Brunswick: The Golden Years (1958)
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2012
- Promotional film from 1958 promoting Brunswick's brand new line of capital equipment for bowling centers, including the Gold Crown series. This film was targeted at bowling center proprietors looking to build new centers or upgrade existing ones. For what it's worth, the bowling center I grew up bowling in -- King Louie Ranch Mart Lanes in Leawood, KS -- looked pretty much like the one seen at :13:11 in this film, except that the benches in the settee area were white and gold not white and blue as depicted here, same white Telescore projectors, and the same white and dark gray ball returns, except that King Louie Ranch Mart Lanes had the subway cluster ball returns instead of the inline style ball returns. I remember walking into that bowling center on the day it opened -- January 29, 1959 -- and remarking to my parents, "This is beautiful!"
- Sport
Fun fact: my grandpa was Jack F. Reichert - Ceo of Brunswick until 1995!
As someone who bowls at least once a week, I've always loved the old school bowling alleys, none of the LCD displays and disco nights.
Don’t forget No String Pinsetters. Free Fall Pinsetters were the best to bowl on.
And with Brunswick old school bowling alleys they have Brunswick Model A Pin setter.
@@allegiant001 There were actually two Brunswick pinsetters, the Brunswick A and the Brunswick A2. Most houses in the United States had the A2 which was the same machine with advanced mechanics to return the bowling ball.
@A2Stops you know it’s great equipment when you see the same pinsetters for 30 years
@@deborahchesser7375 or they are just being repaired all the time. for reference I work with some 40+ year old 82-70’s, and they break all the damn time, but that’s what happens after so many years tbh
Im here because the original 1964 build Brunswick Alley in my town is getting tore out today. Everything was perfect and still worked! It was the blue and white design. Sad day!
So sad. Same with my hometown and what they tore down was where I bowled from childhood up through the years and was even a pinsetter machine mechanic for a few years. 32 Brunswick A-2 pinsetter machines and lots of billiard tables, a lounge and a separate grill and dining area that was all so nice and worked well too. So sad.
How cool would it be to go back in time to 1959 and tell a proprietor the equipment they bought is still working in 2024.
Brunswick A2 is everywhere now in 2022 (except those other bowling alley that decides to use GSX)
Such beautiful classic design and simplicity of function.
Far better looking and working then any modern lane I have ever bowled on.
There is a true sense of luxury and class.
Kinda brings a tear to my eye...
But the Brunswick Model A Pinsetter warms my heart the most
Wow. Those stainless steal ball returns are amazing.
There was still some around where I live at one point.
They look nice in this promotional ad. They were kind of ratty and clunky when I used them
In the Albany NY area where I live, there was a center called Redwood Lanes that, until it closed about 5 years ago, still had its' Gold Crown front end equipment like what's shown in this video. Main color was white, it had straight line above ground ball returns. Going in there was like walking back into the late 50's. I always liked the simple, uncluttered design of this equipment. IMO, it'd still look good even today, better than some of the newer, cheaper looking front end equipment.
Send me back in time please!
Love these machines this what we have at my bowling alley
Nice! Absolutely love the old school bowling alleys 🎳 !
This film should be used for mystery science theater 3000
Pop N pins in Preston Idaho still has these exact things in operation. They have not replaced anything.
+Utah Car Wash That is great to know! Do they still use the clear plastic score sheets for "league" play? The kind that contain 3 game grids, that you wipe off with a damp cloth? These are the kind I kept score on for leagues in the early 70s. I would love to keep score like that again just for nostalgia sake. By the way, I'm in Utah too... Looking forward to your reply.
oldies geek I believe they still use them. I haven’t been for a couple of years but they have gotten new owners and added a restaurant and didn’t replace the equipment.
@@oldiesgeek454 We do still use the telescore sheets for league play. Retro is the way to go. Visit us at Popnpins.com or on our facebook page. It's great to see that people still appreciated old school bowling.
I was lucky enough to see the end of this in the 80s when i was in my junior bowling league.
