Coin machine old-timers will remember Bally’s once sales director Ross Scheer, who exited the business just about the time electronic pins and video games exploded in the early ’80s. Ross, who recently passed away at Northwestern Hospital at the age of 90, began his coin-op career with a huge kiddie ride operation called Florida Western Trails that ran rides up and down the East Coast.
He sold that route to join Chicago Coin in the mid-’60s and afterward, relocated to Midway Games and then to Bally itself. After leaving the business he pursued some other coin-op interests and then took an early retirement.
His son, Betson West sales veteran Jeff Scheer, said his father had been in the hospital for some weeks before passing, and attributed death to heart issues. Ross leaves Jeff, his sister Susan and Jeff’s wife Wilma and their seven children.
RePlay publisher Eddie Adlum’s favorite Ross Scheer remark happened at an early AMOA seminar when an operator asked how some brand-new games wouldn’t function when taken out of the crate. Said Ross:
“Oh, if you want it to work, you have to pay extra.” May he Rest In Peace.