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‘History in this industry is pretty invaluable:’ Glendale shop scores big on pinball nostalgia

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Like many things retro, Los Angeles is seeing a rise in the popularity of pinball machines and stand-up arcade games. While people flock en masse to emerging arcade bars such as EightyTwo in downtown L.A.’s Arts District, few know of the machines’ long journey to their present locations.

In Glendale, residents may occasionally be in the presence of a collection without being aware of it. Today, blocks of the city are relatively free of arcade games and pinball machines — as dedicated arcades have diminished since their peak in 1992 — but there are hundreds centrally located on the corner of San Fernando Road and West Palmer Avenue.

The large blue building houses the Vintage Arcade Superstore, and owner Gene Lewin has 11,000 square feet of pinball machines and arcade cabinets for sale that span several decades. Most of the store resembles a classic-car-restoration shop with rows of parted-out machines crowding the floor and walls lined with a bevy of electronics, art and miscellaneous parts.

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Lewin and his 15 employees, mostly technicians and artists, don’t operate the store as a conventional arcade open to the public. Their business is in resurrecting the lights and sounds of video game nostalgia, a sentiment with which Lewin is long familiar.

“I started playing pinball in ’72 when it became legal in Los Angeles,” Lewin said. “I didn’t go a week without playing pinball for I don’t know how many years.”

Not long after, at age 19, Lewin bought his first pinball machine with savings from a job at Jack in the Box. Oddly enough, the machine was called “Jumping Jack” and themed on the fast-food chain.

After convincing his parents to keep it in his bedroom, Lewin found a better home for it at a billiards place where he split the profits from his coin-operated machine with the owner. Lewin’s “Jumping Jack” was the bar’s highest earner.

“When I got my game, I didn’t know how to fix it. I couldn’t even fix my bike or anything. But when I started tinkering with [“Jumping Jack”], I realized this is something I could actually do,” Lewin said. “I even went to arcades and said, ‘I’ll work for free if you just teach me what to do.’”

Lewin honed his pinball business over the years, placing his machines at various locations including a skate park, hamburger joint and gift shop in Burbank.

When the gift shop owner lost the lease, Lewin swooped in and opened his first arcade there, calling it Pin Ball Plus. He opened a second arcade in La Crescenta and a third, Pin Ball Plus Three, in Burbank.

Lewin operated and closed a few arcades outside of the L.A. area by the mid-1990s, with locations in National City, Encinitas and a mall in Yuma, Ariz.

Vintage Arcade Superstore first opened in Glendale as Vintage Amusement Superstore in 1995, and Lewin ran both his La Crescenta arcade and his restoration shop until 1998 when he decided to leave the dedicated arcade business after the market declined.

With little formal business training, Lewin attributes the enduring success of his hobby-turned-job to his genuine love for the games.

“I understood how they were supposed to work. I made sure my games worked correctly. I’d go around and play all the games and have a list for my technicians, listing what isn’t working on this or that game, and I knew, because I knew what they were supposed to do,” Lewin said.

Morris Fonder, 61, is one of the shop’s veteran technicians. While working for an arcade cabinet manufacturer, Fonder visited Lewin for parts and was recruited by the savvy entrepreneur soon thereafter.

Repairs of the classic machines, which often sell for thousands of dollars, require more than basic fixes. They demand a touch of integrity that Fonder says only someone with Lewin’s history can provide.

“History in this industry is pretty invaluable,” Fonder said “If you didn’t go through it, you don’t know it.”

It also helps with the day-to-day solutions.

“In any industry … you have these repetitive type problems, and if you know them and remember them, you can have a repair that would take someone else an hour or two down to 15 or 20 minutes,” Fonder said.

This proficiency is what keeps Vintage Arcade Superstore afloat, with about 100 orders per month.

They include custom cabinet orders for hotel chains and private collectors, and the store has even rented out its showroom for a music-video collaboration between DJ duo KSHMR and Tiësto. Disney’s California Adventure once rented machines from Lewin in order to recreate “Flynn’s Arcade” from the movie “Tron.”

“I’m one of the few people that still do this. I guess it’s in my blood,” Lewin said. “I just love arcade machines.”

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Jeff Landa, jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda

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