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Our Founder/Executive Director, Michael Schiess, and guests, sound off and cut loose about pinball.
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This next blog is a conversation between a man and woman on their observations and analysis of pinball backglass art. The conversation was consensual.
We call it Pinball Backglass Art: A Feminist and Meninist Perspective by Melissa Harmon and Michael Schiess
DAISY MAY Artist: Roy Parker Gottlieb, 1954 From the collection of Larry Zartarian
Beginning in 1934, everyone in America read the comic strip “Lil Abner” by Al Capp which ran for 43 years. It was about the characters in the town of Dogpatch, somewhere in Appalachia. In Dogpatch, Daisy Mae and the other women did all the work while the men sat around and drank homemade hooch.
In Daisy May, the pinball, the two hillbillies are completely ignoring the gorgeous Daisy; either they have already had their fill of her dazzling charms, or they haven't figured it out yet... And the skunk is running away! -MH
This represents the cycle of hillbilly life, from conception to reintarnation. In the background, every man's fantasy world where the women chase the men because gorgeous ones like Daisy May are everywhere, openly posing beneath an apple tree, as Satan's temptress, leading you down a path seen in the background, the man's wandering nature tethered by the strings of a family. Even the crows are laughing. -MS
BUTTERFLY Artist: Unknown Sonic, 1977 From the collection of Michael Schiess
Here is one for you to chew on: Beautiful bosomy bug babes! Flrtin' around in a futuristic world of fantastically large 3 D Lettering and a vista of scoring that is infinite! The cracks in the score boxes add some much needed surrealism and imply that the scores will stand the test of time...maybe. But the draw here are those butterfly-babes sky-swimming about you with a cleavage that grabbed the attention of many a youngster and forced them to lose concentration for enough time for the machine to win. -MS
I hate to mention this, but the butterflies don’t have any hands – how do they eat? Maybe the only way is to suck pollen and nectar out of available stamens and pistils? But there aren't any plants. And they have a pointy stinger where their feet would be. Maybe that possibility is best left unimagined. -MH
KING REXArtist: Christian Marche
Bally, 1969
The archaeologist is probably British, with his crisp whites, pince nez glasses and attitude! He's being pulled by his pickaxe into the crypt, keeping his cool while the modern Egyptian in the fez is losing it! Racist subtext here. Since Rex means "king" in Latin, the royal one who is tapping the scientist on the shoulder is the King King! -MH
The Brits are caught red handed looting another civilization of its cultural heritage and have a cursed mummy king king on their hands. This crime takes on pointy proportions and janky energy. The subjects seem to be flung onto this 2 dimensional canvas with eerie spatial constraints. What is that headstone in the bottom-left corner? It looks like an Egyptian slot machine. The Professor is using a pick with a magnifying glass. This work by Marche appears to be an attempt to cash in on the Universal Movies Mummy series with Boris Karloff. -MS
EGG HEADArtist: Roy ParkerGottlieb, 1961From the collection of Larry Zartarian
This is all about the cry of the nerd. The frustrated scientist is feverishly trying to impress the obviously disinterested bevy of beauties. The ladies would rather hang with the "man of steel" even though he is an unfeeling mechanical clod. It is the eternal dilemma of beauty above brains, and it leads us to the end result of such a struggle, the bottle of Brand X hooch sitting on top of the Electronic Confuser. The poochy-faced prof will probably droop off home alone and wrap his jowls around that bottle of who hit john and get through one more day of existence in a cruel world where his incredible genius is mocked by the "in" crowd. No wonder there are so many mad scientist stories. -MS
There’s a "genus" at work in the Unipac (Univac) computer laboratory while sexy blondes, brunettes and redheads in low cut gowns smoke and play tic tac toe. Poor Oxie Robut and the scientist are both terminally horny. Oxie is covering up his steely hard-on with the tic tac toe board. The scientist sweats while he twiddles little buttons on the electronic confuser which measures the statoshere.
At the top, a peaceful egghead of the intellect points to his own noggin. His clown makeup and red stripes confirm his nerdly status. The sexiest guy in the scene is the god Mercury, pictured atop a mechanism labeled mercury switches, a new invention at the time. -MH
Artist: George Molentin
United, 1958
From the collection of Mark McDonald
Wow! Really foxy babes of the future with cute little martini-shaker jet packs, all packing some major space armament! Molentin was way ahead of his time envisioning stellar wars with this piece. This backglass art would have sucked the change out of any man coming within 10 feet of this machine. Space, rockets, guns, all surrounded and wrapped up in a bodacious bouquet of beautiful broad-cake that are smiling and look happy to see you. The future never looked so bright! -MS
I hate to bust your balloons, Mike, but that's not really a space war going on in the background. The ships are just shooting firecrackers and playing around. Order is being kept by the foxy babes who have taken over, and are not letting any males have weapons. Babes give the guys sex as long as they don’t try to start a war or get over on somebody who is weaker than they are. Everybody is happy! The ideal man is represented by "Dale", the red skinned green winged angel in the circular logo.
Actually, “Dale” is the alter ego of Eldon Dale who invented the periscope mirror which allowed an apparent depth of 7 feet to be telescoped into an actual depth of 2 feet, making the game box much shorter. The player looks into an angled mirror at the targets which are in the bottom of the cabinet. Reflecting his new invention, the Sky Raider instrument panel includes several mirrors, and a vertical and a horizontal compass-like dial. -MH
Artist: Christian Marche
Bally, 1970
From the collection of Michael Schiess
Players in bell bottoms and paisley fashions attempt to make bowling cool and hip, which it never was, and never will be. -MH
This is Jazz/Fusion Bowling at its best! Everything is Jankin' to that cool roll of the ball and the BAM! as it smacks the pins. Heck, even the lane can't stay straight, it's wild!
