Date: 14th May, 2012

Following the donation two years ago of Gordon Hasse Jr.'s sizeable collection and the pledging of the many machines amassed by Richard Conger, the Pacific Pinball Museum has received another large collection courtesy of a record mogul.

Richard Foos was one of the founders of Rhino Records. Started in 1973, Rhino produced a long series of greatest hits collections which proved to be very popular and resulted in the company being sold to Time Warner.

Foos has always been philanthropic with his resources, donating time and money to charities. He was also a collector of vintage pinball and other coin-operated equipment, such as jukeboxes, soda machines, bingos and bowlers.

Now he has donated this large collection to the Pacific Pinball Museum.

Richard's gift to the museum came about when he was looking for a museum which could house his machines and asked collector, restorer and co-author of the Pinball Collector's Resource, Don Mueting, who serviced his games. Don suggested the PPM and in March Founder and Executive Director Michael Schiess and Board Member in charge of outreach to local collectors, Helmut Jordt took a 54-foot trailer to collect the machines from Los Angeles.

Helmut and Michael with machines in Richard's collection

All the machines were wrapped onto palettes and brought back to the PPM's storage facility in Alameda. To make space for the new arrivals, two new palette racks were added in the storage which was recently expanded in size by another 4,000 square feet.

Helmut with the paletted machines

The donated ensemble contains nearly 50 pinball machines, together with assorted parts, playfields, cabinets, backboxes and backglasses.

Four bingo machines, six bowlers, seven jukeboxes, two baseballs, six soda machines and a numerous signs, rides, amusements and displays complete the collection which has been appraised as being worth in excess of $83,000.

Michael told Pinball News that although the condition of the machines varies, most are in working order. He said he had checked the Bally Spinner and the Williams 4 Roses and both lit up when powered.

The 4 Roses machine

To restore the lesser-condition machines will take both time, money and effort. The museum is permitted to sell any duplicate machines to raise funds for this, and is putting together a number of electro-mechanical repair classes to help spread the knowledge and possibly find some additional help for those who currently volunteer to repair and restore the Museum's games.

It is hoped to get a number of Richard's machines ready for the public to enjoy at the sixth Pacific Pinball Expo, which takes place this September in San Rafael, California.

© Pinball News 2012