Play Meter

partner in Jim's Place. "Where
did the idea for the marathon
come from? " we asked him. It
just came, Jeff told us . " We
were sitting here one morning
trying to come up with ideas to
increase day-time trade, and
there it was," he said . Did it
work? "Yes, it did work, " Jeff
said . "During the actual mara -
thon , there were too many
people watching the show, but
afterwards we did experience a
substantial increase in the day-
time trade."
Did they have any plans for
future publicity stunts? " Well,
we ' re thinking of ma king the
marathon an annual event , but
we ' re hoping too to come up
with something new for next
year," Jeff told us . " Maybe a
foosball marathon, " he added
dreamily .
Meanwhile, Joseph Busta -
mante , managed of Arcade 5 in
Northville, Mich., was holding
his own marathon, and it was -
n't even his first . Play Meter
asked him where the idea came
from.
"We ran our first marathon in
1974 in Ann Arbor ," Bustamante
(continued from page 61)
Washington Post, on the AP
wire, on Paul Harvey's news
and on the "Tomorrow" pro -
gram. How did he do it? He held
a tournament .
But it was not your ordinary,
everyday sort of tournament .
Taking advantage of the na -
tional publicity surrounding
Bally 's Capt . Fantastic , the pin -
ball marathon was only part of
a larger package which in -
cluded hourly high score con -
tests, daily high score contests
and chances to win Capt. Fan -
tastic T -shirts, passes to the
movie Tommy , an entire library
of Elton John albums, and (the
grand prize) an Old Chicago
pinball machine
The winner at Jim's was a
vacationing plumber, Steve Za -
bel, 23, of Baltimore. Second
place went to Denise Settino,
19, of Pittsburg, a college stu -
dent and summertime waitress
working in a nearby restaurant.
Zabel played for B3 hours and 33
minutes; Denise managed just
under 81 hours .
Play Meter talked to Jeff
Mathias, Jim 's brother and
Iuvest
!?O~P
a bI~e Ghip
game
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62
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footsball
M 0 A Booth 11 & 12
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recalled. A charity he was
interested in, the Mental Health
Research Institute at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, was " deep-
ly in need of money, " and
Bustamante was trying to think
of a way to help them out .
" I had hea rd of all kinds of
marathons for charity, walka -
thons and the like, " he said ,
" but never a pinball ma rathon ."
So he a rra nged for one . The
result was , in approximately 80
hours , a collection of $400 for
the Institute.
Bustamante 's most recent
marathon , at his new location
in Northville , was a Iso a cha rity
endeavor . The purpose of the
event was to raise money to
help George Berryman , a band
teacher in the Northville school
system, who had suffered re -
cently the loss of his kidneys
and partial blindness . Busta -
mante provided the kids partici -
pating in the marathon with use
of his facilities and supplied
them with food. They arranged
for sponsors that contributed to
the fund for Berryman so much
per hour played . In all over $675
(cont inued on page 64)
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