(Topic ID: 271561)

Artifacts of Gene Cunningham/Illinois Pinball

By dudah

3 years ago


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#101 3 years ago
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

Me and a couple friends also took the tour. I took no pics but the other guys did. Maybe Brian Millard has them?
It was obvious Gene had no interest whatsoever in selling anything, no matter what you offered. He just loved knowing they were all his.
The sad thing was, we weren't allowed to turn any of them on. So many of them had water and corrosion issues. Something like 700 games just sitting there rotting.

It would be neat to try and get phtos form over the years to see how things changed.

I got the impression that in the early days Gene would go to an auction and buy a large % of the game at that auction, often bringing them home and never doing anything with them. I remember inspecting a few that were in a row and then had sequential auction numbers written on the bottom of the cabinets.

#102 3 years ago

I wish I knew about his place when I had to go out to Bloomington for work. Would have given me something to do at least...there isn't very much to do there besides eat, and marvel at how much money State Farm wastes.

#103 3 years ago
Quoted from dougram69:

Just for some clarity.
Chad - The parts guy at Atlas was Romero not Fernando. He was a big, tall Latin guy with a real deep voice. He used to answer the phone "Romero Here". He got cancer real bad later on. I went into the location one day and didn't even recognize him. He had lost so much weight and lost his hair completely. He passed shortly there after. Just to reminisce for a second, Romero was a super guy. He came off real rough at first like Steve Young. I got to talk to him so much he got friendly later on. In Oct of 1999 I bought a CV pin, and the plastic covering the DMD was bent real bad. It got caught on the mini play-field like they all do, and got bent upward. I was having a real tough time finding the part number in the book. He tried looking it up a few times and thought he had it. When the ordered parts came it was the wrong plastic. He then gave me the phone number to the Williams parts lady directly. I called her an explained what was happening. She helped me track down the right part number, and I then had Romero order the right plastic for me. In Nov, I got a beat Scared Stiff. I needed a play-field bad. The VUK hole was blown out. I called the lady at Williams on a lark. I asked her if they had this play-field and she said no. She then said hold on let me check by sub assembly part number. She cam back after ten minutes and said they had one NOS SS play-field as a sub assembly. This had all the holes drilled ready for install, (more than the blank has), all intended mylar applied and all t-nuts applied. It's pulled right before it goes into assembly and into a game from what she indicated. She said to me, have your distributor order it right away as it's the only one. In addition, if you are ever going to need anything else order it now. I wasn't getting the last statement at first, and then realized what it meant. I was able to get some stuff out of Williams before they closed. Mostly for SS, CV and TZ. If it wasn't for Romero, this would have never happened. God rest his soul.
I also don't recall any shopping cart. The place had a small counter in front, and small metal rack behind the counter with all the pinball game specific parts. Wasn't much to go through. Some SWE1 plastics, and few ramps and that was it. To the left was a window where Romero sat in his office. Down the long hallway were other offices, and one area with Billiard tables and a few Foosball games on display. It wasn't set up to walk around with a cart. Are you possibly thinking of Mazco or American vending?
To Mr. Bally Australia, these are the actual conversations I had with Gene and Kim. If you read all my posts closely, you will find my retelling of when Williams games manufacturing was offered to Gene way before you had it, and he passed on it. Go back and read all my posts before you start telling everyone what they lived through was bullshit. Please try and contribute constructively. I never saw any contracts, just retelling of my experiences with the principal parties. If you have more detail, then share it and help make this community better informed. To just say this is bullshit and I know more is childish.
Dougram

Quoted from dougram69:

