North Star

A Sample game with serial number �01046 S� is pictured here. The primary differences from the Production version are: 1) Backglass: the words 'Game Over' are obvious when not lit. The Production game does not have this. 2) Playfield: only the white inserts are translucent. The other inserts are transparent. In contrast, all inserts on the Production version are translucent. 3) Cabinet: the front has a blue stripe on the hinge side and a red stripe on the lock side, as shown in the flyer. Production games have the red and blue reversed from this. The game in the flyer has a Production backglass, the translucent inserts of a Sample playfield, and the striping of a Sample cabinet. We show two examples of Sample backglasses. One glass, having partial serial number ending with '076 S', has areas where the reds have obviously faded: the lady's parka and boots, the polar bear's tongue, the musical G-clef, the thin oval loop around the score reels, the striped North Pole, and the letters spelling Game Over. Initially, it seemed hard to believe that the variegated sky all along the top of this glass had suffered from red fade as well, given how remarkably selective the red fading would have had to have been to have wound up looking like the checkerboard pattern that remains, had it originally been the two-tone red like the production glasses, and with even the vertical red squiggly lines having survived. At first, we thought this variegation were original Sample colors especially when we saw how strongly the variegation showed up on our black-and white Sample image from a German magazine from 1967, where the alternating light and dark pattern seemed more pronounced than on any Production glass. However, the alternation of light and dark in this magazine image does not match this Sample glass. When we subsequently received Sample glass number �01046 S� having no red fade in any areas, its alternating red and orange sky may be what the camera picked up in the German magazine image. In the book The Pinball Compendium Electro-mechanical Era, Wayne Neyens explained that Roy Parker is the artist of this game, not Art Stenholm as previously believed. Wayne points out that he (Wayne) was there when the artwork came in (from Advertising Posters, Inc.). Comparisons have been made by others of the artwork of North Star and backglass art known to have been done by Art Stenholm, on the belief that he is the actual artist of this game and not Parker, noting for example his style of drawing faces and his use of people seated with their legs folded and/or playing guitar. We have not studied all of Parker's glasses to try to determine if Stenholm's portrayals were exclusively his, and no one has approached us as having done this study. Dave Gottlieb had stipulated that Roy Parker work exclusively for Gottlieb. Wayne stated that Parker's last artwork for Gottlieb before his death was Mayfair in 1966, and Stenholm's first game for Gottlieb was Masquerade, also in 1966. This is two years after North Star. Wayne did tell us later that it was possible that Stenholm was helping Parker and that Gottlieb was just not aware of that. We note that Stenholm succeeded Parker as the Gottlieb artist, suggesting that he was preferred over the remaining choices at Advertising Posters, and from this we speculate his artwork would not have been unacceptable to Gottlieb in 1964. We followed up with Wayne about the continuing concern. He comments on separate occasions:Parker was our Artist until he passed away December 18, 1965. He was employed by Reproduction Graphics until they burned down for the second and last time. It was then that we went to Advertising Posters and started doing business with them but with the stipulation that they would hire Parker and that he would work solely for Gottlieb. Now Leroy Parker was an honorable man and I cannot see him coming over to our office and presenting Stenholm's work as his own. I can perhaps visualize a studio full of pieces of paper with sketches of various poses etc. of all kinds and Parker might have picked one up and copied it. But you know that Parker also had a studio at his home where he did a lot of his work. I would also think it more likely that Stenholm copied from Parker. As for North Star, we built that game starting in September of 1964. That would mean the art work would have been completed several months prior to September 1964. Parker died December 18, 1965 and as far as I can recall he did all our work right up into 1965. Now I suppose it is possible that Art was assisting Parker and we were not aware of it. Studying the picture I can say that it is not one of Parker's greatest glasses but his style shows through I believe. We previously showed a date for this game of September 1964. The new date is per Gottlieb documentation provided to us by Wayne Neyens.