My dad remembers bowling at a bowling alley that has sadly closed. It had the EXACT same ball return. An orange, over-alley, ball return system with a chrome-plated carousel holding tray and the two projectors.
I remember cleaning those telescore's the ash tray's the score sheets as a teen working at my nearby bowling alley around early 70's! Seems10-20 years later the seating and scoring furniture hadn't changed much since 1958!
How about keeping score with those wax pencils? I remember that if you left your hand/arm laying there for too long in between frames, you'd sure feel the heat from that tele-score!
Bottom line is, I doubt there is anyone left at Brunswick Corporation who was around back then to verify precisely when this promotional film was made. I doubt anyone there knows. But the equipment depicted in the video was in operation around the country as early as 1959, and was likely in the process of being installed in 1958. So it seems likely that Brunswick was promoting sales of said equipment through this promotional film at least that early. Marketing usually rolls out with product.
These were the units I grew up with in the early '70s -- already 15 years old they still reminded me of The Jetsons in terms of space-age styling.
Love the intro and how it says that people will be looking for fun. Now all kids want to do is with their Nintendo DS instead of hitting their local bowling alley.
Well, to be fair, this is the 1950s after all.
yeah :/ except for me! i'd throw away a 3d's and bowl all day
Well except the kids who wants to learn Bowling and their dream wanted to become the next PBA or PWBA. That’s the way of life now that Casuals never like to level up but play for fun and some wanted to bowl but not buy their own Bowling ball which not all Bowling balls are expensive, you can get a Brunswick T-Zone for like 50 bucks or something, that’s simple.
"Only an in-line subway return unit can withstand Mark Roth kicking the crap out of it on the PBA tour and still offer years of reliable service!"
Steve Covello
Actually Steveo that was an above ground Brunswick ball return that Mark Roth would side swipe at his favorite house on the winter PBA tour King Louie West in Overland Park KS in the late 1970s until the mid 1980s when they finally did the correct remodel and installed subway returns. I bowled on both systems. Now the bowling center is the Johnson County museum.
This made me laugh harder than I should have.
Kicking the crap out of the ball return huh!
Well just like Marshall Holman he would be in deep trouble with the pba!
The first bowling center that I grew up in was a 40 lane house, built in 1964 and had this exact Brunswick set up. Aside from the colors, the tele-score tables, setee area bench style seating, ball returns, even the lockers shown in this video are exactly how I remember them. I sure miss those days!
Kamehameha Bowl in Kalihi had the gold version of this equipment even in the late 1970's. To me, this is what a bowling alley is supposed to look like.
6:02: "A unit completely self-contained, with buzzer and light, at the foul line, where they belong"
Perfectly placed so that Marshall Holman can properly destroy them.
LOL
Yeah and he got in major trouble with the pba for that!
My school inherited chairs from a Brunswick-built bowling center that closed some years back. I see that the chairs are as old (56) as I am!
Tom McElheney In the past Brunswick produced school furniture.
They showed this on TCM the other day as an extra between movies.
I recently had the good fortune to purchase two sections of red and white Brunswick Gold Crown seats from a local bowling alley that was remodeling. SO cool to see such detailed footage from the time period.
It is amazing that this footage has survived to be watched online all these years later. Thank you for preserving history BowlingOldies!
“Mark it eight, Dude.”
Very informative
Our local lane had all of these, well worn by the time I got to have a go on them, but they still worked just fine. Burned down a few years ago, so now I have to go out of town to bowl.
Yes, I agree they were extending a partial line they already started. I actually tracked down the commercial and we are both kinda of right. While other sites also list it at 1958 it was released in 1960 which certainly would be the threshold of the 60's. I was looking more at the chairs benches return ball and score projector to figure when these furnishing styles first came into play. Thanks for the video.It has helped greatly in my research.
I was a pinsetter mechanic for over 30 years and retired at the same Brunswick ctr after 42 years!
I just saw this as an extra on TCM. I had to rewatch for the comments!! 😂
One alley where I bowl still has some of these,including the above ground ball return and fiberglass seats. I miss the classic bowling alley.
