Ok guys. Reading this is just bringing back more and more memories of my time there. What I say below is not elaborated. These are facts as I witnessed them.

Gene Gene The Dancing Machine (Tidbits About Gene Himself and BBB)
To understand Gene, you have to understand his philosophy and how he worked. People just didn't get it, and after trying to work with him, found themselves at a disadvantage. Lots of stories about this already. Understand that Gene ALWAYS tried to pay someone or reimburse someone for their time without paying cash out of pocket. It was always a barter system or a carat he would dangle in front of you. This way he would get what he wanted, not have to pay you much to keep your work going, and then have the outcome he wanted. I saw this first hand. However, on the flipside, he and Kim were super nice to me all the time I was there, and my compensation was clear and tracked. I made sure to deal with Kim on that aspect after hearing stories from others. Kim always held up their end and were super nice to me. They really did try and treat me like family and I appreciated it.
Someone in a previous post nailed it about the workers there. The people working at IPB were always family members with no interest in pinball, folks who were on the cusp of society and near homeless, or friends needing a paycheck. One of his standard things was to offer folks a place to live while working there. He would let them stay in one of his slum properties, and that counted as part of their compensation. I remember one time there was a guy who was seal coating the blacktop one day, then was working on the roof, and lastly was asked to come in a pick and count parts. Then there were others who had worked there so long, they knew exactly where everything was, and kept the place going. It was a real mix of characters.
I also remember one time I was invited to their Christmas party. It was a combination of IPB workers, and other workers who did stuff for Gene. These two guys were outside with me on the porch and were smashed drunk. Smoking with one hand and drinking with the other. The one guys says to the other, the only thing that would make this night better is if we had pistols. The other guy says, damn yeah, we could shoot them off in the air and no one would bother us cause it's Christmas. (Hand to god this happened.) I swear I couldn't stop laughing. These guys were dead serious.

BBB - It Almost Killed Gene and He Definitely Lost Money
I'm jumping ahead a bit but here are some tidbits about BBB. Gene always wanted to make a pinball machine. It didn't matter what game it was, he just wanted to be able to say he made games. He himself told me this one night at dinner. When he left from the table, Kim filled me in on the history. He had accomplished everything he wanted to do from a collecting standpoint, but always felt like he was somewhat of an outsider to the guys working at Williams. At the Expo dinner, these guys would go on about designing this game, being the head of this department at Williams, and other guys being recognized for lifetime achievements. You got to remember Gene was 100% ego. He always had to be the center of attention and the guy on top. Especially in front of Georgianna. His goal was to make a game no matter what. He tried this when he bought Capcom and tried making a game called Pool Player. Someone showed the flyer. This was right when Williams closed and he bought the parts rights. He bailed on that venture and focused on the parts business. Choosing BBB was just because he had all architecture diagrams, list of parts, etc. He thought it would be an easy thing. Money started flowing in from the parts business, Kim was handling the store, so he ventured out to make his game and his mark. This is fact right from Gene.

