Rafael and the Paris Pin-Ball Museum

Feb 2, 2014. We wandered in a desolate and forgettable street near Porte de Clignancourt. There was no sign that a museum would be situated in such a street, even less so when we stand in front of a ugly, concrete residential building. But when Bruno opened the door, we stepped into a magic land. Hundreds and hundreds of pin-ball machines from the 1930’ to 1970s spread through a few rooms, all meticulously maintained and in good working condition. One can imagine that during these years, all America was indulging itself in the sound if “bing bing bing…” and the unique electro rhythms, together with Pizza, beer and a lot of winter nights to kill. The flash panels mostly have themes of football, baseball, girls in bikinis with heavy round tits and cowboys (saving girls in bikinis with heavy round tits). For sure that a lot of boys grew up dreaming to be one of these heros, with intensive masturbation. This is America pop culture at the Zenith. When Rafael stepped in, one thought seeing an alarming poisonous tropical insect. He wraps himself behind a green baseball cap, neon-lime colored round glasses and a bright orange jump suit. At 76, beaming of life, he threw a bomb to Robert: “Are you a Jew? A Jew from New York?” A bit awkward and for sure taken by surprise, Robert said yes. “I knew it! A Jew has an eye for another Jew!”. Then he turned to Robert’s wife:”Are you Japanese?”. Upon the yes answer, he pointed to a picture of a beautiful Asian woman “ This is my 5th wife, a mixture of Malay and Japanese. At 76, I have a child of 18!”. Continuing his trophy speech, “What do you think? With all my success and my taste, I would not pick an ugly one!”. Before we could react -if we knew how - “My wife is unique, one day she picked up a knife…, and “chu’!” – he slashed the invisible knife in his chest. We go “wow!!!”, he then waved his hand over his head and made another “chu!”, cutting the knife across his head. “My wife is unique!!! She wanted to kill me. But what can we do? We are in love”. We all nodded in shocking agreement. “And you? You are Chinese?”. “Yes.” “The Chinese are oriental Jews! We all like families, like money and like to show off!”. He then went on to tell a joke of a Tunisian Jew who bragged about his Porsche, his women and his five Rolexes on one arm. And while he was bragging, a thief came and cut his arm off. He ran after the thief, crying “He stole my Rolexes!”. Rafael was in the Casino business in Las Vegas, obviously he made a not so small fortune. One day he said to himself that he was tired of making money. He started to collect Pin-Ball machines and spent 3 million dollars on his collection. There is a young man in the museum cleaning the glasses of the machines “He is not Arab, he is Jewish”, Rafael explained “Although il y une tete Arabe”. He then said that actually the Arabs have no problems with the Jews. “I met so many princesses and high class Arabs, they are all very sophisticated, drinking afternoon and having English education!”. His hand picking up an invisible porcelain tea cup, his little finger pointing out, symbol of the English sophistication. It seems that someone is having a problem with the Jews, but we don’t know who. And Rafael did not explain. “Why did you create the museum?” We asked. He said: “My friend said to me: Why do you spend money on pin-ball machines? I told them that I’d better spend my money on these machines than on drugs. I have a friend who spent millions on drugs and each time I tell him to stop, he would say that one has many lives. Then he died. I only saw one life! Where are the other lives? I don’t want no advertising. Only interesting people came to my museum, the Americans, the foreigners, very few French! They are not interested and they are not interesting any way!”