There were days, many days in fact, when T.C. DiBella would ride his bike around the small town of Coats, NC, and scrounge for glass soda bottles. He’d take those bottles to the local convenience store, turn them in for quarters and play either the 1977 Bally-made Evel Knievel or the 1975 Bally-made Air Aces pinball machines with his best friend until their luck, or money, ran out.
Now DiBella only has to walk out of his office at the Asheville Pinball Museum, turn right through a short hallway, and go into the main room of his downtown business to play the games. That is, if someone who’s paid $15 to use his “toys” isn’t hogging the machine.
A similar story could be told about DiBella’s past and a certain bow-headed arcade-game star. The convenience store across from Coats High School would hold a couple dozen teenagers each morning before the tardy bell, and there they’d crowd the game and watch some student gobble ghosts as Ms. Pac-Man.
“I’m the perfect age that growing up there was pinball machines, and as I got into middle and high school, that’s when video games took over,” explains DiBella, who is 51.
Through persistent searching, the entrepreneur, along with business partner John French (who manages the Hendersonville location, Appalachian Pinball Museum), has compiled a collection of pinball games that range from a 1937 flipperless machine called “Arlington” to the latest machines, including an AC/DC-inspired game that blasts “Thunderstruck” from its speakers.
Fans sometimes line up outside the door and around the corner at 1 Battle Square for the chance to spend hours playing the 40 pinball and 35 classic video games. Sometimes, on the weekend, there’s a three-hour waiting list to enter the museum — DiBella only allows the same number of people in the store as number of machines available for play.
The former schoolteacher opened the business in 2013 in a smaller location a few doors down. He moved into the current space, which briefly housed a Cuban restaurant, in April 2015. People complain about the wait list and say DiBella should open in a bigger building, but that won’t happen. “I have the Fenway Park and Wrigley Field philosophy,” he says. “They could build bigger stadiums, but they realize their places are special. I could make more money, but it wouldn’t be in this building.” The historic Battery Park Hotel, built by E.W. Grove circa 1924, is centered between three other landmarks — the US Cellular Center, the Basilica of St Lawrence, and the Grove Arcade. “When people are trying to find us and are already downtown, I tell them to look for the 14-story brick building, and they find us pretty quickly.”
On a board in his office, filled with enough comic-book paraphernalia to make Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj smile, is a couple of sticky notes with dates and numbers. Those are Sparta Dates, when more than 300 patrons enter the museum. The record is 339.
Most of his customers are adults, he says. When small children come to play, they sometimes need a primer in how a pinball machine is operated. DiBella bought his first machine, “Buccaneer” — built in 1976 by D. Gottlieb and Co. — after he answered a Craigslist ad in December 2012. Then someone passed along a link to the Seattle Pinball Museum, and he decided, “that’s a great idea, and that would be perfect for Asheville.”
It was enough to push DiBella to start a business. He sold his classic 1968 Mercury Cougar and depleted his collection of sports jerseys to help purchase pinball machines. He started buying them in March 2013, and a few months later, he had 17 in his basement, en route to the new museum. (Two machines, the Buccaneer and a 1981 Black Hole, still live at home; DiBella says they get played a few times a week.)
“I’m still looking all the time. Now there are only certain ones we don’t have,” he says. Unfortunately, since these elusive machines are some of the most valuable ones, collectors hold onto them.
“They know what they have,” he points out. And it’s certainly a mindset he understands. He says he’s been patient, adding to his collection one machine at a time. “That’s the fun. It’s the thrill of the hunt.”
The Asheville Pinball Museum, 1 Battle Square, Suite 1B, downtown. Open 1-6pm on Monday, 2-9pm Wednesday through Friday, noon-9pm on Saturday, and 1-6pm on Sunday. Admission is $15/general, $10/ages 12 and under. For more information, call 828-776-5671 or go to www.ashevillepinball.com.