"This is history, though it may be more whimsical," says Sharpe, whose group runs pinball tournaments and oversees player rankings. "But it's got its place in our culture and shouldn't be forgotten."
Sharpe says Arnold, who spends afternoons poring over coffee-stained blueprints to fix his machines, is helping "to keep this game alive."
--
When Arnold was growing up in Michigan, pinball was immensely popular. But, he recalls, his parents cringed at how much he liked playing the games. Many government officials equated pinball with gambling. It was banned in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago until the '70s, when Arnold was a teenager.
This, of course, made the game even more appealing.
Arnold had an entrepreneurial streak and at 16, he was buying gumball machines and installing them in stores. He, his brother and a friend emptied their wallets to buy their first pinball machine, Mayfair, for $165. The game is based on the movie "My Fair Lady," and its bygone-era artwork depicts ladies in feathers and gentlemen in top hats.
Arnold eventually owned so many pinball games that his parents bought him a Dodge van so he could transport and install them in pizza parlors and arcades.
He was so dreading college in the mid-'70s that he and his older brother indulged in what seemed a boyish fantasy: They opened an arcade. His parents weren't thrilled, but they appreciated their sons' money-making bent -- Dad was a salesman who peddled miniature replicas of the Statue of Liberty.
The arcade was a disaster. People swiped money from the games. The building's electrical wiring caught fire. In about three months, the arcade closed.
A few months later, in 1976, the brothers heard about a shuttered arcade in East Lansing. They rented the space, installed 28 machines and named it Pinball Pete's. Near Michigan State University and a bar teeming with college kids, this arcade was far more successful. Pinball was also booming. The Who's campy rock opera "Tommy" spawned the hit song "Pinball Wizard" and a machine with back glass depicting the movie's stars. The brothers opened another Pinball Pete's. And another. They ran seven, all in Michigan.
Arnold eventually grew tired of juggling the businesses, and he loathed the onslaught of graphics-heavy games: He thinks they dumbed down arcade play. He retired in 1990 at age 35 with about $1 million. Arnold and his partner, Charlotte Owens, lived comfortably off his investments.
