s workplace). Dad’s friend gave him a paper grocery bag of a hundred or so comics every 3 months or so. I sooooo looked forward to getting those as a kid. Soon after I was old enough to collect pocket knives, harmonica’s, antique compasses and more odds and ends. The drive to collect didn’t end as a teen. I ramped it up a notch and began to collect beer cans – thousands of them before I was done, then old beer signs and lights as I got old enough to purchase them at antique stores and flea markets.

As an adult, the business of raising a family and the intensity of the workplace didn’t slow my collecting down one bit – the only thing that changed was what I collected. By the time I was in my 40’s I was collecting music (over 7,000 lps and thousands of CDs) and in-line with the entertainment category – I collect movies. I sold most of the record collection years ago but the movies continue to pile up with “classics” being my current favorite genre (think 60’s James Bond, Fred Astaire and 30’s Universal Studio Monster films). Then, a bit more than a decade ago and much more on topic – Pinball came along.

The story of how I got into Pinball is hosted right here on the blog – check it out if you’re interested. Today, I wanted to reflect on my lifetime of collecting, how nostalgia has always played a role and why Pinball has such a strong nostalgic pull.

I think of myself as an “old soul” or someone that appreciates the past. If you have similar leanings, I’ll bet it’s the same for you. The reason we collect is to REFLECT. Not that I want to “live in the past”. On the contrary, there is no way would I want to go backward, to live a life during an earlier time in history. My time as a late baby boomer was “just right” for me, but I absolutely appreciate certain aspects of what happened in the past. Sometimes the distant past and, as I get older now, more likely to be in MY past.

If I look back at everything I’ve collected over the years, the “reach back” so to speak was always about going back in time and feeling what it was like. It’s been about wondering and then discovering the answers to that wonder. It’s been about finding out, by holding, playing or watching something to see what it was like back then. What was “different” and why. A few years ago, I went so far as to outfit our entire vacation home in period correct mission furniture and decor. If you popped in for a visit, you would be hard pressed not to think you had just walked into a turn-of-the-century home in Chicago with a design ala Frank Lloyd Wright. I wanted to literally “feel” what is was like to live in that era – if only in my home through the furniture and surroundings. Over time, I’ve come to experience nostalgia in 2 distinct ways. Historically (like the example of our vacation home) and Personally (like the Wacky Packages). A few examples follow and because I wasn’t sure how to wrap them into a story, I’ll address each individually.

Historical nostalgia:

Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers

The spectacle of Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers dancing in “Swing Time” in a beautifully designed Van Nest Polglase movie set will never be replicated. We can only watch in awe as Fred and Ginger perform 4 of the most celebrated dances of all time inside one of the most beautifully designed sets of all time, to some of the most classic music of all time (“The Way You Look Tonight” – Jerome Kern). All of this released in 1936 to great success, but now considered to be a top 100 film of all time. A classic. Why a classic? Honestly it’s hard to articulate, but I’ll start with something obvious. Greatness. Better yet, combined greatness. In one spot and at one moment in time, 2 of the best dancing partners, the best set designer and the best music writers all met to create magic. I can watch that movie now and “feel it” and to experience that level of greatness now is to understand what it must have been like in the RKO 1930’s movie making years. This is the nostalgia that history buffs can related to. It’s a big piece of what drives my interest in Pinball, but as you’ll see in the next example, not all of it.

Personal nostalgia:

Batman ’66 – Adam West & Burt Ward

With Batman and Robin, the “look back” is more based on a heartstring tug than on an historical one. I like Batman because I have fond memories of it as a kid. I don’t have clear memories of the original releases (weeknights in the late 60’s) because I was only 3 when the first season hit TVs in living rooms across the country. However, coming home from school as a latch-key kid meant hours of late afternoon television and the Batman syndicated re-runs were always there. Memories during this time are good ones. Afternoons seemed to go on forever. Mom kept lots of snacks available and I almost always did my homework on the bus on the way home so my time was mine! I thought Batman was cool as heck. I was too young to get the “camp” humor, but instead enjoyed the storylines and the fact that Batman and Robin were the good guys and at the end of the show, they always won. Being a short, skinny red-head kid, I needed a hero that would always win. I wanted to see that the bad guys got their just deserts. At the time, I had no idea that Batman was a cultural and merchandise phenomenon, I just liked the show and much of my nostalgia around Batman is based on how I “feel” when I think back to that wonderful, carefree time.

Pinball nostalgia:

I find it interesting that in prepping for this post, I had not considered that Pinball would fit “both” categories of nostalgia for me. I enjoy both the history of it AND (when the licensing is right) the personal memories of it as well. When I buy an older/classic game, I’m driven to learn all I can of it’s history. I want to know who made it. What they were thinking in the process. What drove them to certain design decisions. Importantly as well … what are they doing today? What has been “thier history”. Have they since exited the industry? Did they leave pinball land (Chicago)? Did they move to a related industry? Did they become famous in some way? I’ll want to learn about everyone involved in the game – not just the designer. How many did it sell? What made this game unique or special? The list goes on and on and if I hit a dead end, I may chase it for months before I give up (i.e. what happened to Dan Langlois – Truckstop, Radical, Black Belt, Gilligan’s Island)

Creature from the Black Lagoon:

A double dip of nostalgia

Sometimes the history of the game coincides and aligns to drive nostalgia for the history of the theme as well. I recently picked up a Creature. You can read about it here. I found myself spending a ton of time researching this game. Until today, I did not realize completely why. It’s clear now. With Creature, you get both. All of the “who did what” that comes with the design history, PLUS the “holy cow there was a real movie” history as well. I’ll start with the latter.