Just for some clarity.
Chad - The parts guy at Atlas was Romero not Fernando. He was a big, tall Latin guy with a real deep voice. He used to answer the phone "Romero Here". He got cancer real bad later on. I went into the location one day and didn't even recognize him. He had lost so much weight and lost his hair completely. He passed shortly there after. Just to reminisce for a second, Romero was a super guy. He came off real rough at first like Steve Young. I got to talk to him so much he got friendly later on. In Oct of 1999 I bought a CV pin, and the plastic covering the DMD was bent real bad. It got caught on the mini play-field like they all do, and got bent upward. I was having a real tough time finding the part number in the book. He tried looking it up a few times and thought he had it. When the ordered parts came it was the wrong plastic. He then gave me the phone number to the Williams parts lady directly. I called her an explained what was happening. She helped me track down the right part number, and I then had Romero order the right plastic for me. In Nov, I got a beat Scared Stiff. I needed a play-field bad. The VUK hole was blown out. I called the lady at Williams on a lark. I asked her if they had this play-field and she said no. She then said hold on let me check by sub assembly part number. She cam back after ten minutes and said they had one NOS SS play-field as a sub assembly. This had all the holes drilled ready for install, (more than the blank has), all intended mylar applied and all t-nuts applied. It's pulled right before it goes into assembly and into a game from what she indicated. She said to me, have your distributor order it right away as it's the only one. In addition, if you are ever going to need anything else order it now. I wasn't getting the last statement at first, and then realized what it meant. I was able to get some stuff out of Williams before they closed. Mostly for SS, CV and TZ. If it wasn't for Romero, this would have never happened. God rest his soul.
I also don't recall any shopping cart. The place had a small counter in front, and small metal rack behind the counter with all the pinball game specific parts. Wasn't much to go through. Some SWE1 plastics, and few ramps and that was it. To the left was a window where Romero sat in his office. Down the long hallway were other offices, and one area with Billiard tables and a few Foosball games on display. It wasn't set up to walk around with a cart. Are you possibly thinking of Mazco or American vending?
To Mr. Bally Australia, these are the actual conversations I had with Gene and Kim. If you read all my posts closely, you will find my retelling of when Williams games manufacturing was offered to Gene way before you had it, and he passed on it. Go back and read all my posts before you start telling everyone what they lived through was bullshit. Please try and contribute constructively. I never saw any contracts, just retelling of my experiences with the principal parties. If you have more detail, then share it and help make this community better informed. To just say this is bullshit and I know more is childish.
Dougram

Possible I may have the names mixed up with Romero. Did he goto Mazzco as I was told he was the main guy to deal in parts when I ordered..?
Not mixing up with American Vending. Bob Redman, and Hector were the parts experts there, along with Ray on tech support.

I dug up a copy of a receipt from Atlas from 2000 , but no name on it ( sales wise)

#104 3 years ago

Interesting thread - thanks for posting the pics guys.

#105 3 years ago
Quoted from TenaciousT:

So who were the guys that actualy built the BBB games ? Remember they went under the name - Bear cave or something like that ? I'd like to here their story ! I think they got burned in the end ?

Bearcave was the name of the company owned by a couple guys that helped Gene sell his parts initially. You would send your want list to the Bearcave guys, then once a week, they would go to Gene's and see if they could find what you wanted. I forget how long this lasted but it ended the day Gene caught them with about a half dozen playfields in their car that they hadn't paid for.

11
#106 3 years ago
Quoted from Ballypinball:

Yes I agree the guy is repeating what Gene Said to him, however what gene said 90% of the time was crap.

While it's true Gene was a compulsive weaver of fiction, I believe a ratio of 90% is harsh. But I take your meaning.

Gene would base his stories on the truth and make them grandiose using exaggeration and yes, pure invention. The majority of his dishonesty were in gray areas that could neither be proved or disproved. Consequently he was rarely challenged and he never matured as a person in that regard.
- Life lesson alert for some people if they care about reputation.

One of the most common and repeated stories from Gene was that he lost a million dollars remaking Big Bang Bar. I can’t disprove that but many of us believe he actually made a tiny profit, broke even or lost a much smaller amount. - Gene was Gene and his being pretentious in no way diminishes his legacy of resurrecting and building those high-quality, beautiful BBB machines.

