History
The game was a popular attraction at amusement parks before the modern theme park drained visitors away to the newer, more modern facilities. When the old-line amusement parks died off, the Fascination parlors went with them. The game was also popular in oceanside resort towns, particularly those with boardwalks and especially on the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic shorelines of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic City and Wildwood, New Jersey were popular places with multiple Fascination parlors; Wildwood is home to three remaining parlors. On the west coast there is a Fascination parlor on Seaside Oregon. The oldest remaining Fascination game is in Nantasket Beach, MA, and is the original 1918 game from Coney Island.
The game has declined not only because of the demise of old-style amusement parks, but also the age of the machines themselves. The heart of the system relied on relays used in telephone system, which have long been obsolete; moreover, manufacturers of the tables have long ago shut down, so spare parts have to be salvaged from old tables. Operation is also labor intensive, with at least three employees (often more) at a time required to run a game. The game could easily be made more reliable and less labor-intensive with updated computer-based technology and automatic coin collection and coupon dispensing equipment such as that on a skee ball game, but the closure of many Fascination parlors has made such an effort unlikely.
A modern arcade game called "Lite-a-Line" can be found today, with roots in Fascination in that it features the same basic game play and pays off in redemption tickets. However, Lite-a-Line is a stand-alone game, played against "the house" as with skee ball and the like. It is commonly found in places such as Chuck E. Cheese. (It should not be confused with a 1930s pinball machine of the same name. Moreover, some Internet sites indicate that there may have been Fascination parlors that instead operated under the name "Lite-a-Line," but the evidence is inconclusive.) Fascination was invented in Salt Lake City Utah by John Taylor Gibbs who moved to Beverly Hills California, where he formed the business Taylor Engineering Corp. fascination games were installed and owned outright by my father, along with being sold and leased to amusement parks all over the United States.
Read more about this topic: Fascination (game)
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