There may not be another sport, with all due apologies to baseball, that is more ingrained in everyday Americana than is bowling.
Dutch colonists brought the game to North America in the 17th century. They played a nine-pin version in an area of New York City that became known as "Bowling Green." Just as it did for pizza, World War II was largely responsible for bringing bowling, as we know it today, to the masses. The U.S. government built 4,500 bowling lanes on military bases as a means to bring much-needed recreation to weary soldiers. Once they returned home, those same soldiers' thirst for their newfound pastime led to the construction of thousands of lanes from coast to coast.
Today 50 million people in the United States and 90 million worldwide are bowlers. Nowhere is bowling bigger than right here in Niagara Falls. Local bowling centers are filled to the brim with league bowlers ranging in age from preschoolers to senior citizens.
However, this column is not about bowling -- at least not in the traditional sense. It's about another form of the game that took America by storm in the 1950s and about one local man who has made it his life's passion to bring it back to the kids of today.
Tim Krawczyk looked at the large, unoccupied space just off the food court at the Summit mall and saw opportunity. In June of 2004 the Niagara Falls native leased the space where McCrory's department store had once been and the Krow's Nest was born. Soon, indoor batting cages, tunnels, slides, ball pits and a paintless paintball course stood where nothing but unleased space had resided for years.
It wasn't until one year later that Tim acquired the first item in a collection that now very well may be the largest of its kind in the United States. To those who have made her acquaintance, she is known as "Michelle." Formally, she's known as a 1959 Chicago Coin large ball bowler.
If you're over the age of 35 you know ball bowlers like the back of your hand. In the '60s and '70s there wasn't a pub or tavern from here to San Mateo, Calif., that didn't have a version of the miniature bowling lane taking up 10 to 15 feet of floor space. Drop in a dime and you'd get a full 20 minutes of entertainment value.
"Chicago Coin started making the machines in 1959, two years after United made the first ball bowler. From 1959 through 1979 they made 25,000 machines of varying sizes," Krawczyk explained.
What's amazing is the craftsmanship that went into each and every bowling machine.
"Each unit took nearly nine months to build," Krawczyk said. "The factory at Chicago Dynamics was huge. It harkens back to the Industrial Revolution days here in the Falls. It was just a mammoth factory that took up almost 22 blocks."
Of course, that factory, like many here in Niagara, has long been closed down. The only way to get your hands on a ball bowler today is to buy one on the secondhand market. Many that are sold have suffered decades of neglect and are in need of major restoration. "Michelle" was in pretty rough condition when Krawczyk first found her.
"I traveled to Detroit and she had been in some guy's basement for 37 years. Once I got her back to the mall, it took six months to get everything working properly."
Looking into the exposed back of a ball bowler is like a first-year med student looking at the human nervous system -- just wires everywhere. Krawczyk says that it is estimated that there are three miles of wiring in each machine. Then there are the relays, switches and connectors to contend with. Getting a ball bowler up and running takes a lot of technical expertise and a lot of patience.
Once Tim, with the help of mechanical whiz Gary Arrico, got the first machine operational, something really strange began happening at his store.
"People started coming in and asking, 'Is that what I think it is?' while they made a bowling motion with their hands," Krawczyk said. "Then the stories would just flow out of them. They'd tell me that they played on a machine at the PX in the war or at this bar or this tavern."
Even stranger was the reaction from teenagers and kids.
"There was a line of kids six deep -- always. They had no reference for the machines, so they thought it was a brand-new invention. And they thought it was really cool. It's far more engaging than a video game. One kid said it's like a Wii, only with a real ball."
Krawczyk can always tell when someone is a ball bowler virgin.
"They drop in a coin and then they just stand there. After a few minutes I walk over and ask them what's wrong. 'Well, the pins haven't dropped down,' they say. I explain that the pins don't come down. The ball doesn't actually hit the pins, but rolls over the contacts, which in turn raise the pins. 'Oh,' they say, and the light bulb goes off. Ten frames later, they're hooked for life."
Today Krawczyk has seven bowling machines at the Krow's Nest. There are both big and small ball bowlers. One difference between the two is that small ball bowlers don't have gutters -- the ball can actually carom off of the sides and still "knock down" pins. The other difference is in the size of the balls: 3.5 inches for small ball machines and anywhere from 4.5 to 6 inches for large ball units. Krawczyk even has a puck bowler -- a unit where the pins are dispatched with a shuffleboard puck instead of a ball.
While Krawczyk has traipsed all over the Eastern Seaboard to find the machines, his rarest unit came to him.
"I got a call from this guy and he said that he had two machines that had been found in a barn outside Wheaton, Ill. He wanted to know if I wanted them. When I hemmed and hawed a bit, he tossed out a price that I couldn't refuse and said that he'd deliver them to me, as he was coming to town to visit relatives."
One of the units the man delivered was covered in 10 coats of black paint. Once Tim stripped it down, he found all of the original logos intact underneath. The machine turned out to be a 1968 Chicago Coin Starfire model. There were only two ever made, and what became of the other one is still unknown. Krawczyk's model, which he christened "Paris," would fetch a Hiltonesque sum of $8,000 or more on the open market, should it ever be put up for sale. Don't count on that happening any time soon.
"People ask me if this has become an obsession, and I guess it has," Krawczyk admitted. "We had a moonlight bowling league this year that was wildly popular, and to see young kids fall in love with the machines on a daily basis is really cool."
One person who is a big fan of the ball bowlers is none other than Niagara Falls' most famous bowler, Fran Bax. You may recall that Bax led his 1983 team to the ABC National Tournament Team Title with a career high 848 series. In his career, the member of the Buffalo Bowling Association Hall of Fame has bowled an 800 three-game series over 35 times. Bax conducts a smoking-cessation clinic at the Summit mall and has become a semi-regular at Krawczyk's machines.
"They're great. It was really wonderful to find so many of them in one place and in such great condition. It reminded me of the rooms of them they used to have at Crystal Beach and at New Rialto Park in Olcott," Bax said.
Bax explained that he used to play the machine at the old Ontario House as a child.
"A roll of dimes would last us kids for hours."
Although the bowling champ has thrown over 50 perfect-300 games on the real hardwoods, he hasn't been able to duplicate that on the small lanes.
"My high game is 269. It's a lot tougher than it looks."
For what its worth, no one has laid down a 300 game at the Krow's Nest either, but you can be sure that as you're reading these words someone is giving it his or her best shot.
Krawczyk won't say if seven is the lucky number of machines for the Krow's Nest.
"I don't know when I'll stop and say enough's enough. I don't think I'll go after any that are the same as the ones I already have, but if something unique should arise, well, I wouldn't rule out another road trip." Krawczyk says.
It would seem that bowler number eight is as sure a bet as a Fran Bax ball in the pocket.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 11 2008 |