As far as Dougram recounting his history here, I find him highly credible. I’m hanging on to every word he writes and memories are now coming back for me. I don’t know who he is but he was definitely there based on his detailed descriptions and accuracy. Please carry on, Dougram.

Quoted from Ballypinball:

not all are in his hands, I have a few crates as well

We were talking about the Wizard Blocks whitewoods and you may be confusing that with parts.

#107 3 years ago
Quoted from Ballypinball:

not all are in his hands, I have a few crates as well

I see you have WB in your collection! Post pics!

Quoted from chad:

I believe the software at the time was only 20%- 30% finished.

I heard it was a lot further along than that. Playboy was definitely barebones.

#108 3 years ago

I bought parts off his wife over the phone. And from Bearcave.

#109 3 years ago

I'd like to know what happened to Gene's collection of plaid shirts!

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#110 3 years ago
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#111 3 years ago

Anxiously awaiting the next post from dougram69 Great thread!

22
#112 3 years ago
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

Me and a couple friends also took the tour. I took no pics but the other guys did. Maybe Brian Millard has them?
It was obvious Gene had no interest whatsoever in selling anything, no matter what you offered. He just loved knowing they were all his.
The sad thing was, we weren't allowed to turn any of them on. So many of them had water and corrosion issues. Something like 700 games just sitting there rotting.

I took the tour with some friends back in 2006. Gene made it a point to ask if there were any pinball parts that I couldn't find or was trying to find. I mentioned an Ali backglass. He said he had a NOS example in perfect condition. I asked how much he wanted and he just smiled and said that it was not for sale. I thought it was pretty odd behavior. We spent a couple of hours walking down the rows of games. At one point, I saw an EBD with the playfield missing and a bunch of wires and parts sitting in the bottom of the cabinet. Gene said they had to use the playfield for new EBD playfields. I asked why they didn't just unplug the wires from the PCBs instead of cutting everything? He just shrugged his shoulders. Gene was pleasant enough throughout the tour, but wouldn't sell anything. I walked away with the feeling that the whole collection was just going to waste.

As far as IPB goes, I provided my used MM playfield for the run of IPB MM playfields with the promise of a free repro playfield down the road. A couple of years later I get a call from a guy that had bought my house and said that there was a delivery there that I might be interested in. It was a new IPB MM playfield! Glad the guy was honest and had kept my contact information. Kudos to IPB for following through on their promise.

#113 3 years ago
Quoted from Mr68:

One of the most common and repeated stories from Gene was that he lost a million dollars remaking Big Bang Bar.

Since this was Gene, which I have several of my own encounters with, I would suspect he expected to make about $1 million on the BBB remake and only made about $10K , therefore lost about a million in his terms.

#114 3 years ago

I’ve been watching the TV Series “DARK” and I desperately need to hear about some time-travel family tree stuff here. Like, some young person here travelled back to 1945 and is actually Gene’s dad. Or that there’s a 30-year old version of Gene still wandering around in 2036.

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#115 3 years ago

Holy crap, I'm LIVING for this thread... I rarely get time to come on here to browse, but today was a national holiday (Canada Day) and tonight has been YouTube and Pinside. What a ride back in time! As far as CPR goes, we're some of those folks that could "write a novel" on Gene and IPB ... but so many years have gone by, that a ton of memories have been lost. Most of it was just haphazard business dealings. Gene never did anything in writing. Gene could be our best buddies one part of the year, then shafting us - no longer going to let us have artwork another part of the year. The first couple years of CPR were very bumpy due to this kind of IPB activity, shifting royalty deals, and artwork uncertainty. By 2007/2008 it's what drove us unto the arms of Mr.Pinball Australia as the new "alternative WMS licencee" and make royalty-paid Bally/Williams licensed parts via Wayne Gillard. But cutting ties with Gene meant the end (for a long while) of getting access to original factory films. Everything had to be redrawn from scratch after that. Then there were the years of the IPB / PinballAustralia feuding.

