What's that sound? It's for amusement only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. So I'm here with Bingo Butch, the king of bingos. He's a big collector of valley and United games. In fact, he's got every valley, correct? Yup. And just about every United. Just about. I'm not sure if you can see the screen, except they're really impossible to find a couple of them. So, Butch, I wanted to know, you operated these machines, you've owned them for a long time, and you were around playing them when they were new. Yes, sir. A lot of them I played brand new. Tell me a little bit about how you got started. How did you find out about the machines? Well, when I was growing up, they had these machines and what they call, what the kids call slop shops, but the right name on the store was called Sweet Shops. And the kids played them all. It was like the boys played the bingos, okay? They didn't play the flippers, The is a true for every one place in parts bill that had flipper pinballs there was like five places that had bingos which is you know that the gods honest truth and well like you know all my friends and that they had little jobs like I had I had carried newspapers, worked on a garbage truck and all the money that we made, most of it, we stuck in the machines playing them. I had many hour of fun playing these and I lost many a nickel to them and I wasn't the only one. So when you were that age, when you were a paperboy working on garbage trucks, how old were you? I was 14, 15, 16, like that. Wow. So you were in school. Yeah, of course. You were working these jobs, multiple jobs. Yes. Making spending money and you put them in the games. Now, would you play until you won a certain amount or until you were out of money? Get a projection for the honey in GoFundMe worrying brings the Holy Grail interessant Holy Grail Ancient Don't forget, you're talking, like to me, you're talking 1953, 54,55, okay, and $5. That was a lot of money to a kid. I guess it's like 10 or 12 today, you know. And when we hit the big one, the five in line, I remember this. We always had to buy Before we got the five dollars, we always had to buy all of our friends a Pepsi, which was ten cents at that time. Okay. You got a twelve ounce Pepsi in the bottle for ten cents. And then like if we hit something like big, say we hit the corners, that's two hundred. Sure. That's ten dollars. $10,000. Sometimes $315. Then we'd still buy each of our buddies. Say there's 7 or 8 of them, you know, and we'd buy them a Pepsi, and then you'd buy, if you're a fairly good spender like I was, easy come easy go. I'd buy like four or five tasty K cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes. We always bought that. And then we'd open them up and then the kids ate them when they'd drink their Pepsi. And we'd celebrate me hitting the big one, the ten dollars, you know, for the corners. That's how we did it. I wasn't the only one of course. When my friends hit too big, then we did it. You know, you'd hear everybody, like, when you hit it, it's usually a place where you have three or four machines. Right. And then the machines would be racking up, you know, ta-dun, ta-dun, ta-dun. And then everybody would be hollering, so it is, butch won, you know. And that's how we did it. And everybody was the same. 매니 그럼uit poweredр 강 sayin wipifornitect,ецтов Emmy in™ Then we had a clubhouse and we rented this big clubhouse. It was like just a big building, like a warehouse. In other words, you could fit four or five cars in it. And then all of the guys in my gang put, we put so much money, I don't know, that we gave like five dollars a month or something and that took care of the rent and that took care of the light bill. Okay. That's all we had there. Okay. And then like the kids we played cards and we did in the one corner we even played basketball a little you know in the one corner of the place and then we thought of let's get an operator to put some machines in. Yeah, so we didn't have to go to the stores and that like so we had an operator do that and we were living happily ever after like and then we got robbed. Somebody broke in to our big like you could say it was a four car garage. You know, it was big like that and somebody broke in and they broke the machines up The Of course the operator took him out wouldn't put him in anymore And of course he told other operators So we couldn't get any put in Okay, so I was I remember I was a sophomore I was I was 17 then or almost 17 and Then my uncle bought me a yacht club The in my bedroom at home. My mom left me do that, of course. And then I thought, well, I'm gonna since we can't get an operator to put any bingos in and we liked them and that, I'm gonna put my yakh club in. I was a little reluctant in that. But I thought, well, I'll I was afraid of it getting busted open too, like the three bingos we had in there. My friends, my guys in the gang, they talked me into it. So I put it in and understand I was working little half-ass jobs, working on a garbage I was delivering newspapers and stuff and going to school of course. And then the money that I made with my yacht club I never really spent. I was like saving up a little and then I thought, Geez, you know, I always like Miami Beach a lot, you know. So I saved up and I don't know what it cost me then. That's too long ago. But I got an operator talk to people in Philadelphia for me at Banner Specialties and told them that I was operator, you know, half-assed. C Barroportion Product bat işte їх lupus "-fac closed top prest position 09", urine warto gw'apsh vamos 해서 and at Shane Town Speedway and he opened up a speakeasy and the number car he drove was sixty-nine and he called his speakeasy Club Sixty-Nine and I was a good friend of his and he knew I had machines and you know at that time I'm talking way back The machines in right away, but then when they broke you had to kiss them to come and fix them You know so what what happened then was like then the guys in the store the bar They didn't make money like they should because their machines were broke half the time right But it was when it was the day that you went to the machines of course the operators were there that day right see So, my buddy knew this and he said to me, would I like to put machines in? And I thought, well, geez, you know, I'm no operator and that. He said, well, look, just put a pool table in for me. No, I'm sorry, a shuffleboard. So, you know, I went down and I guess you could say I talked some sense into the people down I was 17, 17 and a half then, but I left the people think I had like 15 or 20 machines out when I only had three. The money I made with the three and the money I made with the shuffleboard, I paid the shuffleboard off. And