In a city that once thrived with rival manufacturers, now only one survives. Ever since WSM industries recently announced that they would cease making the classic game, Stern Pinball has inherited the title as the world's only producer of the one-time arcade favorite.
It is a title that the company accepts with equal parts pride and anguish. Stern tries to temper the situation by saying they are not the last pinball company - just the only pinball company.
And admittedly small at that. Stern employees about 100 people and turns out 45 machines a day, which move along a single assembly line from wiring to final testing.
Pinball has always been the main focus of Stern, no video games or even hybrid, video-pinball machines. Just the real deal with flashing lights, bumpers, flippers, spinners, and those maddening silver balls.
Descended from Bagatelle, a game with a wide board and holes at one end of the playing surface through which players tried to shoot balls using a cue, pinball derived it's name from the configuration of nails, or "pins" that protected the holes and increased the challenge.
During the 1930s, regarded as pinball's glory days, bumpers and coin slots were added. Back then you got seven balls for a penny.
In 1934 the bane of all players reared it's ugly head with the introduction of the notorious tilt mechanism. When players discovered that they could influence the action of the ball by shaking and nudging the table, manufacturers developed a devise that used a ball atop a pedestal that would fall when the game was moved in an excessive manner and momentarally disable the scoring of the ball in play.
That same year Sam Stern began his rise through the ranks, first as president of Williams, one of the early powerhouses in the amusement-machine business before moving on to Bally and eventual ownership of Chicago Coin. In 1994 Sega Enterprises Ltd., best known for their home video game systems, like Saturn and Genesis, purchased the company.
In October, Stern's son Gary aquired the line when Sega opted to bail out of the shrinking market.
As sole remaining producer of pinball machines, prosperity still is not a lock for Stern. In 1992, 27,000 games were sold by the company. Now, if 15,000 find their way out the door in any given year, Stern and his employees are esctatic.
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