Rebman's Opens Its Oberlin Ave. Lanes – Jan. 16, 1955

If you lived in the Lorain area back in the 1960s and 70s, and were in the mood to go bowling, you had a lot of choices. Everybody no doubt had their favorite bowling alley.

Not belonging to a league, my buddies and I had to find a place with open bowling. We would go far and wide in our search; Andorka Lanes on Lorain's east side; Shoreway Lanes in Sheffield Lake; Lake Erie Lanes in Vermilion; Aqua Marine Lanes out in Avon Lake; I even remember going to Broadway Lanes (in the basement of the Broadway Building) at least once.

But the one that I (and other west-siders) probably went to the most was the one closest to home: Rebman's Recreation.

Unlike many of the businesses that I write about, Rebman's is still out there at the south end of Oberlin Avenue and doing well. But originally it was located at 1040 Broadway (across from Lorain Monument on the other side of Broadway – now lost to the underpass). 

Here's an ad from the September 8, 1947 Lorain Journal announcing its opening.

And here's an ad for the Grand Opening of the Rebman's Restaurant, from the June 5, 1948 Lorain Journal. The bowling lanes were downstairs.

But with the beginning of the new year in 1955, the new lanes on Oberlin Avenue were almost ready for their grand opening. Here's a schedule that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 7, 1955 mentioning the opening day for the 'new establishment.

And here's the Opening Day ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 14, 1955.

I posted a July 1958 ad for Rebman's promoting its Acme Automatic Pinspotters back here.

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As I reminisced back here, bowling was kind of important in the Brady family. My parents met while bowling. They bowled in a BF Goodrich league. And Mom tried to make bowlers out of my siblings and me by signing us up for a Saturday morning league at Shoreway Lanes.

I even took bowling as one of my physical education requirements at Ohio State (along with ice skating) and bought an engraved ball after college. But unfortunately, bowling was never something that was right up my alley.

Rebman's Ad Featuring Mr. Pinspotter – July 3, 1958

Back in May, I posted an April 1956 Broadway Recreation ad announcing that the bowling alley had switched to Brunswick automatic pinsetters. Well, here's an ad for Rebman's that mentions their AMF Automatic Pinspotters.

The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on July 3, 1958 – 57 years ago this month.

So why are they called pinspotters and how did the machine work?

Here's an explanation that ran in the Arlington Times of February 20, 1958 when the same product was installed in a local bowling alley. "The workings of the machine are almost impossible to describe. Three motors drive the mechanism. One drives a huge wheel, which feeds the pins into the spotting machine, with one set of pins always ready to be set while another is on the deck.

"When the first ball is thrown, the machine picks up all those pins which are still standing and holds them up while a sweep cleans the deck of those knocked down. Then the machine re-spots the remaining pins. In the meantime, the ball is pushed through a small gate and lifted to the return gutter.

"Should a bowler get a strike, the sweep cleans the deck and the new pints are set into position ready for the next ball.

"The entire operation is uncanny to watch."

AMF even created an advertising mascot (seen in the Rebman ad) to promote their futuristic pinspotting machine. His name? Mr. Pinspotter of course!

Courtesy tikiranch.blogspot.com

The genial robot was featured in ads and promotional brochures.

Courtesy blog.invention.smithsonian.org

Courtesy Bowltech.com

Mr. Pinspotter decals were also affixed to part of the pinspotting machine.

Courtesy Bowltech.com

Courtesy Bowltech.com

I was trying to remember why Mr. Pinspotter seemed familiar to me. Then I remembered that he bears a clunky resemblance to the mischievous robots who made life miserable for Gumby in Robot Rumpus.

Come to think of it, the ever-grinning, bright-eyed Mr. Pinspotter looks a little like Gumby's longtime nemeses, the Blockheads, too (below)!

So what is “rhythm bowling” as mentioned in the various promotional pieces?

As explained in the November 23, 1956 Freeport Journal – where the local bowling alley Star Bowl had just installed their AMF Automatic Pinspotters, "Providing a consistently accurate spotting of pins, AMF's machines have generally been credited with improving not only bowling scores but bowler form. For it seems that the rhythmic regularity of the Pinspotter in setting the pins and returning the ball has invariably induced a clockwork-like bowling action that has resulted in improving bowler performance. With the machines no chance is allowed for any erratic activity in the pits. Thus the bowler reacts to the Pinspotter as automatically as the machine does to him.”

I guess you had to have been a bowler in the pre-pinspotter days to see any improvement. I’ve always been a lousy bowler, even with Mr. Pinspotter’s help.