then my buddy, he wanted a jukebox. People kept hollering for a jukebox. You know, what bar room today doesn't have a jukebox? So then I had to buy a jukebox. That thing just snowballed for me. I wasn't, that's a God's honest truth. I wasn't planning on being no operator. And you know, before you knew it, and like I said, I had jobs where I was making my spending money. And all the money I made with the machines, I just kept buying another one and another one. And that's what happened. That's the story of my life. So, in between all this, you know, the rest of your life is going on. You've got other jobs, right? You're still working those? I still have a normal paying job that a family man has to have. Right. Well, you're still at the end of high school, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, you got the normal job. You got the route now. Yeah. And you could call it a route, right? You got four machines. Yeah, yes, you could say that, I guess. Yeah. And then I then I got rid of I got I got was getting too old. I stopped carrying newspapers. And I stopped. Not that I'm too good to, but I stopped working on a garbage truck. And then I got a job in a factory. Okay. And what was the factory? It was a knitting mill. We made men's underwear and t-shirts. Is that the textile mill that Mike showed me earlier in town? Oh, no, no. I worked in Norgesburg in Class Text knitting mills. I worked there six years. I met my wife there. She started working there years after I was there. I was there I think four years till my wife started working there and that's where I met her. C Barcaustic, I worked downstairs in the factory and I was a shipping clerk and the packer and I had I had the floor lady was under me, like she had I told her what orders to get together and then she had like twelve or fifteen girls under her. Now I certainly wasn't no boss. I mean I didn't boss anybody around but I had to tell her what to do so she knew what orders had to go out and stuff. Okay? So what got me mad really, here's another thing, funny thing. Okay? Now I'm there four years before my wife. And I'm working there and I'm downstairs. Now my wife's working upstairs with about sixty ladies. Okay. Okay. With their sewing machines like. And this is the truth. After I started, you know, going out with my wife and we got hooked up and that, Then I asked her how much she was making an hour. And my wife, this is a God's honest truth again, there I go and it's true. She's making a quarter an hour more than me. And you could say, if you want to, you could say I was running the whole downstairs. And all she was doing was on a machine, but she was on piece rate. and she was a fast worker and she was a hustler you know and so I got you know I get I was really in solid you know and then we decided we're going to get married and then I figure well that's it now you know I can't have I can't have my wife working at the I'm working and she's making a quarter an hour more than me. Now the man of the house supposed to make more than the wife, you know. So then friends of mine that was in my gang, I call it my gang because I was like a year or two older than half of the guys, okay. And then I thought, well, I got to get, I got to get a I hope to get another job and make more money. Even though I liked it where I was and I like my job and the people I've worked for, they're very nice. And finally, some of the guys from my gang, they started working at Bethlehem Steel. Okay? Which is the equivalent of 60 miles from home. You know, and traveling back and forth and that. So I I started working there, making two and a half times of what I was making at the factory. And then I started getting like, I started in May, and then in July 4th, I got a paid I'm telling you, you know, because we didn't get that at our place at the factory. We got one week's vacation a year. If you were there one year or 30 years, you got one week's vacation and that was the week of the 4th of July, you know. So here I am, I thought I was really big shot then, you know, getting paid and not working. I'm not used to that. Closed Caption by The Closed Caption Project Now, you have to understand, I didn't advertise at all. Sure. And I didn't have my names on the machines like other operators did. You know, cause I'm a little half-ass guy. You know, just trying to get along in a dog-eat-dog world. Sure. It's a sign business. And then as time went on, I couldn't tell you when. I'd be lying. My accountant said to me, he says, Butch, you have too many machines out now not to claim any income tax. Now I should keep this low, right? I was claiming income tax from my job at the steel, okay? And then I was also, when I got time, part time, I was driving Pottsville cab then too. Wow. Oh yeah. But, and I'm claiming all my taxes with Pottsville cab and with my regular job. My God, to me that was enough income tax I'm paying, right? And then my accountant, the truth again like I say, right hand up, he scared me. He says, Butch, if they ever catch you, he said they're going to throw the key away. That's what he told me. So then I started advertising that I'm an operator. And I figure if I'm going to advertise I'm an operator, I'm going to do what the big guys I'm going to put my name on my machines. And I did that, you know, gloutus amusements. Okay? And then I figure, what the hell, it's no matter where I go, it's like a billboard. I'll get my my truck lettered. Yeah. So then, you know, that time I had I think two trucks. So I got them both lettered and that. And, of course, I started I had to get registered in Harrisburg as an amusement operator. dale palinetteellこんにちは! co lays coопас I was at one time owning every ballet bingo ever made I never thought of that And then as I got bigger a little bigger you could say not nothing like the big guys now you know don get excited but as I got a little bigger I thought well you know like I I always wanted a big time too because I had a lot of fun playing out with the magic lines and you know then I bought a big time and Well, if you have that, you gotta have the other magic lines, you know, variety and that. And then I got that and it just kept going. Yeah. You know, that's arts. And before you know it, somebody, somebody, I don't know when or where or what year, said to me, what are you trying to do, own every one they made, you know. And then I thought to myself, hell, why not? You know, if I could afford to keep buying them and not touching my regular pays. Because when you're married, your wife takes the pays. You know, at least mine did. I longed to keep her quiet. Go ahead. This is my pay for my big job. This my pay from my part-time job, you know, the cab driving and that. But the amusement you kept