Note, jumping ahead again but here are some headaches during BBB, that added to his stress level and caused him to have a heart attack. Gene wanted church hill cabinets to run the playfields and cabinets. CHC did not want to do this for him and deal with 150 to 200 playfields. Small run for them and not worth their time. I know this from both parties caused I verified this fact later on with someone at CHC many years later. CHC wanted to make their own game and were designing Vacation pinball. Gene, while holdings Williams exclusivity, renewed one of their expiring patents for the ball trough assembly used on the later Williams 90s games. He now had exclusive rights on the ball trough. (Williams was pissed.) He made a deal with CHC where they could use his ball trough for Vacation, and in turn they would run the playfields. (I think he sourced out cabinets to a cheaper local company. More on that in a minute.) The following shit show occurred with this deal.
1. Gene shows up in Cicero IL, to pick up the playfields. He starts saying I want this one discounted cause of imperfections, I want this one for free, I want this one for discounted cause its lighter, blah blah blah. The head guy at CHC says basically take it all as discussed or F off. Gene then takes all playfields at original deal parameters.
2. Early in BBB game assembly, while ball geometry is being tested, the clear coat and artwork begins completely peeling off from the ball friction. Like one of those scratch off lottery tickets. They test other playfields, and then same is happening. Gene is pissed and starts blaming CHC that they did it on purpose to sabotaged his game. He tells Kim we have too much time and money invested in this. Words are exchanged with CHC, with no resolve. Gene says go with them as they are. Kim says I am the one who is going to get massive amounts of calls after game delivery and we are going to get sued. The solution is as follows. They take all 190 playfields to the local Ford dealership in Bloomington. They go to the collision department and make a deal to have all the playfields clear coated again with automotive clear. Luckily this takes care of this issue, but a lot of stress with this.
3. Prior to the above, the BBB cabinets arrive in Bloomington, and they look awful. The purple is off, the sidewall paint coverage does not go down far enough into the cabinet. The fading shows when the playfield is set at the target height. In addition the cabinets are rough as hell. The back box purple coverage does not extend to the edges, and inside the back box paint is missing. Gene says go with it as is. Kim and Gene fight for days, and finally someone is brought in to sand and repaint most of the cabinets.
4. The two aliens sitting at the bar in the game cannot be remade easily. The artwork is lost and engineering diagrams lost. The originals were made by an art studio, and the guy was no longer around who did it. They took the two off of Gene's game, and have them remolded from the originals. He has 400 or so produced and it was costly. When installed in a sample game, the ball runs off the track in their mouths. They spin, and the ball doesn't release from their mouths. Somehow the mouths are too deep. More issues to deal with and this is a showstopper. More arguing and stress on everyone. Solution is to add a blob of paint in the aliens mouths so the ball doesn't come to a complete rest. This works after a lot of tweaking.
More and more issues like this occur during production.

This entry is getting long so more to come covering the following:
1. Gene asks Gary to assemble BBB. Gary says 1Million to get him off his case. He doesn't want to help gene because it is competition.
2. They company who was going to assemble / populate the playfields screw Gene and asks for more money. Double original quote.
3. Gene wants me and my brother to create wiring harnesses for BBB. He shows us one giant spool of black wire he got at an auction. Says we can make color coated wires with sharpies and some paint. We pass on this. He has to outsource this.
4. The black light assembly is no longer available and company who made it is out of business. He has to buy some assemblies from China, take them apart and reassemble.

At one point Gene has to sell property, several parcels on his compound, to keep the project going. He has a massive heart attack and goes to the hospital. More on this to come. Quadruple bypass. Kim is real worried his not going to make it. I will post more tomorrow. The saga continues.

Thanks
Dougram

Mr. Gillard:

You have previously expressed an interest in the assets of Gene and Georgianna Cunningham and/or the stock in Illinois Pinball. I am writing to inform you that I have received an offer of $500,000 for assets of Gene and Georgianna Cunningham including the stock in Illinois Pinball and have asked for Court permission to accept it. Attached is a Notice of Intent to Sell which sets forth the assets being sold and the conditions of the sale. Anyone who wishes to bid more than $500,000 for the assets listed will have to do ALL of the following:

1. File an objection to the sale on or before May 29, 2014
2. Bid an amount in excess of $500,000
3. Accept the same terms and conditions as the current bidder
4. Be willing and able to tender earnest money in the amount of 10% of the bid
5. Be willing and able to pay the balance of the purchase price within 3 business days after an Order is entered approving the sale
6. The successful bidder will have to remove all of the property from its current location within 45 days from the date an Order is entered approving the sale.

ALL OF THE PROPERTY INCLUDING THE STOCK IS SOLD “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ORAL OR WRITTEN, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR USE.

Please contact me if you need further information.

