Play Meter

time to stop looking at pinball with antiquated views
and r cogniz th fact it exists.
0, Sharpe's mind hasn't been des troyed by
pinball. He has spent nearly two years researching
and photographing the first book ever to give a
complete view of pinball and its importance to our
s ci ty and The Pinball book will be published by
E.P. Dutton and Co. Inc. Naturally, we talked a lot
about his endeavor.
PLA Y METER: I th book about fin ihed?
. HARPE: For th mo t part, y .
PLA Y METER: How long will it run ?
l!ARPE: About 250 page .
PLAY METER: When i it going to be available
and what will it e ll for?
HARPE: We're trying for the end of the year and
we're trying to k p it under $20, but it' going to be
an oversized coffee table book with a lot of color. I
fi g ure it will be about 10-by -14 inches. We're
planning on three gate fold 0 that you can pull out
and ee orne clo e -up hot.
PLA Y METER: Will you be able to u e it as an
hi torical ref r nce book?
HARPE: That i what I wanted to do and I think I
ac hi eved it. There will be a lot of interviews in the
book and what I've tried to do i recapture the
memorie and experience of the old -timers who
cr ated the indu try.
A lot of th hi tory i forgotten and I went through
about 200,000 word of tran cripts of interview to
bring it down to a length people wouldn't get tired of.
It' hon d down to a point now that people can read it
and g ta n e of hi tory from within the indu try.
It will help people in the indu try and al 0 people on
"'t i:; h(lml (l1/(1 I' ll coordination at it , fin es t degr . If
hen I' il riqhl, lIou're no t going to 9 1 it right . ..
!IOII d 01/ 'I
PlAI' METER
"All Ih major inciu ·tri s in th
nit d tat s hav
public r lalions faciliti s to 'ount Tact any negativity,
hul this i1ldus try do sn 'l and il should, "
the out ide who are player or who at least want to
know more of what wa happening.
I thought I could personalize that hi toric
per pective with the interview approach becau e
there were orne very colorful character involved
and orne stories about how everybody kind of fell
into it.
PLA Y METER: By accident?
SHARPE: In a lot of way , ye , becau e nobody
knew what the hell they were getting into. There
wa a depres ion and nobody had enough money to
do anything and you had some people who took a
chance. They watched it grow and blo om before
their ey .
One of t he favorite torie i of David Gottleib
coming out with a game in the early Thirtie called
the Five tar Final becau e he thought it would be
the la t game he v r produced; 0 he named it after
the Chicago Tribune's final edition .
They were young fellows our age, thinking, "Hey,
thi i great. We can have a lot of fun doing this." I
think the automobile indu try, for example, started
under v ry different circum tance .
For th m and their time, what they managed to
accompli h is remarkable . And it' being 10 t becau e
no on ha had the time or the energy to really
captur it all. A lot of the old -timers are getting to
the point that you hav to jog their memories a little.
I aw the book a trying to recapture everything
and put it down on paper before it' 10 t forever. You
know, the indu try ha no en e of it' worth and
value in a lot of re p ct .
PLAY METER: In what way?
SHARPE: They don't keep old literature. The old
Isee next page l
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