separate. Yeah, and then with the machine money, my wife never said anything about that asking me and I certainly wasn't going to tell her, you know, and then I just kept buying machines. And then first thing you know, I had my house filled up, okay, and I couldn't fit any more in. And then we built my small warehouse up here, which I didn't take it there yet. That's a room now that is swampy. I built that. I'd say if you had to you could put two and a half cars in it. That was my first warehouse. I built that and then you know in years to come that went full too. Not counting what I had outside on the road. So then this one here that we're sitting in, this was Empire Glass Warehouse. Drag cape and empire class was a biggest nationalist company in discovery in garage which for years and years and years they were here and they got to be a discount to small and it's right here find my house and my house is e one year and I small warehouse so i drag this rather way you even before they put for sale costs I was good friends with the man, I can't think of his name, that owned Empire Glass and he bought great big warehouse up on Hotel Street, you know, four times his size. And so I bought this off him and honest to God there wasn't even a for sale sign on it. Nobody knew he was going to sell it even. And before I bought it, here's another thing, God's honest truth. Before I bought this, he even let me, as he was moving stuff out, let me move stuff in. And I painted this all white, the whole building around and inside. And he left me like bring machines in as he was taking the things to cut glass. I was bringing pinball machines in the other one because I needed this bad, you know, and he needed a bigger warehouse bad. And it's funny when you think of this, you know, and it all turned out nice. We all lived happily ever after. The and that's that's the story alright so uh... where did you learn to work on the machines it was uh... hit miss you could say no nobody who nobody really taught me because no no operator would teach me right when i first had them Okay, and they broke. I had some Uniteds. I had Tropics and a couple other ones, Cabana and and Bali, of course, mostly Bali. And when they broke, I knew a couple of guys. One man named Bill, I don't know last names. I can't keep track of that. I'm lucky I remember first. And he worked for Malarkey's Vending. Okay. And I I asked him to come and fix it and he was a friend of mine and he wouldn't even do it. You know, he says, if malarkey finds out I'm coming to your place, I said, look, the machine's broke, it's at this location, I'll take it out. I'll bring it home to my house and you come to my house and fix it. And then I'll take it back to where it belongs. And he wouldn't do it. He says, no, what if they find out I've fixed yours on the side? I'm done. And this is his regular job. So a man isn't going to compromise, you know, take a chance on losing his bread and butter. So I could see that. And then I asked another man. And he didn't want to do it, but he didn't want to do it. He didn't want to do it. He didn't work for anybody. He worked for himself. He had his own route. But he was a hell of a nice man. Jim, Jim Harley and his cousin Jack Harley had a route too. They were like bucking heads. And Jim came, he came two or three times to me and he showed me something. And to be honest with you, the rest of it, like, say a 15 minute job took me an hour and a half, but I got it. And that's how it started with me, okay, in fixing them. Hell. And then, you know, one thing just snowballed, something else, and my son Mike, my oldest son, He was getting bigger. Mike was about 13, 14 when he started going along with me on my little half-ass route, you know. And I showed him what I knew and now Mike and I don't, I swear to God, I don't mean this to brag. I am not bragging. My Mike picked up four times of what I did. He's a lot smarter than me and I always said this traveling around the United States and all the guys I met and fix and stuff fixing the bingos he's he's another Jeffrey Lawton he is there ain't nobody smarter than Jeffrey Lawton and my son Mike and fixing the bingo pinballs I won't say gambling okay the the bingo pinballs and I'll say this if I knew that ten minutes from now I I'm I'm gonna be dead. Now, I'm not counting you, cause you're way past them. Like, you're in another century making all of them into like one machine. So I can't count you at all. But as far as being a normal, average, bingo repairman, okay, take it from me. I met many in my life I'm 77, so I know a little bit about them. And I never met anybody smarter than Jeff and my son Mike. And so my opinion is if anybody had anything broke and they ever got Mike or Jeff to fix it, if they can't fix it, junk it. Yeah, it's unfixable. Baron Lamb bagey I'd like to ask you about your playing days. So before you had the Yacht Club, when you had the group of guys, you're all playing together, what was your favorite machine during that time? I'd say my favorite machine is Hi-Fi and Miami Beach. Because I like that on Miami Beach, I like that green three in a line scores five in a line. And, if you get number one and on most bingos you play, number one and number seven is like thirteeneen and eight, real, real easy. And a lot of the Miami Beach's I played you just pull a plunger bag, shoot it and you let it go. And it go boom right in the one. So you have to have the select the number lit too. Right. When you have green 3 scores 5. Yup. See? And then when you get number 1, then you got 5, 12, 13 and 24 is a 5 in line. Four numbers you have with four balls to get any one of them four is a 5 in line. And to me, that's super. So he just rattled off those numbers and you can't see this because this is a recording but he did that all from memory so I know you played that game a lot. Oh, played that game a lot. I guess I did. I wish I had a dollar every time I played it. I'll tell you, I could buy some more bingos. There you go. So Hi-Fi, what appeals to you about that game? Well, hi-fi is the same thing as beach club. Exact same, only it has the bumpers. Now, a lot of my friends, I gotta admit, didn't like hi-fi because they could never figure out the bumpers light to use. Now, whoever saw a bingo machine with flipper buttons on the side. See? This is kinda unbelievable. But see, you have to know just when to... and this takes years of practice of playing these pinballs to get it down pat when to hit them bumpers, them flippers to make the bump work, to bump the ball, okay? I remember one time I had the ball coming down. This is a truth, another story. Coming down between the four and the five. It's coming down here and I needed the four. Okay. And I timed it perfect. It came down here and I boom, boom, boom, boom. I bumped it. I used three or four bumps and I bumped the ball up here like on top of the 11. And then I bumped it some more and it went right into the four. No kidding. That was one that I brag about with a high five. In another time, I had, I needed the 25 on the first super card. Okay. And the ball coming down here. Yeah. And it's, you know, going like this here at the 23. Yep. And I had about six or seven bumps. Okay. Right? And just as it's coming down, it hit that spring there. Real quick, I just used them all. Yeah. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, like that. and the ball went boom, into the 23, into the 24, and honest to god over into the 25 because I had the supercard, I had the 3 and the 24 lit, see and I needed 25 it just bumped out of the 23, yeah the ball was in the 24 cause I hit it that way It bumped the ball in the 24, it didn't fall in it padre Richard in America when no Kanna City iPhone sale KR if you have a exploit i know that the use empycion desays purple in my i i can see i did I just love Of course, didn't happen overnight. Right, yeah. You had to play the machine a lot. Yep. And like I said, a lot of my buddies, they like Beach Club better just for the simple reason that it didn't have the bumps because they couldn't figure the bumps out. Right. And then when you got the bumps, if you don't use them, you know, you're a nerd. Yeah. That's how it was when I was growing up. You know, how could you be so dumb? You have a feature lit and you don't use it. You don't use it, yeah. You know, that's because, and I'll say this if I know I'm dying 10 minutes from now. That's because they didn't have it down pat. Yeah. See? But you had to play it a lot. Right. Then you know just when to use the bumps. Right. To your advantage, of course. Yeah. Always, every time. You know, but that always was my favorite, I'd say. Hi-Fi. Miami Beach was my second favorite. And probably Surf Club is my third favorite. Good game. Yeah, double hold. Yeah. Yeah. So where did you make your money? Which was your biggest one that you made the money on? I'd say out on the road, Magic Squares did real good, you know like Parade Broadway Nightclub. As an operator, right? Yeah, as an operator, I'd say if I had to boil it down, really I would say what my buddy I, what my buddy, God bless him, he got killed car accident two years ago, retired. He, yeah, Mickey Coffee, own coffee vending from Nanny Coke. He's no doubt about it. He was one of the four biggest operators in the state of Pennsylvania. All drawn in controller, John Papadiuk, Black Water, person's name or role at Stern Pinball channara, a person sealed window and pinball לש Men that fixed his machines out on the road when they couldn't fix them and they brought them into the main shop where Joey worked. Another smart cookie. Wow. Wow. And he'd fix it then if his men on the road couldn't fix it. And of course they could fix, you know, 80% of it. But when it was really bad, I'm talking about bingos. Jason Bet my life on it. I would say what Mickey told me. His best ones, and like I said, I would make a pimple on his rear end, how big he was. His best ones, I ask him that. His best ones that he ever made money, and he owned every one ever made, too. Every Bally Bingo, and United, too. And he said his best ones he ever had in making money was the Miss Americas. You know, there's about five or six of them. I have them all, of course. That goes without saying. Yeah. He said that was his best moneymaker of all of them, the Miss Americas. Because you could take numbers off the first card and put them on the second when they're already on the second. Right. You know, and then he said, and I'd have to agree with him too, that Magic Squares was his second biggest moneymaker. Interesting. Magic Squares. Because those, you know, Bally, once they started making Magic Screens, no more Magic Squares. Yeah. Me personally, with the Magic Screen, I mean everybody's different, okay? But me personally with the Magic screens, I don't, I didn't care for them too much because you had the colors like the numbers weren't lined up like bingo with the way I started when I was little bitty, you know, 12, 13 playing them, you know, and I personally didn't care for them too good. But I have them, of course, and I had them all out and that. moove upon I've been a few times in my day. I'm sure it happened a lot in the, with the big operators, you know, with them. They'd say to me, oh, Butch, it's too complicated, the people say. They can't play it, you know. So I look at them and I say, this is the truth again, my right hand up to the Lord. I say to them, look, just say to your customers, can you read? You know, and they'll laugh, you know, like you there and that. I never met anybody that couldn't read, right? And I say to them, can you read? They say, well, sure, you know, I can read. Well, when that black lights lit panel below indicates you own the magic lines. Well, it tells you you have magic lines. Right. Yeah, what's so hard about that? And you know like with the like a time read three in the line scores four in the line. Yeah, what's so hard about that? Well, they say it's too complicated in that right? So what we did then, there's another thing truth. Now I we didn't do this to every place. But quite a few places when they said that The We just took the one carded out And we put a six carded in so then no matter how dumb the people were playing it They didn't have to ask no questions You know there it is six bingo cards like when you go to bingo Which I was never at a bingo place in my life But people think I was you know, but anyhow It simple Just line the numbers up You know you don have to do that hard stuff of reading and then knowing what odds you have lit and that just by looking at the back glass you know so places that they were that the customers were too dumb to play them We put the six cards See and I lived happily ever after So did you notice an immediate increase in the take? Well, sure. Yeah. Now we weren't making a fortune, but I was making some money. That's good. You know. Alright, so that's where you made your money as an operator, but as a player, which of those games you had, Miami Beach, Hi-Fi, those were your favorite games to play? Yeah, and Surf club. And surf club. They're my three favorites. And which ones, which one did you make the most money playing? I'd say out of them three, I'd say Miami Beach. Yeah. You know, I love that three in line, three in scores, five in line, but then you have to have the curtains open. And you know, there's another thing too, when you talk about them. All my friends and everybody I ever knew that played these growing up, call