As the many years went on, Kim would sometimes call us occasionally to ask a question. Loved Kim. Loved Gene, really. In retrospect, even with all Gene's bravado and that damn unpredictable ability to abort a verbal deal in a microsecond ... even though we couldn't work with him, there was something about him that was magnetic, funny, and family.

To be honest, at least with us, in the final few years before the bankruptcy, he had... mellowed out? Don't know if that is the right word. He was offering to have CPR use his original films for playfields, he just wanted a fair shake at some kind of a royalty. He wasn't being controlling or money-grubby. He was being fair and helpful, where the olive branch was being held out - and I had the choice to grab it or not. No pressure. We actually turned him down several times, as we had a stockpile (years worth) of crisp fresh vectored playfield art packages from Stu by that point. We had no room on the docket to make deals to borrow his artwork, at the time. I remember feeling bad, because wisps of his financial hardships had begun appearing in the air. Would have been nice for some of his artwork to yield him some coin. He tried. The difference in his disposition at that time was palpable, compared to all those years prior.

Anyway, enough of that.

THAT HOUSE !!! Wowwwww those pictures of the current-day state of the property are shocking to me. We visited Gene back in 2005 to make our handshake-deal on doing classic Bally playfields on an ongoing basis. This was after the 'debut' Fathom run in 2004. 2005 was going to be Centaur. Then Xenon. Then Eight Ball Deluxe. And so on. That is why we went there, and we were flying home the original Centaur factory films... the first set he was going to let us borrow. So of course, that weekend we got the entire tour. Everything. All the warehouses. That house. The giant indoor pool oasis.

But that house... damnnn. He had us through most of it. If the listing says 5500 square feet... I almost cannot believe it. Maybe they don't count the pool building addition. Dunno. I'd estimate more like 12,000. At the time, I was so dazzled by the immense scale of it all... Imagine it all completely furnished, fake trees, plants, paintings, artwork, books, slot machines everywhere, etc. It was tight to walk around, because there was a slight "hoarder" thing going on. Soooo much "stuff"... the place seemed never-ending. And all of it was crammed full. I never noticed it was made up of multiple builds and add-ons. I'm only seeing that clearly now, looking at the real estate pictures. Back in 2005, that pool 'oasis' room was mind boggling. He had fake palm trees in there that were 20-30 feet tall... tiki torches and strings of lanterns... tons of loungers and stools... it was bigger than most indoor hotel pools I have been at. Could easily handle a party of 50-100 people. But it felt so huge, so lonely, so cold... echoes for days... like an abandoned YMCA. I think it's heyday was long in the past. But as somebody mentioned, yes, this was kinda like a patchworked "Playboy Mansion" type of place. All the eccentricities of a wealthy man chasing his ideas and dreams, changing interests and projects as years go by, throwing money at this, throwing money at that. Such a unique place. Gene's World. Crammed with his lifetime of trophies and trinkets. Wall to wall. It was soooo "70's" with the colors, carpets, woodgrain... and it smelled that way too. I have to say, it made my life feel "small" ... he had accomplished so much, thus accumulated so much. It blew my mind. And while one could say life isn't about "stuff"... you'd be right... but man, it was overwhelming what one man could collect and buy over a lifetime to that point. I had never seen anything like that, in person, before in my life. Not on that scale. He was charming for the whole visit. Definitely daunting though, in his presentation of his lifestyle. We were there for a business deal... it felt like the deal was so small (for him) we were like Girl Guides selling cookies at his door. Does that make sense? We were so naive and green in 2005.

ANYWAY - - - I TOOK PICTURES DURING THAT VISIT

I STILL HAVE THEM

So I'm going to post them below. Maybe you can all spot things you recognise. Some are from his giant barns (collections) behind his house. Some are from the IPB warehouses. A few are from the Big Bang Bar assembly building (???) ... it hadn't even started yet, but he had most of the parts. Plus some odds and ends. If I know something, I'll label the pic(s) the best I can.

