Revisiting Kilroys in Minneapolis

Vintage Games, Advertising, Strange Wonders, and Peculiar Oddities

In the process of updating this video that I made in 2010 with new Kilroys website and contact information I realized that I had lost all of the original raw video clips during my last computer build, and all that exists now is the low bit-rate rendered SD version that you see here.

This made me start thinking about shooting an updated video in HD – which got me thinking about all of the fantastic items that have appeared at and disappeared from Kilroys over the years – which got me looking through old photos, and finally, which brought me here… to show some of those pictures.

Kilroys is an establishment owned by Kevin Hammerbeck and located in the slowly-disappearing Minneapolis warehouse district.  I call it an establishment because in a way it is a little difficult to categorize. Just a few days ago I called Kevin to ask what words I should add to the video title to make it more descriptive – Kilroys what in Minneapolis?  After some silence we started laughing – even after nearly 40 years in the business he was at temporary loss for that single short phrase that would fully describe what Kilroys is and what he does.

In lieu of a sound bite description, here is a representative list of the items that Kevin buys, sells, collects, and displays (should you want to visit) that comes from his website :

• OLD COIN OPERATED MACHINES
• ADVERTISING SIGNS – METAL, PORCELAIN, WOOD, GLASS
• SLOT MACHINES, ARCADE MACHINES
• AUTOMOTIVE, GAS, OIL, GARAGE, & GAS STATION MEMORABILIA
• COKE MACHINES, JUKEBOXES, GAS PUMPS
  
• PEANUT, GUM BALL, CANDY VENDING MACHINES
  
• TRADE STIMULATORS, GAMBLING MEMORABILIA
• DISPLAY, AUTOMATONS ,FIGURAL, CHARACTER, ADVERTISING
• ADVERTISING CLOCKS, NEON SIGNS

And I would add some other items that I have seen over the years :

• MAN CAVE ITEMS & MANTIQUES
  
• UNUSUAL/OLD ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC DEVICES
• FILM PROPS, THEATER/DRIVE-IN MEMORABILIA, EPHEMERA
• SMALL MAGIC OR ILLUSION PROPS
• GIANT ADVERTISING ITEMS & WINDOW DISPLAYS
• CARNIVAL-RIDE CARS, MOTORCYCLES, OTHER VEHICLES & MEMORABILIA
  

Kevin started his business in Little Falls, MN in the mid-seventies and moved his shop to Minneapolis in the early eighties.  For many years he was located on the third floor of his current building, but when space for expansion became available he moved to the lower level and grew to fill the roughly 8000 square-foot area that you see in the pictures.  He has still managed to populate every nook and cranny of the showrooms and every back room and hallway with his eclectic collection of oddities both big and small.

Kilroys is a retail store that is open to the public, but it is much more than that.  It is a sort of museum that draws visitors back time and time again to bask in the warm neon glow and play a few games while listening to Artie Shaw on a genuine Wurlitzer jukebox.   Kevin is an owner, collector, curator, restorer, sales manager, and a bookkeeper – every day except Sunday and an occasional holiday.

Over the years Kevin has had quite a few notable customers and visitors including Steve Perry of Journey, Whoopi Goldberg, Minnesota’s own Leo Kottke and Brian Setzer, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and ’60s heartthrob Bobby Vee.  He supplied props for the Coen Brothers film A Serious Man, and in the summer of 2013 an independent film production titled The Jingle Dress (still in production) moved in and spent a day filming a casino scene on his showroom floor.

On a more personal note, we have known Kevin for more than thirty years and he is a rarity in this hobby and business and as a person. Collecting can be competitive at times and doesn’t always bring out the best in people, and even on my first trip to the Chicagoland coin-op show I discovered firsthand that honesty and integrity among a few collectors and sellers takes a back seat to personal gain.  Kevin is one of the good ones, and over the years he has always been a trusted and generous friend, and I can count the number of people like him that I have known in my life on one hand (with two fingers to spare).  His shop has always been my happy place where it is possible to escape reality for a few hours and be immersed in another world and another period.

Watch for a new video tour and photos of his current collection in the coming weeks. If you would like to visit Kilroys when in the Minneapolis area you can find the hours and address at www.kilroysusa.com.

And here are a few pictures taken during the film shoot this summer (photos courtesy of Kevin Hammerbeck):

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