Sensory Overload

Marvelous Marvin’s Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills is part arcade, part museum, and all fun.
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Ring, Ring - Jeremy Yagoda, proprietor of Marvelous Marvin’s Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, oversees a vast assortment of amusement games that his late father, Marvin Yagoda, collected for 60 years.  // All photographs by Josh Scott
Ring, Ring – Jeremy Yagoda, proprietor of Marvelous Marvin’s Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, oversees a vast assortment of amusement games that his late father, Marvin Yagoda, collected for 60 years. // All photographs by Josh Scott

Marvelous Marvin’s Mechanical Museum is tucked behind an arch bearing its name in Farmington Hills’ Orchard Lake Plaza shopping mall, but once one steps inside nothing is hiding.

It’s sensory overload for the visitor trying to take in the flashing lights and cacophony of several hundred pleasure machines, ranging from items popular at the turn of the 20th century to the most modern pinball games. On top of that, there are historic banners, signs, and other oddities on every wall, while an array of model airplanes are suspended from the ceiling.

Marvelous Marvin’s is the 5,500-square-foot brainchild of the late Marvin Yagoda, a University of Michigan-trained pharmacist who collected antique amusements for 60 years before his death in 2017. His son, Jeremy, has picked up the torch and carries it proudly.

The museum started in 1980 when the elder Yagoda’s five-car garage only had room for one vehicle due to his collection. His wife suggested he find space in the new Tally Hall food court, the precursor to Orchard Lake Plaza. Tally Hall closed in 1988 but when it reopened in 1990 as Orchard Lake Plaza, Yagoda moved his collection into its current rented location.

A 1903 Mutoscope flip card movie viewer thta shows the Hindenburg Disaster.
A 1903 Mutoscope flip card movie viewer thta shows the Hindenburg Disaster.

“We do well,” says Jeremy Yagoda, who doesn’t make his annual revenue public. “We’re not making a fortune here. My overhead is very high. The insurance in this industry is definitely high, because of kids. I don’t own the building so my landlord gets a very nice chunk of things.”

Marvelous Marvin’s is definitely more museum than arcade, but at this museum all the exhibits come to life at the drop of a quarter or two.

The oldest piece is a 1903 Mutoscope flip card movie viewer that shows the Hindenburg Disaster, which caught the eye of magician David Copperfield. “That’s the most valuable to me,” Yagoda says. “When I was a little kid, my dad took me to the artist’s shop several times while it was being restored. I told David Copperfield that it wasn’t for sale.”

Other one-of-a-kind antique attractions include multiple fortune telling machines, an Old King Cole musical puppet show, and a life-size Dr. Ralph Bingenpurge “County Food Inspector” who vomits on cue for a quarter.

Mandrake the Illusionist
Mandrake the Illusionist

There are countless other automaton attractions that, for 25 or 50 cents, provide such scenes as a beheading via guillotine, an electric chair execution, a torture scene from the Spanish Inquisition, and a conjoined twin exposition.

Another attraction, called Mandrake the Illusionist, is from 1932 and uses illusion technology still used by magicians today, while the 3 Trials of Terror was a feature at the Tower of London in England in the 1930s.

“We have several pieces from Great Britain from the ’30s and ’40s,” Yagoda says. “Some of our pieces traveled far to get here and others have traveled far to find new homes.”

One custom-made Marvin’s carousel eventually made its way to England. Other items have landed in Germany and other countries.

Although he’s never had the contents of the museum appraised, he guesses that the 1930s automaton machines are the most valuable.

Photo by Josh Scott
Photo by Josh Scott

“They’re all one-of-a-kind, handmade by artists, with incredible engineering behind them,” Yagoda says. “It’s hard (to put a value on) one-of-a-kind pieces that are only worth what someone is willing to pay.”

Marvelous Marvin’s also has multiple automated musical machines that are rigged to play, together, as many as 2,000 songs.

Marvin Yagoda was a pilot who flew a single-engine airplane, which explains the multitude of aircraft models hanging from the ceiling on a dry cleaners track so they can “fly” around the museum. One stationary model is an oversized, custom-made Ford Trimotor — the original all-aluminum plane traces its roots to Detroit Aircraft Corp. in 1925.

In addition, there are driving and flying simulators including a Star Wars Battle Pod and a Cedar Pointe roller coaster simulator, various antique test-of-strength games, four Skee-Ball lanes, a few dance games, Guitar Hero, 10 classic video games including Space Invaders, Pan-Man, and Donkey Kong, and 14 mostly new pinball machines.

Photo by Josh Scott
Photo by Josh Scott

“Whatever the newest pinball machine is generates the most revenue,” Yagoda says. “The dance games are insanely popular, and the Chinese fortune teller and Dr. Bingenpurge do well because they’re so unique.”

Given admission to Marvelous Marvin’s is free, visitors can get their money’s worth without ever playing a game.

As for décor, the walls are filled with circus sideshow banners from the 1930s and 1940s, and magic show posters from the 1920s. There are signs from the long-closed chimpanzee show at the Detroit Zoo. Soon, the dedication plaque from the original Cass Tech High School in Detroit will hang in the museum.

“I saw the Cass Tech plaque for sale online,” Yagoda relates. “So many legends of Detroit walked by that every day. I just had to have it.”

One wall features a display titled Marvin’s Marvelous Balloon Race, which was made for Yagoda’s father by an original Disney imagineer.

Photo by Josh Scott
Photo by Josh Scott

Other items available to gaze upon include a burger-holding Big Boy statue, a fun house mirror from Coney Island Amusement Park in New York, and an electric chair alleged to be in use at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility from the 1920s to the 1950s.

One of the oddest of oddities at Marvelous Marvin’s is P.T. Barnum’s replica of the Cardiff Giant statue. It’s one of the greatest archeological hoaxes of all time, and the legendary showman just had to get in on it.

“My dad always said Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum inspired him to create this place,” says Yagoda, who adds that in addition to carrying on his father’s legacy, he enjoys watching people just have fun.

“We get all kinds of people in here. You get to be a kid again,” he says of the attraction to Marvelous Marvin’s. “You get to smile and have fun. What I love is when I get three generations coming in — a grandfather, his son, and grandson. You can’t tell who’s having more fun.

“This was built out of passion. I get it. I love it and it’s part of me, too. I don’t think my level of passion is near my father’s, but I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than this.”