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#116 3 years ago

IPB Truck parked at Gene's placeIPB Truck parked at Gene's place
Illinois PinBall POOL PLAYER machinesIllinois PinBall POOL PLAYER machines

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#117 3 years ago

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#118 3 years ago

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Pool Addition - What it looked like in 2005Pool Addition - What it looked like in 2005
Pool Addition - What it looked like in 2005Pool Addition - What it looked like in 2005
Example of artwork in Gene's houseExample of artwork in Gene's house

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#119 3 years ago

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Molds Molds Molds - as per story told earlier in thread !Molds Molds Molds - as per story told earlier in thread !
One of the larger IPB warehousesOne of the larger IPB warehouses
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Fresh BBB Lockdown BarsFresh BBB Lockdown Bars
Holding a rare pre-production Centaur film positiveHolding a rare pre-production Centaur film positive
Factory drawings - CentaurFactory drawings - Centaur
Factory drawings - CentaurFactory drawings - Centaur

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#120 3 years ago

Another warehouse - cabinet side artAnother warehouse - cabinet side art
IPB Repro KISS backglasses 2005IPB Repro KISS backglasses 2005
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Cabinet side artCabinet side art
Cabinet side artCabinet side art

#121 3 years ago

Thanks for posting Kevin. Those are some incredible pictures.

#122 3 years ago

LOL at the "Big Dick" machine. Never seen the actual game. Only the glass.

#123 3 years ago

Next to the Pin2000 machines is a Bally Texas Twin slot machine. He bought that from me in the UK and had it shipped over to the US. When I had it the reel and payout glasses were in Swedish, but somewhere in his "stash-o-stuff" he had English ones that he swapped in.

#124 3 years ago

Incredible - how does one man collect and store so much stuff???!

#125 3 years ago
Quoted from Shapeshifter:

Incredible - how does one man collect and store so much stuff???!

Time and money

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#126 3 years ago

thanks for sharing those photos and stories!

really do love this stuff!

I found the old camera which should have video and now need to find a power cable and the proper way to recover them.

#127 3 years ago

Thanks to everyone who for sharing your stories and pictures. I only dealt with IPB one time, in that I ordered a part and there were no issues. While this read is starting to fill in a few historical pieces for those of us that came in without ever meeting Gene, one area that doesn't seem to get covered is the demise of IBP.What caused his financial ruin, how about did the assets get sold off, who got them, and what happened to all of his machines?

Even more important, how did he get access to all of the WMS inventory? Did WMS even want to keep their pinball part resources operational, or did they just take a check and call it a day? Seems to me they would have known exactly what type of person they were selling it all too and realized he had issues.

#128 3 years ago
Quoted from Methos:

Thanks to everyone who for sharing your stories and pictures. I only dealt with IPB one time, in that I ordered a part and there were on issues. While it's starting to fill in a few pieces for those of us that came in without ever meeting Gene, one area that doesn't seem to get covered is the demise of IBP.What caused his financial ruin, how about did the assets get sold off, who got them, and what happened to all of his machines?

Would part of it be the hit he took on Big Bang Bar? $4500 a game that should have been a higher price.?

#129 3 years ago

How did Gene amass his fortune during the good years? Surely it wasn't from owning a skating rink and a couple of warehouses?

-1
#130 3 years ago
Quoted from JodyG:

How did Gene amass his fortune during the good years? Surely it wasn't from owning a skating rink and a couple of warehouses?

He owned rental property. Some would say he was a slum lord. Word on the street is, he ended up in one of his rental houses that was so bad the bank didn't want it back.

#131 3 years ago

Surprised no one had mentioned the painting of Genes wife, Georgianna

#132 3 years ago
Quoted from chad:

Would part of it be the hit he took on Big Bang Bar? $4500 a game that should have been a higher price.?