them magic curtains. Now, why did Bally still call them magic lines? The magic lines didn't call magic curtains but when when it when it opens up it's like a curtain so you'd think it would be called magic curtains yeah you didn't notice that it's it's magic lines they call it I got to read. That goes back to it. I got to look at the backlash. Yeah, sure. You know, do you just ask the people, do you know how to read? I never met anybody that didn't know how. So, when you were a kid, you told me a funny story. Do you mind telling that again about that game in the slop Shop? Oh, oh yeah. Well, you know, that was called John's Sweet Shop. That's what it was called. And it was across the street from my house. Now that was back in the 50s. That was back when Hector was a pup. Anyhow, my buddy, Zane Sullivan, Dave Underwood, and me, the three of us, was what we call in together. We each put like ten nickels up and we went in together on a yacht club. And we were playing it a good half hour and it was normal, everything working nice. And then, honestly this is hard to believe, but like I said I couldn't make this up because I couldn't think of it. And then all of a sudden it started giving us eight balls. So of course we kept our mouth shut and we had to watch for John because John would walk by the machines every once in a while to make sure we were playing F&S, what he always said, fair and square. That's what he used to say. Okay? So we're playing it and here my brother Johnny Zane, he was goin' for the eleven in the center, that was the center number, bottom car, the bottom row, the center number was eleven. And he was goin' for that, for five in a line. And like I told ya, the ball, the ball's comin down here. It's comin down here. Now, you can bounce it maybe this way or I'm not saying it was going to go an 11, but it was getting close to it. It wasn't going to go an 11. Right. It was getting close to number 11. And the ball's coming down here, and here comes John around the corner, just walking, just going to walk by us, and my buddy Dave Steve Underwood kicks the leg here by the 23. Not hard, not real hard. That's what's amazing too. He just kicked it enough like that so it would tilt. Of course the tilt's here, we all know that. You know, born and raised with them, right? And he just did that and the game tilted. And John walked by and he just glanced at the machine. Zane was on his seventh ball and thank God John didn't look at the playfield to see how many balls are here. And he just walked by and this was tilted so he didn't bother looking at nothing. Just kept walking by. And then Dave goes to play the next game. It was his turn. And eight balls didn't come up no more. It was just five balls. Needless to say, Zane and me were mad at Dave for about 20 minutes or so, but then we got over it. But I don't know if we would have got the 11 or not. But that's a true story and like I said, I couldn't think of it to make it up. It's a true story. And that was a yacht club. And I'll never forget that. John's Sweet Shop it was called, the place. How long after that did you own your yacht club? Oh, I'd say about a year after that. Wow. 3000ılı recurs lazyها puntos pains some things just snowball from the So Butch, you're one of the, I would say, probably the top collector of United Games? Well, I know, like I'll say, my buddy again, Ron Coover, he collects them, yes, but I think he would tell you, we have more than him. We're trying to get them all now, which I never did before, but I'm going out on a limb. I'm trying to get them all and I think my mic says, see I'm getting too old now and forgetful mostly, but I think my mic says we have three more we have to get. The When I head out west again This this year in fact in a couple of weeks I had a West again. I'm gonna be picking two more of them up So there's only gonna be one that we don't have And I can't remember the name. I'm sorry But my Michael tell you yeah see my Now, I like United too. My Mike loves the United like I love the Valley. But when I was growing up in that, a few of my buddies, my gang, they didn't like the United ones because like the ball can come all the way down here. They didn't like that. They liked it that you can keep it, you can keep the ball where the numbers are. Right. See, and don't come all the way down like this. What he's saying is that on the second row on the United games, especially the early ones, there's a gap there and the ball can come down just like it can on the third row on the ballet design. Yeah, yeah. And so you can drop that ball all the way down to 25 from 13 or 8. Yeah, you could bypass them. Now of course, the nicest thing, see, United always copied off of Bally. Everybody knows that. But what surprised the hell out of me is Bally never copied anything off of United. Now, the biggest thing in my opinion that United has that Bally never had is lie the name. Yeah. You know. Oh yeah. And you spell the name, it's a five in line. Yep. Now. It's a carryover feature. Yeah. Now, a lot of the United ones, of course, you have the regular spot that you roll over. Roll over. Yeah. In cause you want to go to the pinball器 you can rub both pieces together by dipping and then you will be locked into the pinball Passes this round of the pinball bottom line like this line from 아� doc 이� tablet 19 everything in the front line You write that number or the letter, what's ever lit. You could write numbers or you could write letters. You know, whatever it is. And like for instance, Mexico. Over here it has M-E-I-X-C-O. Like that, you know. But the thing is, you have to have the M-E-X-I-C-O. A And then you have to get that lit by Frieden it and then you have to get the ball down that hole like where oh Where the Mexican then you spell Mexico and it's a five and line, you know I love the ones for that and another thing I was surprised that That was the biggest surprise to me that if If Bally goes and of course they knew that United is copying off them like crazy, why don't Bally copy off of United? But they didn't. See? So this lighter name to me was the best feature. And the second feature on United that I think Bally should have copied was the 8 balls next game. See? Where now number 24 like we used to say when we were grown up like how easy that is. 24, you know, 13, 8, you know. Those are ones you can get with your eyes closed. The easiest number. Yeah, we used to say this is the truth. We used to say when we were grown up a blind man can get 24. There you go, yeah. You know, that's what we used to say. Yeah. Okay? Anyhow, on the United games, it'll, the block of light, you know, and then the 24 of light. You gotta get 24 to advance your arrow. And then when you're like next to the very