Pachinko Palace memories...
Hi all, I'm new here (please be gentle), and thought that the Vintage forum could use a little help.
The very first Pachinko machine I ever laid eyes on was in my uncle's basement - he brought it back from Japan while he was in the navy. I'm guessing it was about 1966 then. I remember marveling at it's mechanical complexity. Strange how today I marvel them for their mechanical simplicity!
I begged Uncle Ron to let me have it, no dice. Jump ahead (back?) to about 1975,76 or so in Anaheim CA. Next to our grocery store was an empty store that just put up a white sign with large red lettering...PACHINKO PALACE. Cool I thought, their putting in a pachinko arcade! Remembering the cool times I had with my uncle's machine, I could'nt wait.
Well the lights were finally on and the open sign was out. I walked in and thought, "what the hell..."
This place was about the size of a small Radio shack, not a stick of furniture or shelving, with bare white walls. Pretty much a gutted store. What it did have was about 80 pachinko machines leaning on one another, (no feet on them) like giant dominoes against the walls.
The guy there says their for sale! Whoa, I can actually have one of my own!
I went home and begged my mom for an advance on my allowance,( I'm about 15 years old then). I seem to recall that the machines went for around 25-30 dollars. For an extra 10 dollars you can get an "automatic", which the salesguy described as more desirable because they had a center tray in the back were the loser balls would collect and be drawn for win payouts, making the need to refill the top hopper less frequent.
It took me about an hour to make a decision, they were all so cool, it was tough to choose! To see the machine faces, you had to thumb through the heavy leaning stacks like record albums. At a certain point the weight of the machines became dificult to manage plus they were rubbing on one another. It could have been handled better.
Alot of the machines seemed to have more western themes in the center,(main attraction?) but I liked the exotic asia angle, so it came down between the Soumo wrestler or the round dragon head one. The dragon head won out,( it had one more tulip). For an extra couple of bucks you could buy the wooden feet , which you had to put on yourself.
That store was there less than a year before it became something else. It may seem like a dive joint but it was pure pachinko magic. The next couple of years I noted that big Dept. stores like Sears and J.C. Pennys were all selling Pachinkos. The ones they had seemed newer and cheaper made, like they were made solely for the American market and their new found craze.
Anyways, I still have my one and only (I live in shame) original machine, which I recently unearthed from storage. I got all re-motivated to fix her up and found this site. You guys/gals have alot of great info here and I just wanted to share abit. Thanks
P.S. These new pachinko machines - WOW - I had no idea!
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