I doubt it. Most who dealt with Gene would tell you he was a horrible businessman. He was happier just owning the pinball parts than he was selling them.

#133 3 years ago
Quoted from Tilt:

Surprised no one had mentioned the painting of Genes wife, Georgianna

I've been told of a number of pics of his wife hanging in the house. None of which you'd be able to post here without having them removed.

#134 3 years ago

I liked the Georgia O’keeffe of georgianna

#135 3 years ago
Quoted from KevinCPR:

Gene never did anything in writing.

From my observations as a casual friend, Gene flew by the seat of his pants with most everything in business and life.

Gene authored a book titled, Mad Dog and his Art. It's an Illustrated Book about the artist Dave Christensen and Gene self funded its publication. He gave me a copy and I asked him to inscribe the inside cover with the phrase, "From one badass real estate investor to another". He smiled as he knew I was a RE investor too.

But then he hesitated for an awkward moment and asked me to write that down on a piece of paper. He then copied what I wrote, letter by letter, word by word from that paper. I found that odd. And he always had his wife Georgie write things down for him and she did all of the office work. Just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience?

#136 3 years ago
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

I've been told of a number of pics of his wife hanging in the house. None of which you'd be able to post here without having them removed.

I saw more than just pictures and it's a tad gossipy of me but I'll post a true and entertaining story later when I have time.

In the meanwhile, I'd sure like to hear more from Dougram, KevinCPR and any others with stories and/or pictures.

#137 3 years ago
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:

He owned rental property. Some would say he was a slum lord. Word on the street is, he ended up in one of his rental houses that was so bad the bank didn't want it back.

A bunch of rental property. Bloomington is a college town and he owned a bunch of old houses he'd rent out to college kids. Being a lifelong resident, I imagine he bought up property back in the day when it was dirt cheap and as the college expanded and attendance rose, so did his income.

#138 3 years ago
Quoted from Mr68:

From my observations as a casual friend, Gene flew by the seat of his pants with most everything in business and life.
Gene authored a book titled, Mad Dog and his Art. It's an Illustrated Book about the artist Dave Christensen and Gene self funded its publication. He gave me a copy and I asked him to inscribe the inside cover with the phrase, "From one badass real estate investor to another". He smiled as he knew I was a RE investors too.
But then he hesitated for an awkward moment and asked me to write that down on a piece of paper. He then copied what I wrote, letter by letter, word by word from that paper. I found that odd. And he always had his wife Georgie write things down for him and she did all of the office work. Just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience?

When you bought something from Gene at a show, he would write down the dollar amount in a notebook. He wouldn't write what the item was, just the dollar amount. I always found that interesting.

#139 3 years ago
Quoted from dudah:

A bunch of rental property. Bloomington is a college town and he owned a bunch of old houses he'd rent out to college kids. Being a lifelong resident, I imagine he bought up property back in the day when it was dirt cheap and as the college expanded and attendance rose, so did his income.

And that he did no upkeep to the homes. Even after numerous citations and fines.

21
#140 3 years ago

The pics above look very familiar, exactly how I remember the place. I "worked" a month for Gene, helping in the pre-production of BBB. Originally the plan was I would help on the production. We discussed it and set a date when I would come over. Booked my flight, went over and things were very delayed. Stayed there for a month, in an empty house behind the new building. Apparently, Gene had many of these all over town.

One day, Gene took me to Chicago where he visited Foremost Plastics and Stern. That was my first time visiting Stern. While Gene was talking to Gary in his office, I gave myself a factory tour. Sopranos was on the line. At the time, Gary wasn't too pleased with Gene building BBB, but when Gene needed a few dozen slingshot kickers he could buy them from Stern as they were very similar to Capcom's. Then I was tasked to belt sand them all to make sure they would fit. In the end, I broke the belt sander.