end, you know, you wanna keep feeding it so that lights, again, that block. The you got a five balls to get the twenty four and believe me if you couldn't get the twenty four with five balls there I swear to you there isn't one person in this whole store that wouldn't laugh their ass off at you this is the truth okay so you're gonna get twenty four and then Eight balls next game. Then what we used to do when we got that late, say there had to be like two of us cause you really would feed it. Like you'd get a roll of nickels, two dollars, and I'd buy a roll of nickels and we'd go in together. Then that means we fed the two rolls of nickels in to light up your odds all the way to the end. You know, and the light, as many features as you can light. Possibly could. Yeah, like select the number and you know, everything. Yeah. And so you'd win the most, you know. Right. And of course with two rolls of nickels at one time, you know, who in their right mind does that? Right. You know, and we'd be in together, me and you. And of course we'd have at that time when all the nickels are in, your odds are all the way up. Right. You know, you're ready, you got it to the top. Mm-hmm. And eight balls next game, you know. And then of course if you have to select the feature. Yeah. You know, where you could select the number or you could select like corners. Right. You know. Or special cards or whatever. Yeah. Oh, and special cards. I like them. They're nice. Yeah, yeah. Only four numbers, you know, on that. And it scores any two that you get. Yeah, any two. It's a three in the line. Yeah. That man that thought of that was good, you know. I always said this. The man that probably thought of this in the beginning, you know, and how to make this, he probably didn't enjoy any of the millions that they made. You know, you know, you could sell at the belly of somebody and you know, but you wouldn't enjoy the money because you probably going a little crazy now, you know, free, you know, a lot of stuff out a lot. Well sure, sure. I always said it, the man that thought of a bingo pinball, he never enjoyed all the money that he probably made. You know, he went crazy. How could you think of this to make this do this? And then this has to make that work to make this? I, you know. Both of those guys were absolute geniuses. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's no question. Yeah. And what's really interesting to me is that even though they copied features, they were implemented in a different way mechanically in the United Systems, you know, up until, you know, towards the very end. And then they copied that too. But, you know, that's interesting. Like, for instance, Bally Showtime. You put a Bally Showtime against a United Playtime, they're the exact same thing. The exact same game, exact. Only the name change. Down to the wire. Show time, play time. The exact same thing. Now wouldn't you think that Bally would get mad when it's exact like that. I think that there had to have been a deal because that was United's last game. So, I think Valley finally went after them. And then they made a deal and said, all right, make one more. And that's it. And I said, all right, but we're making this game, which I know makes you a lot of money, the Showtime. And we were talking about Showtime, how popular a game that was. Showtime was a very good game. So, these United games, because I have no, I was born in 83. So, the time of the bingos was over at that time. The end of the 70s. This is really... All pretty new to me. Yeah, sure. So I've just been picking this up by talking with guys like you, Jeffrey Lawton, Phil Hooper, Dennis Odell. All nice guys. Absolutely. Two of one, every single one. But the thing that I don't know is how often did you see a United game en route? Yeah. Would you see them and play them often? Well, when I was growing up in the city of Pottsville, believe me, there was very few barrooms and stores where kids hung out that didn't have a bingo pinball in. And some had three and four in, okay? Now getting to your question, in my opinion, growing up in Pottsville, I'd say you'd find a united pinball like once in every four places that there was the gambling Pinballs in. I'd say one in every four you'd find a united in. One united or would there be a row of them? Probably one. Just one. So they were not very popular? They weren't, no, they weren't near as popular as Bally. But they made money too. You know, I made money with them. Well you just said, you dumped 40 nickels into the game. Well sure. Yeah, but then you're probably winning more than 40. Yeah. Yeah, but then a lot of times, You'd like one guy had won a cash in and now I want to play it some more and then okay you say okay then we'll play it some more right and then we lose it all you know we didn't care we played sure that was the fun like kids today you know that that kids stuff and that pills and that this this was a thing that we had fun with not counting the normal stuff. Playinging baseball, football, you know, not counting that. This was the fun time. This was the days of real rock and roll, you know, early rock and roll and the fun times. The best time of my life anyway was growing up then and playing the pinballs and that, you know. Like I said, You know, three hernias, you know. I carried many a pinball machine. I carried flippers too. Sure. You can do those standing on your head though. Yeah, mostly bingos. Like in my day, like out on the road, I had like, you know, I had like, without adding on, I had four or five bingos to every one flipper I had out on the road. Now, I did have flippers too. I'd say at one time the top we had about 40 flippers, I'd say. About 40. And like I really didn't want to, I mean, they're okay. To me, they're not as much DJ celularVentie, Yuki Fox's Jubilee I got flippers because some of the locations I had, they asked me for a flipper. You know, now maybe, maybe I had one or two bingos in there too. But they had people ask them for a flipper pinball. Well, I had to get them, you know, like, like you back up against the wall. If I didn't get a flipper, you'll get another operator that will. And if he puts a flipper in like I am today yet, I don't share no locations. All the machines that are in, they're all mine or they're someone else's. I don't let you have a jukebox in and a pool table and I'll keep the bingos in and the dartboards or something like that. I have everything in the place or we don't have nothing. We don't share with another operator. Now some guys do. You know, like some guys, well, the one outfit Mike used to work for. That's funny. I better not say too many names, but when he left them and I got a little too big, you could say, that I couldn't handle my job and