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Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up, a pinball wizard shows off his incredible collection to the public with electrifying results.

Plus, history buffs remember and reenact the D-Day invasion of 1944 on the shores of Lake Erie.

And a Cleveland blues singer breaks out on her own with a beautiful ballad.

Welcome to APPLAUSE Your Arts and Culture Retreat.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

There's a new pinball mecca in the Buckeye State that's attracting fans of the Silver Ball to Girard, Ohio.

It's the brainchild of Orange Rob Burk, who wants the world to see and play.

His Guinness World Record holding collection.

to For a thousand games in my collection.

We cover every era from the thirties all the way up to today's modern game.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special report that here around 640 games between pinball and video games and there's an additional double that storage pinball for the family man.

It's a family deal.

Pinball is fun for everybody.

Probably the first memories of pinball was growing up as a young guy, maybe five or six years old, going in the basement of my old parents home and seeing this contraption down there, not knowing what it was.

It was a pinball machine.

We're talking about the early 1960s, but there was a machine there.

And around the suffer free play, it was quite quiet.

Intrigued by it did not work or anything.

But as I got older and older, I liked it.

It was a value chamber.

The ball has a mind of its own and no two games are the same.

Our work was fun, the themes were fun and that really got me intrigued to the point where I started reading about it, learning more about it, and learning about the players behind the industry.

I started collecting in mid to late seventies, so I had the warehouse for the company, the family business, and that's where I was doing the machines.

So I knew sooner or later I had to find another place to store the games.

And over time I came upon this grocery store and it had been a viable ghost over the years.

But then they closed down for whatever reason, and at the time the price was right.

I figured maybe I'll buy it, store my games, and they're thinking to myself, This is such a crazy thinking.

I'll put the games in there, I'll have a key.

Maybe once a week I'll come here, play a couple of games and turn the lights off and go home.

So my wife said, Yeah, it's crazy.

If you're going to build this place, why don't you build it for the general public to come and join?

Well, against the thirties among historians, the very first game was a game called Whiffle, which was produced right here in Youngstown, Ohio.

So I have the game here.

Very simple game, very simplistic.

No electricity, no flippers.

And actually it fits on the countertop.

It's maybe two feet wide by three foot long.

Not much to it, but it was the beginning of pinball as we know it.

It was called Humpty-Dumpty, made in 1947.

It was created by that firm in the Harry Labs.

And he came up with this thought, this idea of these flippers.

And when he put that on the game, it just turned the industry upside down because all of a sudden you can keep a ball, live longer on game play, and a lot of other people start copying the flippers.

There's arcades all over the US coast to coast, but none of them have the the breadth of variety we do.

And not only that, but the international presence.

There is a whole aisle here, about 40 games that were made in Spain and Italy.

So this row here is all the games from Spain and Italy.

This is my heart and soul right here.

We've got 40 games here made in Europe for the European market, and you're seeing them right here.

And these games are very unique.

The artists are unique.

The released the playfield design is unique, but that's what makes this hobby to me.

So interesting is those oddball games you just don't see everywhere.

And this is a good example of what we have here in Israel.

Here.

So when we celebrate our one year anniversary here about a month ago, my whole life to take it, I want to give my dad something and she has me a package.

Open up in here.

It's a certificate from the Guinness Book of Records recognizing me and honoring me for having the largest single collection of pinball machines.

So that was a great honor, a great surprise.

And it's one of the few times that caught me off guard.

The community's been very, very supportive.

They didn't really know.

I mean, this building was actually such a long time.

So for someone to come here and bring it back to life again, they were very excited about that.

But the more the people come here, they're just awestruck by they they really didn't know what to expect.

But once they see it, they're just enthralled.

Like this is unbelievable.

So you got to see it to believe it.

If you want to stop in for a game or two pastimes can be found in Girard, about six miles northwest of Youngstown.

Every August, the city of cognac on the beaches of Lake Erie hosts a remarkable tribute to history.

More than 20,000 people come out to witness this annual event, which began in 1999.

Let's take a look at the Cognac D-Day reenactment.

You.

We're the largest World War two reenactment in the United States and the largest D-Day reenactment in the world.

It started out with a group of like minded re-enactors who just wanted to do something that didn't have their own event.

So they came out to the bluff one year and decided there was about 20 guys and they decided to run up the beach.

And a bunch of people came out, watched them do it, and next year was 30 people and so forth, and it grew.

And we decided, well, we might have something here.

The Anzio beachhead was actually getting seriously threatened in if the Indian beachhead felt the entire operation water falling apart.

So reenacting is more or less we're doing it trying to give the audience a general broad strokes of what it had generally looked like, because a lot of people have really twisted ideas of what history looks like because of its importance, attractive way that people can get interested, because not everyone wants to go and watch a two hour long documentary.

Sometimes they're more interested in just what's going on and the small soldiers view and actually seeing it in person.

This is my second time, so.

And my son second time as well.

My grandfather was actually a vet in World War Two.

He was with the Army Air Corps.

He was a michael nest off.

He was a machine gunner on a B-24 Liberator.

So I grew up, you know, with a great appreciation for the greatest generation and for everything that they did for our freedoms.

And I think it's very important that my son understand that, because, again, you know, they're the future, right?

So it's very important that the greatest generation and those that fought to protect our liberties are remembered so that we can learn from history.

Right?

History doesn't always repeat, but it sure can rhyme sometimes.

Well, I'm multiracial, so my grandfather, 100% Caucasian, he actually was escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen.

And it was really funny.

A beautiful thing is I remember he used to tell me stories about, you know, going out on missions and things of that nature.