That trip I went with someone I met through the Dutch Pinball Association, a guy named Steve. At some point, Steve bought a bunch of flyers from Gene. I remember seeing a Fireball flyer being sold, which was clearly a full-color photocopy. "$30."

Kim was great and we had lots of fun during the time I stayed there. As I DJ, I found a bar downtown where I could play. That was fun. The next Monday morning we were discussing the weekend before getting to work and I sort of mentioned I got lucky that weekend. Kim goes, "Did you wear protection?" I go, "Yeah, I was wearing my helmet." Tears of laughter, you had to be there.

One of the problems with Gene was that he had lots of family working for him. Reluctantly, I think, because I doubt they enjoyed it very much. None of them cared for pinball stuff. And most of them had no clue how to do what they were supposed to be doing.

Part of the BBB drama was contract manufacturers screwing Gene. Maybe they figured out he had money to spend, maybe not, but he got ripped off quite a bit. One of the Bearcave guys told me they had an artist adjust the cabinet side artwork. On the original game, the artwork doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the cabinet. So this artist, I was told, added to the artwork so it would reach the bottom. In reality, the artist simply enlarged the image digitally and charged for it as if he added artwork at the bottom. I noticed immediately, but nobody else did.

One weekend I spent at the house where the Bearcave guys lived. They had lots of cool pinball stuff. I remember seeing a plastic Elvira bust, which turned out to be a doorbell. Still looking to buy one of those.

When I attended Expo, I always went to see Gene's show, which was just down the road. Always good to see him and Giorgianna.

#141 3 years ago

Best thread ever - I scanned though it and can't wait to dig in - I live for this stuff ! Keep it coming guys, such great content... and really nice to remember Gene...

18
#142 3 years ago

As I recall there were four groups involved in making BBB over the time. Problems always arose with them or Gene. Kerry Stair being the last. I believe he thought he'd assemble a couple, didn't know it would be all of what was left.

During all that time. They called me or emailed me on a regular basis. Gene had two original BBB's. They were disassembled. Stuff lost, didn't know where stuff went. Being I had an original. I was contacted a lot for into or pictures.

LTG : )

#143 3 years ago

I'm still very new to pinball, I have to say this is the best thread I've ever read on Pinside. I have a friend with a BBB, and the first time I played it I had only been into pinball for about a year. I had no idea what it was, and he told me the story. It's great to see the pictures and hear the stories behind such a unique character. Thanks to everyone for sharing!

17
#144 3 years ago

2 more pics

I also found the videos/ got them

What is the best way to get a video up? Can they be uploaded to pinside?

P2192277 (resized).JPGP2192277 (resized).JPGP2192278 (resized).JPGP2192278 (resized).JPG
#145 3 years ago
Quoted from Whysnow:

What is the best way to get a video up? Can they be uploaded to pinside?

Can't be loaded to Pinside.

Put on Youtube and post link here.

LTG : )

17
#146 3 years ago

attempt 1 for first video

#147 3 years ago

#2 video

#148 3 years ago

#3 video

Sorry for quality, but hopefully these are still cool for some to see
As you can see, I was just trying to quickly categorize what was there for passing along to friends that may be interested in buying/ knowing what was there.

Fun for me to look back and see so many great games. Games I did not have as much interest in back then but do now, and also wish I had one just for the fun of the history

#149 3 years ago

#4 video

all for now

#150 3 years ago
Quoted from dudah:

A bunch of rental property. Bloomington is a college town and he owned a bunch of old houses he'd rent out to college kids. Being a lifelong resident, I imagine he bought up property back in the day when it was dirt cheap and as the college expanded and attendance rose, so did his income.

Great thread- really enjoying reading this!

I was in college @ Illinois State from 1986-1990, guess I was lucky to not rent from Gene. This is when all the property management companies were gobbling up houses in the B/N area....the house I lived in my last 2 years there was a $h*t hole managed by Redbird realty.

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