Fascination – Old Fashioned Nantasket Beach Fun Since 1945

PERMANENTLY CLOSED / DEMOLISHED 🙁

https://www.thedunesparagon.com/

https://www.paragonboardwalk.com/

2018 Update: Good news (crossed fingers edition): Fascination has been sold to a new owner. According to the Boston Globe in November 2017 Chris and Diana Reale from Hingham bought the now 100-year old game.

According to that article:

“Chris and Diana Reale’s immediate plan is to renovate and update the existing building and mini-golf course by April 1, install new but nostalgia-inducing arcade games in what was Dream Machine Arcade, reopen the Fascination game room, bring in a new snack bar operator, and open an arcade bar or brew pub with craft beers — starting with the “Giant Coaster IPA.””

All I have to interject is PLEASE DON’T MESS UP THAT AWESOME FLOOR!!!

Wishing them all the best and hope they wisely keep what is vintage and awesome,  so Nantasket becomes a destination of childhood joy again, like it was when I was growing up!

Original 2011 Post: 

Ever since I was little and we’d visit Paragon Park at Nantasket Beach I’ve always been fascinated by the Fascination game. Hidden behind the glass doors, air conditioned for comfort- what exactly was this mystery game that all the adults gravitated to?

It seemed only appropriate that days after my recent birthday when, sigh, I must be an adult at this point, my sister and I dared ourselves to open the doors and see what Fascination is all about. Come on inside with us!

First off I was glad to see that the Fascination game was still there at all, at the former site of Paragon Park. The park closed somewhat unexpectedly in 1985 and since then the local businesses have fought to draw the summer crowds that once paraded up and down the sidewalk across from the beach.

Here’s an artists rendition of what the Nantasket Beach thoroughfare looked like back in the day, courtesy of a vintage postcard displayed just down the street at the carousel that once graced Paragon Park. Note the long line of peaked white roofs.

You can see those roofs still today, though unfortunately many of the seaside shops, arcades and restaurants have closed down. So sad.

But all of us are in luck, as the Fascination sigh still shines brightly on the Avenue!

In business since 1945, the Fascination game in Nantasket is the oldest one in the country, the game tables having originally been installed at Coney Island in 1918.

Opening the glass doors you will find yourself in an air conditioned- and smoke-free space – lined on either side with games that look like a table version of skee ball or bingo.

(I am seriously in love with the crazy quilt colorful patchwork of a linoleum floor!)

When we walked in there was a game already in play so we tried to figure out how to do it by watching folks. We saw rolling balls, lighted circles but still were clueless. So we admitted our ignorance, approached the gentleman in the booth in the back part of the room and confessed that we had no idea how Fascination worked. Boy did we feel goofy!

Lucky for us the man in the tower was new owner of Hull’s Fascination game, Bartley Kelly!

A local resident, he told us he had always loved the game and when the opportunity came around recently to buy the game he jumped right in. Friendly to us obvious newbies, he made us feel right at home and explained the simple rules: Roll the balls, light up all the circles, and the first one to light up all the circles wins a small cash prize.

Well, that’s easy! We rolled a few practice balls as Bartley suggested, then placed our dollar bills on the glass for the next game and started rolling to win!

It goes a little something like this:

We noticed that the place had been more crowded earlier, and Bartley said they had had a spin-the-wheel game going on, where the amount of the prize increased. They have things like that going on throughout the evening to keep it interesting. We did our best, but from the look of concentration on many folks’ faces, there were some serious Fascination players here.

I always say when I win the lottery (not if) I want to bring back Nantasket to its former glory and I’m glad Bartley got a jump start on my plan. It made my heart swell to see the place all lit up on Nantasket Avenue, just like the olden days.

And while some more modern folks may have the Human League going through their head when they come here, we here at Retro Roadmap HQ couldn’t help but put on this 45 to get in the mood: