Arts Ent
The Best Of Everything
Magic At The Drop Of A Coin
Marvin's marvelous museum is more fun
than a barrel of mechanical monkeys.
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4 / 12
2002
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IT UIA
Sliovvi-ofyin
1696 East. Fourteen Mile Road
Celebrity
'
(Between Mound &Van Dyke)
(810) 268-3200
lb* *ill lb 10111
incredible phenomenon of amusement
There are over 1,200 electrical outlet
ure he's a character ... Gotta
for
young and old ... oddities and nos-
plugs
and
five
huge
transformers
in
the
be, with all the loony things to
talgia that astonish everyone of all ages.
5,500 square feet of space crowded
rub off while being around
While model airplanes buzz on an
with pinball machines, dancing and
them all day.
overhead track, video machines among
musical figures, mechanical banjo to
A wonder he hasn't gone absolutely
others constantly make clattering and
play for loose change, airplane models,
buggy ... walking about looking like he
ringing sounds ... as signs dangle every-
street signs, kooky signs, Barbie doll on
just got back from cleaning the barn
where,
dummies move about, a buffalo
a
tight-rope,
Sing
Sing
Prison
with ornaments dangling from
head
on
the wall puffs out smoke, vin-
electrocution,
a
guillotine
exe-
his jazzy suspenders.
tage fans of all styles, sideshow posters
cution, musical monkey band
And his office looks like it
from yesteryears (said to be the largest
... plus everything and any-
took a direct hit by an atomic
collection of vintage magic posters on
thing imaginable in coin-
bomb.
display in the world), kiddy carousels,
operated devices ... including
But he's sharp, entertaining
animated robots, antiques, gypsy for-
over 150 video games, multi-
and entrepreneurial.
tune-telling machine of the early 1900s
ple games like Ski-doo wave
Marvin Yagoda is a regis-
to wild games of today.
racers,
driving
machine,
six-
tered pharmacist who has
Oldest machine is a Mutoscope that
in-one simulated Cedar Point
become the talk of the odd_
DAN NY
flips pictures as you look in ... It dates
roller coaster, fishing
museum planet.
RAS KIN
back to 1905 and was put out by
machine, truck driving
His Marvin's Marvelous
Columnist machine, sports games, state
Local
Louis B. Mayer and his American
Mechanical Museum is a listed
Mutoscope Co. before he gained
of the art fighting games,
phenomenon in the World
Hollywood fame with Metro-
music games ... and even imported
Almanac's 100 Most Unusual
Goldwin-Mayer.
video
amusement
entertainment
direct
Museums in the United States.
Marvin Yagoda's uncanny coin-oper-
from Japan.
At one time, Marvin, who spends
ated technology equipment includes a
Historical and modern arcade
one or two days a week at his Sam's
1935 view of what a drunkard sees after
machines, sideshow wonders, curiosi-
Drugs on Fenkell, opened by his father,
imbibing one too many ... and one
ties, etc. ... in laughter-filled areas.
Sam Yagoda, in 1931, had a hobby
where you stick your hand in a hole
It is next to the new Loehmann's store,
since the 1950s of collecting old coin-
and onto something called the Great
former F & M of Farmington Hills site
operated machines ... It sort of got out
Chopandoff ... A grinning character
... in its own building in back ... fronted
of control ... and in 1990, he rented a
slams down a blade and out spurts
on
Orchard
Lake
Road
by
a
large
clock
part of the former Hunter's Square on
blood ... thankfully, not your own.
that goes backward ... naturally.
Orchard Lake Road, south of 14 Mile
He loves to relate a tale by his
The only time Marvin's closes is
... Back in 1980, Marvin had four
"Harvest Time" farm scene in a huge
when they turn off the lights at night
square feet in an aisle-way of Tally Hall
glass case ... hand-carved while in
... Otherwise it's a seven-day-a-week
there, with one machine, a chicken
prison by the Butcher of Alcatraz, a
operation ... holiday or not ... except
contraption that gave out eggs with a
triple-murderer who killed an Iowa
Yom Kippur, that is.
prize in the middle ... He still has that
farm family ... For a quarter, the minia-
This is the 12th anniversary of
machine and it is still working ... so far
ture farm equipment begins to move ...
Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical
giving out over 200,000 eggs ... Tally
all while Marvin tells the story.
Museum ... that opened in 1990.
Hall closed in 1989 and Hunter's
This is also where he has those much-
12 years of what has grown into an
Square reopened in 1990.
Thus began Marvin's Marvelous
Mechanical Museum ... as he continu-
ally adds more oddball and tremen-
dously interesting things that were
older than the last ... plus modernistic
joy galore machines and displays that
meet many a fun-loving eye ... People
say that it seems like every time they go
to Marvin's, he has something new
But that's not all ... He sells pickles,
too ... A dollar apiece from a large jar
on Marvin's snack bar counter ... and
ice cream, soft drinks, kosher hot dogs,
popcorn, etc.
From the time one enters until he or
she is dragged out screaming frantically
Ohs
that they want to stay, it's one heckuva
fun time.
Marvin Yagoda presides over his mechanical empire.