Creature – the movie

My deep dive into the historical nostalgia started with the movie. I watched it in 3D twice and as one might have 50 years ago – as a matinee! I went into our theater on a steamy summer day around noon, got myself a snack and a cold drink and just “enjoyed it”. I liked it so much I asked my daughter to join me a few weeks later and watched it again (she liked it too). Digging in, I discovered Riccou Browning (guy in the rubber creature suit) and Julia Adams (female lead) and proceeded to hunt down autographs for each of them. I later used the promotional plastics that were originally supplied with the pinball game to create a custom framed piece to highlight those autographs. Why? Those signatures are a lasting piece of each of those folks and, by gosh – they were there! If the movie connects with you, then in a small way, owning these autographs brings you a tiny bit closer to them – I’m keeping a little piece of that special moment in 1954 alive.

At this point I’m reminded of my earlier comments about greatness. The movie is interesting because it’s a good movie. If I had researched the 1954 movie to discover that it was a 3rd rate release with little love or appreciation, I would not be writing about it, but it was regarded as a good movie for it’s genre. The Universal Studios “monster movie era” from the 30’s to the 50’s was special. Some say the first Creature film was one of the best. I would agree. The monster as envisioned by the uncredited female studio artist Milicent Patrick is just perfect. He is both lifelike and out-of-this-world at the same time!

Soon after I got the game, I was chatting with my next-door neighbor about the movie when he shared with me that he was close friends with Ginger Stanley’s son and he was sure that she was in “those movies”. A quick internet search showed that indeed she was! Ginger was the stunt double in the third and final Creature film “The Creature Walks Among Us” released in 1956. That meant that she was the one on film during all of the underwater scenes. She was still alive and doing quite well. As I write this he is arranging for me to have a call with Ginger to simply chat about the movie – I’m giddy about it!

Why so much interest in a movie? The Creature movies take me back to a time (before I was born mind you) where the “violence” in a movie might only go as far as a punch and a bloody lip. Where death takes place “off the camera view” and outside the viewing area of the audience. You know someone was killed but the graphic details are missing. The movies are in the monster/horror genre but not “horrific” in imagery. There are no beheadings, no internal organs exposed, and no cussing. These movies are entertaining not shocking. They leave memories not nightmares. To use an overwrought phrase – they are good clean fun. I see enough misery on the news and Facebook. I want more entertainment and less shock and awe in my movies. 50 years ago they made movies like that and I’m feeling nostalgic for them.

Creature – the game

I think the “greatness” comes in for Creature Pinball when the totality of the game is considered. A good monster movie, tied to the much loved Bally era of pinball, integrated into a the home run theme of a “drive-in”! Taken all together, It’s a winning recipe and one that brings both types of nostalgia to the forefront. If I was to pick just 2 images to use to “picture” 1950’s America, one would be a ’55 Chevy Bel Air, and the other would be a Drive-in movie image:

– What baby boomer did not spend time at a drive in?

– Did not “kiss their date” (or more) at a drive in?

– Does not have fond memories of a drive in?

Digging deeper into the historical side, I was always struck by the original music in the pinball game. It sounded so “50’s” that I searched for hours trying to find the song and writer but to no avail. I used Shazam to try to ID the song – still no luck. Of course there are licensed songs in the pin. We know their titles as they all were famous when the game came out in 1992. I’m referring to the music that plays when the game ends. There are no lyrics but, if you are like me, you were sure trying to add some as you hummed along. The song seemed so familiar. It just HAD to be a famous 50’s song right? Nope. That music was an original composition from Paul Heitsch. Paul is now fully committed to the world of audio books as a highly regarded voice talent. I reached out to him via email a bit ago and will amend the story here if I get a reply. In short, bravo Paul for creating a piece of original music that captures the essence of the 50’s and drives a level of nostalgia even from it’s more modern origins -well done sir!

