On a recent morning, I was out early at our local Wegmans supermarket. Because the store had just opened there were few people there and I could hear the music playing over the loudspeaker. In this case, it was the 1970s R&B song “Everybody Plays the Fool.” Like an ear worm, the chorus stuck in my head:
Everybody plays the fool, sometime
There’s no exception to the rule
Listen, baby, it may be factual, may be cruel
I ain’t lyin’, everybody plays the fool
I […]
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Let Me In!
Every year, The Strong receives thousands of nominations for toys that people believe—or, more accurately, KNOW—should be inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Most years, the number of nominations hovers in the 4,000–6,000 range. But in 2021, more than 55,000 nominations poured into the museum. Was it just that people working from home with fewer outlets for their attention found themselves with more time to advocate for their favorite toys and games? Maybe. But ever since The Strong […]
Pinball Playfields: A Flippin’ Fun Time, Part II
Pinball Playfields has a machine for everyone, and there’s always fun to be had. Part I highlighted a number of older machines, classics in their own rite. Part II contains a series of more modern machines, many of them from the exhibit’s generous sponsor, the Stern Pinball Company.
The Lord of the Rings
One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them, one Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness, bind them. The epic fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s […]
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Ditch the “Ladies’ Guide to Football” and Get in the Game
A recent addition to The Strong museum’s collection got me thinking about how gender intersects with professional football and what’s changed (or hasn’t) since the mid-1960s.
The item that caught my eye was a 1966 promotional booklet from Birds Eye frozen foods. Titled “Ladies’ Guide to Football,ʺ It’s filled with pop-art illustrations, the rules of the game, recommended stadium attire, and recipes requiring Birds Eye products (of course). The booklet was “dedicated to those women for whom autumn Sunday afternoons are […]
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The Laserdisc Playland: Atari’s Lost Arcade Game
By Andrew Borman
When Ars Technica journalist Matt Paprocki discovered a lost Atari laserdisc title Playland, I decided to dive into the Atari Coin-Op Division corporate records at The Strong to see if we could learn more about the game, and who worked on it.
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Pinball Playfields: A Flippin’ Good Time
Pinball is a game that dates back nearly a century, with many companies in the industry rising and falling and designers creating icons of the ever-evolving superstar of non-digital gaming. The Strong museum’s Pinball Playfields exhibit showcases some of the finest machines that the industry has ever seen and, while this is by no means a complete collection, there’s no doubt that these machines are icons in their own right.
Dancing Dolls
Take a step back in time to the oft romanticized […]
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What’s in a Bag?
One of my favorite recent museum acquisitions is a package of 1990s Pink Panther lunch bags. The infamous animated character is playing Panther, an adorable, make-believe arcade game starring himself. At The Strong, we preserve obvious commercial playthings like arcade cabinets and game cartridges, but we also acquire playful artifacts and play-related materials that can assist in contextualizing play in a specific period. As the research historian, I think the artifact helps us capture how video games permeate everyday spaces […]
The Benefits of Risky Play
We’ve recently opened Skyline Climb, a high adventure ropes course that soars high in our cathedral-like glass atrium. Physical play like this is important, not only as part of the museum experience here at The Strong but as a contributor to well-being in general, especially for children. This attraction offers guests more than just the opportunity to test their agility and balance; it also is a playground for building resolve, courage, and confidence. Asking guests to navigate narrow beams at […]
True Grit
Sand may not be running through my veins, but it’s definitely been a significant part of my life for decades. One of my earliest childhood memories involves playing in the backyard sandbox that my dad built. The sandbox wasn’t huge and its wooden construction wasn’t anything fancy, but I spent hours playing in it. Being a kid who loved toy cars, my Tootsie Toy and Matchbox vehicles regularly maneuvered through that miniature sandy landscape and probably spent more than a […]