But need to have a gs or gsx equipment because no bowling alley employee would ever find replacement parts for an A2 pinsetter anymore!
Amazing A2's!!
there's a bowling alley near me that still has all this equipment, still totally operational
There’s one by me but lacks maintenance so they are held together by hopes and dreams unfortunately
That’s neat, I bet there aren’t a ton left
I always love the Brunswick a2 pinsetter
The center I bowled at in my youth was mixed. There was (I think) an 8-lane Brunswick setup in a side area, while the main center was a 36-lane AMF center.
5:56 - Over the line!
Jesse Green if she marks that frame an 8, she’s entering a world of pain.
What a video!
Brunswick was the best for sure. Never cared much for the 2nd rate AMF machines and the rest.
Reminds me a bit of the White Oak duckpin lanes near DC!
there's a bowling alley near me that has these exact machines in blue. they're always broken.
If they’re always broken, it’s because the bowling alley maintenance staff does a poor job of maintaining them. These machines are built to last 100+ years if taken care of.
There is a candlepin setup at Brian’s Bowlaway in Gardner Massachusetts. It is the gold crown line. Check it out.
Lewiston event center ( formally frontier lanes) still has this equipment in operation
Nice. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
They have that equipment at Lock port Lanes except the pins are AMF on a Brunswick A-2 pinsetter!
Also there Double Ball Returns the look is the same but the location of it is different and also there Ball Return parts inside the Pinsetters are also different
Here's what I know. King Louie Ranch Mart Lanes in Leawood, KS opened on January 29, 1959. I was there that day. They had the Gold Crown two-lane masking units (white, without pindicators), circle underlane ball returns (also white) and Brunswick A pinsetters with the letter B on the face of the pin table and the word Brunswick in black script on the gold face of the rake (as seen in this video). These were the later models of the Gold Crown line, so the video likely came near the same time.
BowlingOldies
Yes. I bowled at Ranch mart in the late 70s. When I turned 18 in 1980 it was Ranch Mart with my "minor" friends for billiards and pitcher after pitcher of 3.2 beer. On the way home to Brookside it was a miracle that I did not get stopped by the Leawood PD. I mean I was stupid drunk a couple of times. Never worried much about the cops on the KC side as they stayed busy on the east side of the demilitarized zone also known as Troost avenue. Oh those were the days.
@@kbron3250 Sorry,I fell asleep,you were saying....
VERY GOOD
Beautiful, however I always scored higher on AMF lanes.
Go view a photo of the Brunswick lanes in the basement of the Biltmore Mansion, the oldest existing billowing lanes in the USA.
8:32 Likely what inspired the design of the masking units in Wii Sports Bowling
My Dad was a Bowling King. I still have all his trophies
60 Years Later, Vantage Bowling Centers in Tucson Arizona are still using these A2 pin setters. The pins are never set on spot due to the wear in these machines.
The pinsetters almost certainly are in need of repairs. The worn components can be replaced and those machines would almost certainly be as good as new.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the exact line was, "...on the threshold of the golden '60s." We were "on the threshold" of the '60s in 1958 and '59. Furthermore, the Gold Crown line of Brunswick equipment was already being installed in bowling centers in 1958. We had a Brunswick Gold Crown center open in my neighborhood in January, '59 (I was there the day it opened). The promotional video was promoting this line of equipment when it was first being sold to proprietors in 1958.
Some of those gold crowns are in the basement at the VA hospital in Long Beach getting ready to tear that building down in a year or two be nice if somebody could reclaim them and put them somewhere but I assume they're just going to get demoed like the rest of the building
LEFT THE LEFT it would be great to salvage them and open a small 10-15 lane alley.
❤the old coke bottles
Grocery stores and even The Home Depot still sells them!
Such a cool video. Love the colors
What kind of phone is that girl talking on?