these I had on the road anymore. I couldn't like keep them working and that right could say well that yeah and then you know I of course I taught my Mike and sure he's three times smarter than I am now which I wanted that way right and Mike worked for another outfit a big outfit okay which I won't name sure okay a big outfit from Hazelton he used to go back and forth from Potsdam to Hazelton. Knapp Arcade David David Van Es and Mike They had no less than five mechanics That how big they were With all their machines out on the road Like I was another pimple on them You know That how big they were And my Mike worked for them And he was the only one they had Another thing God honest truth The five of them They had at least five And he was the only one that could fix the bingos The other guys couldn If you have showed up in the middle of the room, that's what you do. Or if you ask somebody else, it's a surprise. I had four, that's why it says the Dixielands was the worst ones in my opinion they ever made because they, you can't keep them working. Well they had four of them at this one store. Now, and it's not my location. It was the location of the outfit my Mike worked for right before I made him quit them. Okay? That's the right way to say it. You know. And he went there almost every day, almost. Mike told me this. Almost every day that he worked for these people, he had to go to that one spot. Now he had other spots, but he had to go there because there was at least, now they got played very heavy. Yeah. Very heavy. Well, that's the next question. Let's put that in too. And, there was at least one Dixieland broke out of them four, every day and Mike went there every day that the boss, his boss, now, you could ask Mike, he'll tell you the name of the store. Sure. Okay? What it is. Yeah. The P screeningiącera Gips a net mile That is boss the owner of the company When you go to send Mike He called Mike the name of the store. competed, donated to Buddhism Effects 없습니다 Absurd, He wouldn't say Mike well he'd have a lista form where to go that's broke We're talking bingos, only bingos Right Mike didn't Fix anything else he was too busy keeping them running The bread and butter of the man. Okay? Okay? So Mike said he had a list where to go, and then when Mike came into work in the morning, 8 o'clock in the morning, the boss, he would call Mike by the name of the store, just say Lenny's. Lenny's Store. Okay? J.W.: Yeah. J.W.: And he'd say Mike, he'd say like, Lenny, you got these today and he'd hand them the paper. Lenny's along with Lenny's go there first. J.W.: Yeah. J.W.: Get there Dixieland fix. J.W.: Back up and running. J.W.: You know. J.W.: Yeah. J.W.: And Mike says that in time he had some regular customers make sure they were there Like when they knew Mike was coming in 15 minutes, then they'd help my carry it out from, you know, you're tied against the wall, right? All bingoes. So you don't tell them so easy. You didn't have them out like this, right? You know, you had them tied against the wall. Okay. And they would be there to help Mike lift up the Dixieland, carry it away from the wall. So he could open it up and fix it. Wow. Yeah. Imagine that. No, that's funny. Imagine that. And then when Mike quit, okay? That's why I don't want to say the name of the outfit. When Mike quit, they eventually, eventually pulled in all their bingos. They didn't have nobody. They could fix them. Wow. Out of the five men they had. SIMON dejakalo, Refrain B��TUL, I think that was one of the contributors to places where they could run not running them anymore, was not having skilled knockouts to keep them going. Well, let's just say they didn't knock them off there in the long mile. Let's put it that way. Yeah, yeah. But I mean... There was no place really like you could say legal. If they catch you paying out, that was it. You know, and then some parts, like I said, this is crazy. Some parts where we had the bingo pinball, if it took more than one nickel, you know, it's illegal. Right. Then we had to change it to the quarter racks up five games. Other parts where we were at, like I don't know if you'd say the county or what, Well, it was just sectioned like other parts. If you could go for extra balls, then it was illegal. See, then we had to take the extra balls off. It was craziness. And then all the while the big operators were fighting in Harrisburg. A flipper pinball, you put more than one quarter in. Say two players want to play. So that's two quarters. That's multiple coin. Kenneth Fil N X motion Page and less Closed Caption by The Closed Caption Project I find that amusing. That's true. So what happened? I had a Coke machine, one of them big, I guess it was late 40s, early 50s. You didn't see the soda bottle. And it was six cents converted to a dime when I bought it. And it held 12 ounce bottles. Knapp Arcade, and it was a Coca-Cola machine. But I had it in my clubhouse along, well I call it my clubhouse, it was the gang's clubhouse. It wasn't just mine. And I had my bingo pinballs there, and I had a pool table, and I had a jukebox, and I had one of them bumper pool things where the bumpers are on the pool table like. I had one of them. And I had this soda machine. Now this soda machine, okay, was all red, it was all metal, all the way around. It was a late 40s, very early 50s, okay? Now why I said this now, when you were saying about you didn't know you were getting, we put Coca-Cola in, we put 7-Up in, we put Pepsi in, and different slots, I just put them in. White J.W. Do you think they made, they probably didn't make as many obviously as Ballie. J.W. Yeah, yeah, probably. J.W. So it's very hard to find those machines from what I've seen. J.W. Yes. J.W. And your collection. Pinball is quite a feat. You've really had to travel for it. How far have you had to go to get machines? Well, I told you, I went all over the United States. This is in my life now. This ain't one year. I went all over the United States, four or five times to Canada, and I also went to Prince Edward Island to get that Acapulco. I was a last one I needed to own every bally bingo. That was a last one. And that was a son of a gun to get. I'll tell you, I couldn't get that to save my life. And my good buddy Bernie LeBlanc from up in Canada, he found out people that had it in Prince Edward Island. I can't believe that. I went there and we got Tit ikke volt into test tại kem 대려고 A- motivation all verschiedene 아침��서 봉idać 하 HAS WILLicyCис downloading a little captured interested in살기쳤는다기 나로는 ARKAN Bildungsว공과 assumed 2001 네초 이� zuk해 And a classic原작은 Well those were such details. I knew you were going to get different answers for them. Well you have. Thanks again for the drawing for me. That's all. Everybody, please