![]() The Ann Arbor area has just such a someone - Clay Harrell, who has taken on the yeoman task of rehabilitating an old VFW Hall and turning it into the Midwest Ann Arbor Pinball Museum.Īnd in that respect, it will be a rarity: There are only a handful of pinball machine museums in the country, says Harrell - one each in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle and Asbury Park, New Jersey. ![]() So it makes sense that someone would want to open a pinball machine museum, to celebrate that history. So, at this point in the history of American popular culture, most pinball machines are rightly viewed as cultural artifacts from bygone eras. So even though there has been a resurgence in the sale of pinball machines in the last decade or so, the vast majority of those sales have been to individuals, not bars or arcades. ![]() Kevin Ransom | For There once was a time when any self-respecting beer joint or rock 'n' roll club in America echoed with the “ding-ding-ding” sounds of pinball machines - a time when their flashing lights and elaborate artwork were regular, visually-striking elements of the bar-scene interior landscape.īut when video games came along in the 1980s, the popularity of pinball machines in bars began to wane, mostly because video games were easier to maintain: Unlike pinball machines, video games weren’t loaded with moving mechanical parts. His pinball machine collections includes more than 200 machines and about 100 will be showcased at the museum. He can be reached at or on Twitter at Support local news, subscribe to The Desert Sun.Clay Harrell has turned an old VFW Hall in Green Oak Township into the Midwest Ann Arbor Pinball Museum. The museum opened in Banning in 2013. Two years later, the Guinness Book of World Records acknowledged the museum as the record-holding site for the most people playing pinball simultaneously.Ĭity News Service contributed to this report.ĭesert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. "Palm Springs was kind of perfect," Weeks said. The museum was included in Modernism Weeks events such as “Retro Pinball Mania” in 2016. "We didn't have the money to sustain the holding period while the building was remodeled," Weeks told The Desert Sun in June. "My architect said it's going to take four months just to get the (printing) press out of there, and it's going to take time to get plans approved by the city and then construction time."īy moving to Palm Springs, Weeks had hoped to capitalize on events such as Modernism Week, with the building located directly across Gene Autry Trail from the Palm Springs Air Museum. Weeks said he initially anticipated at least seven months of remodeling at the Palm Springs building. But his architect projected 15 months before the museum could reopen in the two-story, 97,000-square-foot property that sits on 9 acres across from the Palm Springs International Airport. Gene Autry Trail.īut the cost and time it would take to renovate the building became too expensive for the nonprofit museum, Weeks told The Desert Sun in June. ![]() In April, the Palm Springs Planning Commission unanimously approved Museum of Pinball founder John Weeks' plans to relocate the business to The Desert Sun building at 750 N. “While it’s disappointing to see the Museum of Pinball close its doors, I am confident that Captain’s Auction Warehouse will steer the games in the right direction as we’ve worked together for many years,” museum owner John Weeks said. 13 will be available for a final bid event Sept. on the weekend.Īny inventory not auctioned off by Sept. Product previews will be available between noon and 3 p.m. Is it working?Īdditional auctions will be held over the weekend, beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. More: Splash House invests in new technology to reduce noise complaints. More: When will Agua Caliente's cultural plaza open in Palm Springs? What we know, and don't know More: Palm Springs Art Museum to host fall exhibit of abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler
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