I’m just trying to figure out why this video is playing on TCM network right now. I was watching stand by me and now this is playing. Don’t get me wrong I love bowling, but I just don’t know why I’m seeing this right now. Lol
I don’t remember the switch for the fan. Remember the rest.those telescopes got hot!
ah, the thing is i have a duckpin bowling alley that still has all the original equipment other than the pins from the gold crown series, the blue one, with a little bit of white and blue ball returns that are rare because they are facing the lane
Almost all duckpin bowling centers are at least 45 years old. Unfortunately manufacturers stopped making duckpin bowling equipment since 1974. So most duckpin bowling alleys are original
where?
Are they switching Ball Returns and Masking Unit while filming ?
I believe Brunswick should have invested in small ball bowling as well as proven by the kid falling down and trying to hold/throw that big as ball.
I'm betting this stuff is still functioning in 2020.. materials during this time were built like tanks.. as a kid in the 1970's I bowled in leagues that was using 1950's materials. You just can't break it.....
That's an old A series. The A2's ran much faster... And getting down to get an out of range pin stop your head was inches from the ball accelerator. Was like watching the Enterprise go by on the original Star Trek TV opening... nutz...
I had a major accident with my pushbutton insta-home, darn thing went off on my pocket while bowling, Still in the hospital with plaster still embedded in my feet, need good lawyer, recommendations are appreciated other thab Saul or Slippin' Jimmy..thanks in advance.
11:37 they had ball cleaning machines back then?
My home center still has a working one to this day
Sure - I mean your grandma was around back then, right?
I love Brunswick, they make better bowling products.
Justus Wright except balls lmao
@@RRBuilder611 They were sold to BowlMor/AMF
\
@@RRBuilder611 Well not all Bowlers loves Storm anyways
In the beginning of the video, the narrator says “on the the threshold of the 60’s” so I’m gonna guess that this was made in the late 1950’s.
When I was a kid, my parents would not allow me to bowl. So there was no need to add fun. Unless you considered sitting in those tangerine seats “fun”.
Sadly most bowling alleys have to jack up the prices in order to maintain these antiquated machines still being used
Now little jimmy tracked all that oil back on dry wood
I have ten original pinsetters anyone want to rescue them!? In Oklahoma
8:45 Strike? That was definitely a foul!
Believe me, he was definitely way behind the line, Everybody So !
Why do films from this era look so …so ….50’s? Lens? Film?
Or Marshall Holman.
0:33 Daughter looks like she's talking into a bank.
Bowling fights communism.
Jazz too
"...and the pleasure-packed attractiveness of tangerine." Am I the only one who thought that was straight out of a strip club? lol
the lane I grew up playing on was the Brunswick Tangerine. Miss those days. They closed that lane about 5 years ago.
I personally kinda like the graphite color if they had it back then!
they don't make em like they used to
I bet feminists hate this video.
So sad.
Not 1958, maybe 1962??? it starts by saying these are the golden years of the 60's
"On the threshold of the Golden 60's"...so I'm guessing roughly 1958-1959.
Yeah put that ball in that polisher. You will lose the hook on it
Sorry kid...that's a foul.
Til this day, it’s still happening and it’s irritating to see their kids sliding on the lane and ruining the Oil Pattern for League/Pro Bowlers.
@@PinoyBowlerGS92 I've always said bowling should be for kids 13 and up unless on a league
@@chriskelly509. Or 12 and under unless they’re Leagues as well. Even Casual Teens and Adults always had their foot on the foul line and don’t slip but it’s still annoying to see their foot mark, I know that I couldn’t affect the Ball reading the Lane but I bowl based on my eye vision by scanning my eyes on the dots at the foul line while delivering my shot and it’s annoying see their foot marks from there. I wish Casual Bowlers needs to learn their manners on the way the act or play on the Lanes cause many or some Bowling Centers have Leagues and we know that all of us care mostly on the Oil Pattern than Casual Bowlers fell on their ass while walking on the Lanes, if they slipped just on the Approach, that’s fine.
What better times
Found this nostalgic video very cool and the simply
elegant mid-century design is more appealing than
the modern alley. 🟧⬜
czcams.com/video/62jc0fIpt5s/video.html
mark it zero, smokey.
Just saw this on TCM in between movies! 🎳