Wayne
I have a inventory of the pinball Machines
In the Cunningham personal bankruptcy
estate ...
This consist of 302 pinball machines
As far as Illinois Pinball is concerned
The only asset that was personally
Owned by Cunningham is the stock
In Illinois Pinball which would make the
Buyer of the stock the owner of
Illinois Pin Ball which includes the parts
And tooling,
However their is a pending law suit against
Illinois Pinball in the area of $200,000. Pinball Inc
So this would be a concern for the buyer,
And out of the purview of the Trustee
Because I P is not in bankruptcy .
We have been engaged with buyers who
Have expressed an interest In buying
The stock and the inventory .
Would you be interested in this package?
Thanks

I must say this is a great thread, I really enjoy stuff like this and I believe I can make some interesting additions. My story starts on the way to lunch one day back in the what I assume was late 1999, back then wasn’t keeping track. A good friend of mine is a “larger than life” operator here in town and we were getting together for lunch one Friday and he had to make a “quick” stop at the local distributor Brady. He roamed the place freely and I was his side kick that day. We made a stop in the parts department and wondered in the office of “Cha-a-Lee.” He was looking through a bunch of papers and I noticed they were from Williams. Conversation was made, said operator got his parts and “Cha-a-Lee” was invited to lunch. During lunch we did the typical b.s. ing, said operator harassed all the wait staff and “Cha-a-Lee” and I struck up a conversation about pinball and he indicated that his employer was looking into purchasing the remaining parts inventory from Williams along with all the rights to reproduce parts and even complete machines. He had received a list of inventory on hand along with all the assets associated with Bally/Williams including equipment associated with the manufacturing side. That is what he was evaluating when we wondered in. He indicated Brady was very interested and he along with a few Brady execs were going up to look everything over and figure logistics up, etc. My uncle was in logistics and rigging at the time and I offered his services if needed, fast forward a week or so and I was on the road for 12 hours headed to Chicago to meet my Uncle and the Bally/Williams people to see what was involved and now my story begins.
We meet up with 5 execs from B/W and were given a quick tour of the facility and then went across the street to what used to be the pinball manufacturer side, now in the process of being converted to produce what I later learned was gaming equipment. There were still parts of the “line” there mostly disassembled, tons of pallets/crates of parts, wire spools, tooling, etc. We then traveled to another warehouse that was very dark and poorly lite. This housed a ton of stuff, I remember seeing about 20 machines in different states, along with tons of pallet/crates of parts, test equipment and tooling. My uncle did his calculations and we had lunch and later returned to B/W where they gave him a banker box with all the information he needed to further calculate the logistics. My Uncle indicated he would look the stuff over tonight and if needed would it be possible to get together in the morning to take one last look at everything in the older warehouse. I remember him expressing some concern over the loading aspect of it as if memory serves me correct, the loading dock was in at a corner and a side street had been installed which would mean a 52foot trailer would block the street. He later learned a permit would have to be pulled to shut the street down for a 2 hour period between the hours of 2 and 7 am. Well that evening my Uncle and I poured through a ton of information and what amount to (9) 52 foot tractor trailer loads of just what he called “movable and stackable” parts and equipment. He then went on to figure (5) open flat trailers to move misc. equipment and fixtures. We did not return to the warehouse as he had everything he needed, but did return to B/W to drop off the banker box and inquire about a few loose ends. At the time I of all this I had not really engulfed myself in the hobby, I had a few machine in the house for the simple enjoyment. I had never envisioned were my road in the pinball business/hobby would take me. Later to come the future of pinball as Brady was concerned and my dealings with Gene.

click to view all

FILEDNOTICEOFINTENTTOSELL.pdf

Click to view

Game-Sale.pdf

Wow there’s a lot of pictures of games

Games 1 to 90
http://www.pinball.com/sale/games/games%201-90/index.html

Games 91 to 179
http://www.pinball.com/sale/games/games%2091-179/index.html

Games 180 to 256
http://www.pinball.com/sale/games/games%20180-265/index.html

Games 257 to 331
http://www.pinball.com/sale/games/games%20266-331/index.html

Every time they contacted me for pictures or help. They always said to let them know if I ever need anything.