Intersecting Greatness

As I walk around the Pinball Loft, I can see the nostalgia driven collector in me everywhere. Jersey Jacks Wizard of Oz Pinball arrived as a 50th birthday present for my wife, but so did a dozen autographs ranging from Mickey Carrol to Ray Bolger to much lesser known associates like Sydney Guilaroff (Judy Garlands hair stylist) and Ambrose Schindler (He was a Winkie Gaurd and Jack Haley’s stunt double for the Tin Man character). You might wonder why I would go to such lengths to collect an autograph from Ambrose Schindler. After all, he’s not credited in the movie. Well, his connection to my story and my home town in East TN is as fantastical as the movie itself was. You see, a year after the release of Wizard of Oz, Ambrose was the starting quarterback for the USC Trojans in the 1940 Rose Bowl where he scored BOTH touchdowns (passing and running) to win the game over MY University of TN Volunteers! At that point in time, UT had been undefeated in 23 games and had not been scored upon in the prior 16. Truth is much stranger than fiction and all of these people, characters and connections fascinate me. Why? Greatness. Wizard of Oz is considered by many to be the single greatest film of all time. The movie almost didn’t get made, almost didn’t get made in technicolor and almost didn’t have Jack Haley as the “perfect” Tin Man. Sometimes I wonder if nostalgia and fate are intertwined. The prior story hints at it but the next story cements it.

Our little girl was just 5 years old in the year 2000. We were visiting Nashville just a few hours west of our Knoxville home and saw a poster/lithograph shop in the mall with a short line of people streaming out the door. It appeared they were waiting for something or someone. We peeked in and saw a sign saying that Mickey Carroll, one of the surviving Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz movie would be there signing autographs. We jumped in line and (it wasn’t a long one) and were soon face to face with all 3.5 feet of the sweetest gentleman you would ever want to meet. Mickey was personally recruited by Judy Garland to be a cast member on the Wizard of Oz movie. They met when both were under contract to MGM and attended school together (along with Mickey Rooney). I learned that he left acting in the mid 1940’s and went back to the family business of manufacturing headstones for gravesites. He sold that business in 1996 and then did charity work and autograph appearances. He spoke to our daughter for a length of time, we got to have our picture taken with him and he signed a large poster print that would be framed for us before we left for the day. Taylor, that little girl of ours, got married last fall. She’ll soon be 27. Mickey is gone now. 9 years after we met him that day in Nashville. The rest of the cast is gone as well. Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin in May of 2018 at age 98 and Ambrose in 2018 at age 101 was the last. Each was a piece of greatness. For me, each created a feeling of nostalgia for the year 1939 when everything came together perfectly to create a nearly perfect movie.

One more and I’ll wrap it up. I was always nostalgic about it but my purchase of a Space Station pinball just reinforced that nostalgia. You guessed it, I’m talking about the Apollo space program of the 1960’s. If you’re a baby boomer, you LIVED this. When I was a kid, there were Halloween space suite costumes, space books in school, planetary studies, rocket ship models and endless sci-fi shows related to space. As a nation we were transfixed by it. Kennedy’s challenge to reach the moon is still regarded as one of the boldest and best mission statements ever written, proclaimed and then achieved. He challenged us to “Land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth, before the decade was out”.

We did it. We landed on the moon in 1969. Many will say that it was the greatest achievement by men in history. It would be hard to argue that it was not. The math we used to get there was re-calculated on slide rules as computers were very new and not yet fully trusted. At 160 million horsepower, the Saturn V rocket remains the most powerful machine every created by man. We flew nearly a quarter million miles in total and we came home safely. To put a cherry on top, the average age of the team in the control room at the time was 28 – remarkable. How incredible is it that many who witnessed the moon landing remembered life before cars, electricity, telephones and indoor plumbing. I was around in 1969 and at 6 years old have vague memories of the events but no context of what was really underway. As an adult, I now appreciate the scale of the effort and have a deep nostalgia for what was achieved more than 50 years ago.

I started collecting memorabilia connected to the Apollo missions a while ago. Finding the autographs of Gene Krantz, Chris Kraft and Glynn Lunney was accomplished quickly and all hang on my wall with pride. Harder yet was to find an actual piece of that Saturn V rocket. After a year of looking I found a stainless steel fuel filter (still in the bag and sealed with the original 1969 Rocketdyne inventory sticker) from one of the 5 fuel pumps that moved the fuel into the rockets burn chambers. It’s a NOS piece, that has never been to space, but rather was a spare part produced by Rocketdyne for NASA. It’s beyond cool just to hold it.

The Saturn 5 Rocket fuel pumps had 55,000 horse power EACH. That power was used to send 3 tons (6,000 pounds) of fuel to each of the 5 engines every SECOND for almost 3 consecutive minutes. To put it in perspective, the 5 fuel pumps alone developed 275,000 horsepower and in 3 minutes pushed over 5 million pounds of fuel through the rockets. Impressive and a level of greatness that has never been duplicated. Today, the Saturn V rocket stands as the most powerful machine ever built by man. Hanging in the Loft is a small piece of that greatness right below the autographs of 3 of the young men that helped us get it done.

So what to do about nostalgia?

Go ahead and celebrate it! Enjoy history’s greatest moments. Notice and appreciate the past but – watch for moments of greatness right now.

TODAY’S moments will be the nostalgia of our children. Those people, those movies, those events will be the things our kids look back on with fondness

Along the way, If you get a once-in-a-lifetime chance to shake the hand of someone that got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be in the greatest movie of all time – take it

Engage in those moments, attend those events. Wait in line for a bit. Be the person to say “I was there”