Inside the Penny Arcade, April 1966
I'm happy to share today's rare photos taken inside the old Penny Arcade on Main Street, back when it was chock full of antique and unique olde tyme amusements. I definitely have memories of playing with some of the great pinball machines, customized and yet still maintaining the aura of yesteryear.
Chip has never looked so intense as he plays a pinball version of "air hockey"; I'm trying to figure out exactly how that game worked, but there's not a lot to go by. There's that mysterious spinning "S" shape in the middle, and a couple of bumpers and ball-catchers. My guess is that it was harder than it looks - but fun! In the background are some target shooters and what might be some sort of football-themed game.
Now chip is enjoying the novelty of an old-fashioned Mutoscope; Look through the viewer, and you watched what was basically a giant rotary flip-book, each page containing a single frame of a movie that was old when his mom was a girl. In this case it looks like he is watching William S. Hart as "the new sheriff". What's that sinister coffin-shaped thing in the background? The girl to the left holds an INA brochure while the woman to the right has a ticket book in one hand.
13 comments:
I miss the Penny Arcade the way it USED to be! I guess I should be happy that a few of these machines are still there and that the entire space wasn't converted into a shop.
That's one happy Chip!
(and I'm having another of those moments I wonder: what has become of him, and the parents who took these shots of their happy son?)
Check out Chips outfit! That's one cool jacket! They still have a couple "sports" type machines and plenty of Mutoscopes :-) I throw a few penny's in them on each trip...
That wooden case on the end of the row of mutoscopes...is that the electroshock game? Where you held the brass handles and were shocked until either you shook it off in agony, or went all the way till the bell rang? Loved that thing.
No way you could have a game like that today...some bonehead would bite on the handle and fry himself.
JG
The coffin game's hard to see. You really need to ramp up the levels in Photoshop to get an idea what it looks like.
The last time I checked, they still had at least one of the two "Electricity Is Life" machines, but the last time I tried it, it was very weak. Yep, in this day and age of lawsuits, maybe they had to tone it down....either that or it was just broken. I remember discovering as a teenager that you could hold on to only one of those handles and then have someone else hold on to the other handle and then when you touched each other it would complete the ciruit and you could feel the electricity. If you let go, the machine would continue, but you wouldn't feel the "zap" unless you were touching each other. Good times! Now I have to go see if one of those machines is still there!
Great interior images...one of my favorite places as a kid growing up. My Grandpa would give each of use several pennies and we would go to the arcade and play the games and watch the Mutoscopes.
That photo of the kid next to the Mutoscope could be me. I spent at least 50 cents in pennies there everytime I went.
the penny arcade....always a good time! nice pics :-)
Very cool! I wish I had good pictures of all the machines that used to be in there... Did you know that Bud Hurlbut brokered the deal to bring all the mechanical musical machines that used to be at Disneyland in the 1950s?
Chris: No I didn't know that about Bud Hurlbut. Was he able to obtain them from a single source, or was the collection obtained piece-meal? Did Disney own them outright, or were they on long-term lease? Did the Mute-o-scopes already have their movies pre-loaded or did Disney have to re-create any titles? Were there any royalty issues, or was that not an issue in the 50s-60s-70s?
Sorry for all the questions, these are things I've been wondering for decades, and your post reminded me of them.
Hi Katella -
I think it was only music-related machines - not the Mutoscopes & other film-based contraptions. Bud specifically mentioned the one that was once on the Mark Twain dock, some in the Wurlitzer Music Hall & the Penny Arcade. He also said that Walt gave a few to his wife for their home. It was a collection that belonged to one of Bud's childhood friends father. Once the father passed away, the family decided to sell it & Bud brokered the deal with Walt - and got a small commission out of it as well! Those machines have likely been scattered to the four winds by now...
Wow, those machines are real treasures; I wonder if any of them wound up at that museum in San Francisco (The Musee Mecanique)?
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