TOMMY

The Movie

 

I saw Tommy, The Movie, for the first time in 1976, I think. Unfortunately, I saw the PG version.  It was one of those deals like with Saturday Night Fever.  The movie was first released with an R rating, then it would be rereleased as PG so the studio could get everyone in to see it.  I remember the ad in the paper read something like, "Now everyone can join the experience" or something like that.

If, by some miracle, someone has a copy of that 1976 ad from the paper, please email me. Unfortunately, the video and dvd release were not the R rated version.  Also, the dvd lacked the original trailer.  What's the deal?  

 

This is the movie that turned me into a hopeless pinball addict.  I didn't realize there were so many pins featured in this movie until I slowed the scenes down on my dvd player, especially when all those pins get smashed near the end of the movie.  Well, here's what I got....

 

PINBALL MACHINE

SCENE

King of Diamonds, Gottlieb, 1967,

  Scene 7, "Amazing Journey", Gameroom Scene, seen in mirror upside down in the background before young Tommy's face fills the entire mirror.
Kings & Queens, Gottlieb, 1965 and one or two trashed woodrails. I clearly saw one to the left of the policeman as he is showing Oliver Reed the Kings and Queens pin Tommy was playing.  Cabinet is yellow with green on the upper half of the cabinet.  Name it anyone?

I thought I saw another one at the beginning of that junkyard scene but I can't be sure. 

 Scene 13, "Sparks" (my 2nd favorite scene)
Elton John plays Buckaroo, Gottlieb, 1965.  It's in a giant custom built cabinet with a small row of child size piano keys.  Look closely and you will see that Elton hits those little keys so hard on this pin, that the whole keyboard flies up on the right side each time.

Tommy plays Kings and Queens, Gottlieb, 1965.

 Scene 14, "Pinball Wizard" (my favorite scene)
This is THE most difficult scene for any pin collector to watch.  It's not enough that about 40 pins were trashed in this scene, but many are quite rare, and many 1967's trashed the year I was born, a sign? coincidence:)? Here's the list of pins I could ID in this scene.  There are many more, but they could only be ID'd by the cabinet.  If you can name some of the ones I didn't catch, please email me and I'll add them.  The links take you to the Internet Pinball Database where you can learn more about each pin. Scene 26:

"We're Not Gonna Take It"
Bank-A-Ball, Gottlieb, 1965 Rocket III, Bally, 1967
Big Star, Williams, 1972 Royal Flash, Chicago Coin, 1964
Bonanza, Gottlieb, 1964 Royal Guard, Gottlieb, 1968
Bowl-A-Strike, Williams, 1965 Sing Along, Gottlieb, 1967       (Ann Margaret's body found lying on this pin by Tommy)
Coquette, Williams, 1962 Skill Race,  (no info in IPD)
Eleven Belles, J.H. & Keeney, '58 Sky Rocket, Bally, 1970
Festival, Chicago Coin, 1966 Soccer Kick Off, Williams, 1958
Flying Chariots, Gottlieb, 1963 Super Score, Gottlieb, 1967        (2 or 3 of them in this scene)
Four Seasons, Gottlieb, 1969 Touch Down, Williams, 1967
Gay Cruise, Bally, 1965 Twinky, Chicago Coin, 1967
Hee-Haw, Chicago Coin, 1973 World Fair, Gottlieb, 1964
Hot Line, Williams, 1966  Also, a pool themed woodrail, and an unidentifiable Williams reverse style wedgehead from probably the early 60's.
On-Beam, Bally, 1968  
?Play Ball?, Chicago Coin?, 1951 (baseball theme EM, hard to read bg in movie, maybe not Play Ball?)  
Rallye, (no listing in Internet Pinball Database, ?rare import?).  Just before this pin is about to get smashed by a crazy follower, you see the backglass, which has a guy dressed like Patrick McNee from the Avengers.  

 

*notice in scene 26, "We're Not Gonna Take It", that many of the pins are filmed without the playfield glass in place, most noticeable being "World Fair".  I guess this was to reduce glare from the sun during filming.