![]() ![]() Silverman has restored many of the machines himself in workshops he built in back of his home. ![]() That movie told of a blind, deaf and mute boy whose senses are awakened when he plays pinball.) The lure was too great, however, and shortly after he got married he brought home “Fireball” - a machine he had first played in Spain and then ran across in a home amusement store.Īfter that, “all hell broke loose,” Silverman laughed.įast forward 30-some years, and Silverman is now the proud owner of nearly 900 pinball machines, spanning the history of the game from the late 18th century to the present.Īmong the vintage games he owns are a 1967 Beat Time game, featuring “The Bootles” (a play on the name of the Fab Four to avoid paying royalties), a 1980 Rolling Stones game, and a 1976 Captain Fantastic game (inspired by Elton John’s appearance in the movie version of the rock opera Tommy. ![]() Due to the difficulty of moving his machines, he sold them and tried to ignore the calling to purchase another one. Later, he moved to Rockville, Md., to take up a position teaching art. When he acquired a couple of roommates, he was so short of space for himself that he wound up spending his nights under the machines. Silverman bought his first pinball machine for $200 while a young art instructor in Ohio, then added another. Soon he plans to open his National Pinball Museum in the Power Plant Live complex at the Inner Harbor. Perhaps the gambling spirit has stayed with him as well, for Silverman is now betting that he can bring his love for pinball - and his extensive collection of the machines - to Baltimore. He not only became an enthusiastic player in his youth, but, later on, an avid collector of pinball machines. At any rate, LaGuardia didn’t want schoolchildren wasting their nickels and dimes in the machines.īut that didn’t deter Silverman, whose family regularly vacationed in upstate New York, where pinball was legit. The legislation was spearheaded by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who considered pinball to be a form of gambling or “games of chance,” possibly because some operators paid high scorers cash rewards and prizes. Pinball machines were declared illegal in New York City from 1939 until 1976. “The bells, the whistles, the lights…they all just struck a chord with me and have ever since,” said Silverman. But all it took was those few nickels, and Silverman was hooked from that moment on. “In New York City, where we lived, pinball machines were outlawed, so I had never seen one before,” the now-63-year-old landscape designer recalled. On a family vacation in upstate New York, Silverman’s father gave him a handful of nickels to play the pinball machines. David Silverman found his life’s passion when he was just 4 years old. ![]()
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