Of course they didn't say they'd do anything about a request, even if I offered to pay.

I kept helping. Hoping people would get their BBB's.

LTG : )

During the dark days of pinball parts supply I began importing pins. At one time I had 5 Funhouses in stock and all had broken head parts. Eyelids were unobtainable. I reached out to Kim and she indicated they did not have the mold for any Rudy parts and had bigger fish to fry. I inquired if there would be any resistance if I attempted to make the eyelids or front/rear of Rudy’s head. She called me back about 2 days later and said I would be fine as long as I send them a sample to approve and agreed to sell them the first 100 at an agreed upon cost, which I would provide them once I got the mold built. Steve at PBR had a few NOS eyelids in his stash and he sold me a one, but warned they were very brittle due to shelf age. I had a good front and back face/head. I had a friend who was an engineer for a local plastics company and he made a short term use mold that would make about 20 eyelids, this would give me some good product samples to send out. I contacted Rick who was running Bay Area at the time, Mark and Steve. All where willing to look at what I had and felt like it was a part that would sell. All indicated there would probably be a rush for the first 100 or so then may take a few years to sell the 1000 minimum I had to commit to. We made 17 eyelids and the mold broke, but had several color options including “Red” and “Ted” versions. I sent 6 eyelids up to Gene and he gave me the green light, nothing in writing just verbal. I ordered a more robust mold which as I learned is very expensive, but if I made 1000 (minimum number) I could profit about $2.00 a set, more important get some of what now had amassed to 13 Funhouse running. At 123 eyelids the mold broke again. I shipped IPB the first 100 and we agreed to barter the cost for parts as Kim indicated I would be in a much better place, especially since I stood to lose about $8500. Gene later called me and we spoke for the first time, he was impressed at the effort I put forth and the fact that I actually got them done. We discussed the Williams acquisition and I told my story of visiting WMS with my Uncle to price the logistics for Brady. He told me a few other stories then offered an open invitation “lunch on me” anytime. I took him up on it a few years later.

Another insightful question, Hilton.

I believe it did bother Gene.
Periodically over the last few years of his life, myself and others would get a phone call from Gene.
He had lost everything with the exception of his parents home that he and Georgie lived in and that house was small and run down. His calls were disguised as some type of purpose but really he wanted to talk about glory days or some fantasy scheme he had for a come back. But I could tell that his life had no direction, nothing for him to control and no one seeking his attention. He seemed desperate to be relevant again but I think he secretly knew it was over.

It's all very sad and I've reflected on that as a life lesson for my own failings as a person.

Fascinating thread.

I don't have any direct Gene Cunningham stories to tell. However, I will pass on a couple that Keith Johnson shared during the charity stream Special When Lit ran a few months ago as they were pretty entertaining and I've not seen them mentioned in this thread.

The first is that Gene originally was looking at buying Williams pinball and keeping it going. Initially this had a lot of interest with the engineers who had been working at Williams. Over time as the discussions continued the group shrunk down (as folks found other jobs and such) to Gene plus four others (one of which was Keith) that were committed to making it happen. It all was looking good until the equity split. The four non-Gene individuals all went in assuming equal equity stakes (so 20% each). At a subsequent meeting Gene stated he was getting 50%, the four other partners would have 49%, and Gene's daughter would get 1%. The potential partners insisted it needed to be equal and Gene said no. Keith stayed at Stern, the other three formed Pat Lawlor Design, and Gene did what Gene did.

The second involves Cactus Canyon. Years after the first story another company was looking to remake Medieval Madness and Cactus Canyon. Gene owned the rights to the patent on the Cactus Canyon drop targets (which were a single-coil design unique to that game). Gene wasn't paying the upkeep on it but still would have been able to keep it. But Keith had interest in the coil design for a possible game in the future, and wasn't pleased with Gene's prior behavior, and never told him and the patent expired.

Here's a link to my source. Keith tells the story far better than my summary. There's a brief gap between story one and story two. Link should take you to the very start of story one and story two ends about ten minutes after that.