The hippie chicks don't need chairs, this is the Seventies! And the kitten to hep cat ratio back then was three to one. Nice odds for a pinhead to contemplate while escaping his plight playing a pinball in some dive. -MS
Space Ship
Artist: George Molentin
Williams, 1961
From the collection of Michael Schiess
One of my favorite backglasses. It is a naive vision of a promising future with all the trappings of American life. We are on the moon, the men are hard at work surveying for a new pinball museum or skate rink, while the woman are going shopping! And they are looking good doing it! How come the guys have the clunky suits and the ladies get the jet packs? The men have to do all the work whilst the women get to fly around all day? Some things never change. -MS
Aww, heck, we've been through this with Sky Raider. How do you know the women aren't supervisin' and directing? Are the clunky suits all men? But ok, since we attended Google IO where thousands of lonely, horny male programmers mingled with the few programming girls and women, I concede; most of technology so far has been testosterone driven. Is that a bad thing? I do love the optimistic and orderly artwork of Space Ship...maybe in the Space Ship future, cold fusion worked, and all our problems are solved! -MH
Orbitor 1
Artist: Joe Joos Jr.
Stern, 1981
From the collection of Michael Schiess
Looking at Orbitor causes mystical appreciation for the forces of the universe. No human imagery at all, but spinning bodies affected by gravity, collision, velocity, trajectory. -MH
Orbitor One is the most unique pinball machine ever made. Based on an uneven curved playfield it seems at some point to be controlled by magnets or some strange gravitational force. Its odd behavior aside, it can still be learned and it is possible to master some aspects of this game. Unfortunately because of it's uniqueness, those skills honed are only good for this game. The 3D Moonscape is the perfect look for this, ditto for the backglass. Stern's last production game. MS
Cargo
Artist: Unknown
Genco,1937
From the collection of Michael Schiess
This is one of my all-time favorite pinball machines backglass. I love the theme, underwater treasure, and in addition it is so American Folk-Artsy. The whole scene from the ships on the surface to Neptune and his bevy of beautiful mermaids on the ocean's floor is so conflicting, new meets old, myth meets science. Interesting that in order to relate to potential male players, they gave Neptune legs so he may come and go as he pleases. Also, the deep-sea diver with his spear doesn't see the gigantic fish who is about to spoil his surprise attack. Now that is a well thought out fantasy! -MS
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PINBALL IN CONTEMPORARY ART
by Dan Fontes
Examples from the work of Charles Bell, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Robert Indiana, Ed Kienholz, , Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, George Segal, Wayne Thiebaud, and William Wiley.
Pinball in Contemporary Art is an exhibition of prints of the work of a variety of artists who were influenced by pinball. Dan Fontes introduces the artists and comments on how their art and pinball crossed paths.
Curated by Melissa Harmon
Opening Friday, April 8 from 6-10pm$10 to play pinball all eveningAt the Pacific Pinball Museum 1510 Webster St. Alameda, CA 94501 Media Contact: Melissa Harmon 510-205-6959 http://pacificpinball.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 501 (C) 3 non profit PRESS PHOTOS: http://pacificpinball.org/about-us/newsroom/media-kit
PINBALL IN CONTEMPORARY ART:
Each of the artists you are about to meet shared some of the following traits in common: most were from small Midwestern towns where growing up in the 1940’s-through the 1960’s there was little in the way of TV, no internet, few telephones, and TV was often only for the middle class.
Entertainment might consist of a movie on the weekends or live theater in winter or the circus in the summer. Art galleries and artists were seldom, if ever, a part of the day to day world.
Coincidentally, this is the golden age of pinball and the heyday of jukeboxes. Down on the corner, one of the shared cultural bright spots might have been a pinball machine and a coke or a jukebox in the five and dime store, the barbershop or the bowling alley. Often these were places where kids could meet and sneak a peek into the adult world with its overtones of adventure, romance, classy entertainment and perhaps sex and excitement.
The machines themselves were built in America with solid materials including hardwoods, copper, nickleplated chromed surfaces, translucent plastics and jewel-like elements like beveled posts, dependable motors and electronic components that could stand the test of time.
They were adorned with art deco bumper caps, Streamline Moderne silkscreened art on the playfields and combined modern styling with the latest tricks and gadgets, bells and knockers.
Some machine artwork included all the double entendre and insider humor a ten-year-old boy could handle. All there to be activated, and yours for the price of a dime.
Each of these artists shared an interest in creating fine art, and in time each reached legendary status in the art world achieving both fame and fortune…even if only for a short time.
It seems each artist, at one point or another, was touched by pinball, which lead them to create works of fine art with pinball, and the arcade or the environment as an essential element in the work. And thus pinball wove itself deeper into the American experience.
Wayne Thiebaud
Born November 15, 1920. More of a traditional realist artist such as Edward Hopper, Thiebaud is an American painter who is best known for images of cakes, pastries, toys, and occasionally, pinball machines. Much of his interest lies in the still life objects of mass culture and everyday life.
His art from the 1950’s and 60’s, foreshadows the work of the pop artists such as Warhol. Thiebaud uses paint as if it’s paste and pushes the intensity of colors to reveal more truth about his subjects. His signature geometric shadows and shapes reflect his early advertising days and are wonderfully demonstrated in his painting entitled “Star Pinball” . Thiebaud imbued his canvases with the mundane mood of a typical American life. Over the decades he has painted everything from landscapes, and cityscapes to pop deities such as Mickey Mouse.
Bronze Pinball with Woman Affixed Also
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