Great compassion and story.

Real life offers wonders constantly! Cognizance to those wonders is left up to the individual. Peace and blessings!

I met Sam at an Expo back in the early 90's. I forget the reason we struck up a conversation, but I knew who he was through pictures in the Pinball Trader. I discovered that he was a colorful character, and easy to talk to. Since that first meeting, we'd always chat at every Expo when we'd cross paths. He always had a tidbit of information to share, and always had a bad joke to top it off with.

He's one of those old school pinball legends that are few and far between these days, and I wish him the best.

This is one of my favorite things about pinball: the community and the camaraderie. I too was captivated my Sam when I watched "Special When Lit" all those years ago. I briefly said "hi" at Chicago Expo many years ago. What a gem of a guy; always smiling when around the games.

Sam, like blownfuse and many others, is one of the OG pinball guys that deserves our appreciation and respect. I wish I could visit but CA is a bit far from where I am. @azmodeus, I remember from watching SWL that Sam seemed to have a love for Cheez Whiz. Do you know if he still enjoys it? Might be cool to send him some if I knew that he would enjoy it!

This post made my morning.

I have known Sam since the mid 90s, and saw him fairly often at all the Super Auctions in Orange county back in the day
when they had them about once a month and also saw him at pinball shows in California and once shared a hotel room with him
when we went to Expo together in the 90s.
I had been to his house many times to visit and talk pinball and food and play a few games on his Slick Chick or WMS King Pin
that he had always set up in his bedroom.
Though it has been a few years since I last visited, since I moved to Oregon, prior to his being bedridden.

To get to his bedroom one had to transverse a maze of games
(some bodies and heads stacked to the ceiling or a few set up & playable)
going from his living room, past the jukebox and his TV & VCR and some file cabinets
of records and Playmeter&CoinSlot magazines,
thru the dining room and a sun room before getting to his bedroom.
In his bedroom he had his SlickChick and KingPin next to his huge round bed (ala Austin Powers) and another row of file cabinets
against the other wall filled with more pinball paperwork and schematics amassed in any one place other than
maybe Steve Young's Pinball Resource warehouse.
All his pinball flyers are in a whole other closet in huge binders along with his compilation of pinball machine serial numbers
he has documented over the years at shows and pinball auctions.
Again in the other bedroom were more bodies and heads again stacked to the ceiling and
in several custom designed sturdy wood boxes was where he kept his spare backglasses each slot filled with many NOS BGs.
There were probably almost 100 pins inside the house, but maybe only a dozen set up to play.
Outside in his backyard there was another building that at one time was a gameroom where he had a pool table set up
but was now using as his repair shop and housed all his spare pinball parts and mechs on metal shelves in parts boxes organized
and labeled with the original pinball manufacturer part #s.
In his unattached garage nearby were more games stored along with more shelves with pinball parts.
Sadly that garage is barely standing and has tarps covering the roof to prevent the rain from getting in.

You stated that he was now living with a roommate, which was news to me, and that his roommate owns the house.
Did Sam sell him his pinball house or give it to him in return for daily care or were you at another house all together?
How is Sam's weight doing, at one time he supposedly lost about 100 lbs,
but I fear being bedridden he may have put some back on.

You owe us a few of Sam's (new/old) bad jokes.
and the rest of your interview with him.

I've known that Sam collected serial numbers for a long time. So when I saw him at one of the Pacific Pinball Expos in Marin county hunched over a game and writing in his notebook I asked him what he was up to. He told me that he was documenting the colors and positions of the plastic playfield posts. He said that the post colors hadn't been documented so he was trying to capture that. I wonder how far along he is with that project.

For those who don't know many older EMs have playfield posts of several different colors.

I’m doing some work on my High Speed (damn upper flipper) and I didn’t realize that Steve Young’s Pinball Resource is in the same town as me. I needed some parts so I emailed them and they don’t normally do counter service but the guy on the email said to call and ask for Steve. I didn’t realize this was the same Steve until I got there - he took me back to the warehouse to get like the one EOS switch I needed and let me tell you that place is enormous and filled to the brim with every pinball part imaginable. I was dumbfounded and the only thing I could
muster to ask was for some 2.5amp slow blows lol. So far Steve is 2/2 on some issues that I have had, dude is a certified pinball genius.

Steve's a great asset to this hobby, but don't want to hijack this thread.

Just heard from a fellow pinball collector that Sam Harvey fell out of bed a few days ago
and broke his leg and ankle and had some brain bleeding.
Sam at first refused to go to the hospital but after some more coaxing went to the hospital and they set his leg
and the brain bleed had stopped.
At first, in the ER with all the beeping, Sam said "this arcade must have 200 games".
So he still has his sense of humor.
He is doing OK for now, but at his age and condition, anything may happen
but is scheduled to come home in a few days.
Keep him in your prayers.

Wishing him well!

I met Sam and Glen for the first time at my first Expo back in 2006. I was introduced to him by Mike and we first met at Pinegrove restaurant within walking distance of the Wyndham hotel...He loved their pork chop dinners!! Sam would always tell me lots of jokes it always amazed me that he never repeated one!! He and I always have fun talks. He and Glen had picked up some backglasses at Expo '06 and they were worried about taking them on the plane to get them home...I told them I would take them with me and crate them and ship them to them if they couldn't take them on the plane. That started our friendship and it continues! I haven't been able to get in touch with him since August...I tried to call him on his birthday and I got the number no longer in service. So I figured he would call me on Thanksgiving (he always did before he went to his friends for dinner) When he didn't call I tried him and got the same recording...and again on Christmas...
I was finally able to get in touch with him on New Years Day for about 20 minutes to catch up with him he sounded good and told me a few jokes. Thanks @azmodeus!!
I'm praying for the best for him! When you go back please tell him I said Love ya Sam!!! <3

Phoebe