come back and speak to us again next way. We have always been good to play with you and thanks. We are in partnership. Yes, you have the same. If you want to give us a little teaser of how something could awesome from the past, you may need to say more. No. I mean I believe a lot about the March theatre this turned into a famous film. Oh good. Do you like the one and one-sixteenth ball games, the early Uniteds, or do you like the later ones better with the carryovers and the eight balls like Caravan? Yeah, well, I guess you could say them on account that they're more like a ballet, you know. But, uh, what the heck, I... I like... the United that I lost the most money in, in playing, that is, in growing up, was Pixies. I lost the most money in that United, so you could say, uh, I guess that one's my favorite. I do like Mexico, too. And so on through the next number. Johnny Pneumuetooth aussıyı or playfield artist Johnny Time gigantic рассy emotional And you now have été juegoswaist Ó darumréal playing a little big hit in a I don't like them. And like Miss Universe with 18 numbers, that's worse than the 20 numbers. Now, you know, now, probably somebody listening will say, that guy, he's, you know, a wacko and that. Well, that's, listen, this would be a hell of a world if everyone liked the same thing. At mín esperando And like everybody knows me, I'm playing bingo pinball since I'm 13. Right. Okay? I don't think in my opinion in the city of Pottsville anywhere, I don't know anywhere else, but here where I grew up, I don't think they lasted more than six months on location. Right. Knapp, and then the operators took them off and went back, brought back the big time, you know, on Wall Street and them, and nobody liked them, the 20 numbered. Now, my good buddy, John Robinette, he loves the 20 numbered ones. In fact, he bought a few off us, which is great. I don't think I played a 20 numbered one three times in my day. I don't think I did. And when I remember, I remember I should say that, but I'm going to throw it in anyway, because I didn't do it. The operator did. When my Mike and me went down to Greenville, South Carolina, an operator down there was getting knocked off like crazy. And he pulled them in and there down there they played them, they liked them. Okay, that's fine. And the man's making money like he should. Okay? And he was told by the authority Here and there, as we heard, guys, what we can benefit from is opening ahart 빨리FantasyCard in lockbox and attacking one or more of them. He told me that on the phone. And of course that's when he quit with them. And he brought them all in. Okay? Now he had, I remember one was a big time. He had four 25 numbered ones. That's all he had left. All the rest was 20 numbers. Wow. Yeah. Now get this. Man. And one of them he had I didn't have yet. Okay. It was the last Bally Bingo ever made. They made it after Dixieland. The last one they ever made. Right there it is. I could have sold that ten times by people coming here and buying machines off me. You can see that's a 9 or a 10 on a 1 to 10. Oh, yeah that Malibu Beach and he had that and he had three just for parts. Okay, three of these other ones. Okay. Okay. This was one a big time and I told him I just want to buy that from him. Right? Okay. No, he says I already losing. I mean look at it his way. Right? He said,曾iction penultimate 29chat I remember that. Oh, we had to move shuffle boards and we had to move what I call the grabbers, the crane machines. Oh, yeah. You know, and we had to move so many of them to get at that. That was about this deep in dust, you know. And here he said, you got to buy them all. Okay. So, Mike and me, we rented the biggest U-Haul box truck that you can rent. Okay, I made sure it was the biggest one. When I called the people up, I said I want the biggest you have. And we went to Greenville, South Carolina and we put them all in. I don't know how we did it. But he said you take everything, even extra Like the oneadanΙnivos. judges not pay no mind any more- dag싱 Derby You get rid of them wooden ones, okay? Now everybody wants them. Because they came original with them. But we didn't care about that shit. You know, we put them out the easiest way, you know. So then we bought all them 20s, and we bought three 25 numbered that was just parts. And then I got that baby. So this is the truth like I said. I said, I don't know how many there was. We didn't count them. I didn't even care about them. To be honest with you, I didn't. Now, we didn't slam them around or anything stupid like that. Because these were nice. They just come off the road. You know, they were in nice shape. And of course, the man had to take his master lock off every game. And then we taped them up. Knapp Arcade. So, the door, yeah, and of course we took them all apart, the heads off, the cabinets. You know, legs off and all that. I don't know how many, but this is the truth. It was stacked like that far from the roof of the U-Haul box truck. About an inch and a half. Yeah, about that far from the roof we were. Wow. I don't know how many we had in, but we took all of them that he had and he says, take them extra legs too. I don't want to look at nothing pertaining to bingos, you know, and so of course we took all them, which I was happy for later when I did buy some that the people had the pinball, but they had no legs on them.wended. …………………………………………… We got Mike to fix it, but we never got at it. Too busy, you know like Acapulco there. We never got at that one. And yeah Sun Valley we did but the one aside of that, what the hell is that? Canteen or Carnival Queen. Yeah Carnival Queen. Now that one either. We have another one down here you saw, Carnival Queen. We never even played that one yet. You know, we didn't get time to get at it. Boy oh boy, when you think of time. You know how important that is. Oh yeah. Jeez. And how fast it goes. That's the thing that I've noticed just in talking with you just today. Yeah, I'll talk your head off, I know you. No, no, is that you are a person that likes to be busy. Oh. I can tell that. Well, ask my family. Don't take my word on it. Yeah, with the bingo pinballs and rock and roll records, I'll talk you that much, you know. I'm a big fan of the pinball, I love them, my bingos, my music, my 45s, and of course, well I have other ones besides horror. I have one more question. You mind taking me around showing me some more stuff? Yeah, no, sure, sure. Alright, thanks very much, Butch. I appreciate talking to you. Okay, buddy. You're quite welcome. I want to thank Butch for his time. He was extremely generous that day with his time. Well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingoes Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.