And we just had such a reverence for the Tuskegee Airmen.

And he told me, you know, that, you know, that's how he knew that, you know, this difference would be out on racial lines or whatever lines was be asked, essentially because he saw the courage of those men.

And frankly, had they not done their job and, you know, went above and beyond and protect my grandfather when he was making his bombing runs, my grandfather never would have met my grandmother and I wouldn't be here.

His great grandson, Eli, wouldn't be here.

So I think we've got a lot more in common than we do in that.

That's different.

One of the reasons we chose this location is because the bluff area and the beach are about the size of what Omaha Beach were in Normandy.

So it has a lot of similarities to northeast Ohio and Ohio in general, has quite a few reenactments.

A lot of the re-enactors participate in multiple time periods.

So they may do World War Two, they may do Civil war and different time periods like that.

So you really find a lot of history buffs, a lot of the re-enactors are active or former military and they they love the time period and they they've chosen or they have family members who were were in the war or what have you.

So they've chosen to honor them with reenacting, telling the story.

We do things like protecting downed airmen, hoping to get them all the way across south of to the south of France, across the Pyrenees, into Spain, and then a ship will take them back to England.

We added the farm building about boy, maybe six years ago.

Prior to that, I was in the camp, but I have never been a person.

I have never been a gun person.

So I don't I don't do that aspect.

My husband actually started this maquis group.

It's the Maquis du Britannia based in Brittany.

But prior to D-Day, sent to Normandy.

And so he started it.

I just came and watched.

And then after about ten years, I thought, I want to do this because I think history needs to be preserved.

The real history, what really happened, We really have a whole new appreciation for all the coordination that goes into the theater of kind of reenacting these small battles and then the layering on of the historical narrative over top of it.

So it's really nice because in year two, we're really able to we kind of get the lay of the land and we're able to kind of dig a level deeper, which has been a beautiful thing.

We have over a thousand re-enactors that come from the US and Canada and some from overseas as well.

But it's it's an effort, it's a group effort.

It takes a year to put on this and it also takes a lot of resources.

So we're 100% donation driven.

Some people say, you know, we're glorifying war, but that's the exact opposite of what we're doing.

We're trying to tell the story of how the world came together and really worked to fight and put an end to the tyranny that was taking place.

D-Day.

Conneaut takes place this summer August 15th through 17th to new, larger than life.

Figures greet visitors at the Cleveland Museum of Art Next time on applause.

Meet the artists behind the sculptures.

ROSE Bea Simpson of New Mexico.

the role of art in humanity is to give us back that patience to perceive the world around us.

Plus, hang with a Cleveland deejay turned downtown restaurateur and Apollo's fire performs Vivaldi.

All that and more on the next round of applause you can watch past episodes of APPLAUSE with the PBS app.

Let's travel to Columbus and the Goodwill Art studio, where a young artist is in her element.

Goodwill fosters creativity in its community by welcoming adults with disabilities like Larkin Janssen, Ted, I'm Larkin Johnson.

I have cerebral palsy, mild general palsy.

And I'm 22 years old.

It's been amazing because I never really thought I was an artist until I came here, so it's actually quite a lot.

I paint and do my circle.

Talk more about your circles and where you got the idea to do that.

I got it from Rose's work, and I really like the wider nature and stuff, so I just thought about doing my little Rose's stuff.

I'm very proud of it because they like it and I worked hard on it.

So, you know, like it feels good to, like, sell it or how them.

I take a look at it cause I work hard on it and stuff.

High water marbling.

Where are you?

On the dye and put paper on dynamic designs.

I like it because with the Dion's work, I.

You never know what it's going to look like.

What I like most about being an artist is like exploring new, like, techniques and stuff.

Like making new friends.

I grew.

What would you say to someone who thinks they can't be an artist?

I'm just experiment and see out and see how things turn out.

Tell you what, folks, we're on the lookout for story ideas about the local arts and culture scene.

From Cuyahoga to Coshocton, Elyria to Ashtabula.

Please email your ideas to arts at Ideastream Dawg.

AM Thanks.

Let's now take a trip to the Sunshine State via the Motor City.

The Sphinx Virtuosi is a unique classical troupe based in Detroit.

However, we catch up with them in sunny Sarasota.

The Sphinx.

Virtuosi is an 18 member ensemble of musicians of color and Latin acts, and they speak the language of today's composers.

When the opportunity came along, we thought absolutely it made great sense for us to be a host presenter because of the wonderful tradition of the arts here in Sarasota.

The Sphinx organization was founded in 1997 by Aaron Dworkin.

At the beginning, it was just the the, the the strings competition, the Sphinx competition.

It was really the first to showcase African-American and Latin string players in this country.

It was always an opportunity for these musicians to be heard, to network, to be able to meet other musicians of color, which is huge because in this industry you stand out.

We were looking at the idea of founding Sphinx and beginning this work in this field, which didn't really exist.

It was, how can we bring about systemic impact?

Some of the statistics that we've seen from the League of American Orchestras have shown that there's 1.8 to 2.5% representation of black and Latin musicians in American orchestras.

I think that a lot of the ways music has been presented has turned it into a bit of a closed off sort of medium, when in fact the communicative power of the music is quite vast and I don't think I realized how much I stood out until going to Sphinx because you're just kind of conditioned.

This is just how it is.

Nine times out of ten.

So to find that one time out of ten where all of a sudden it's like, Oh, you look like me, that's great.

A performance by six Virtuosi is not like any other orchestra performance.

There's four one.

We are a self conducted string ensemble.

We use that word intentionally, self conducted, not unconnected because each one of us is our own conductor.

It's a hyper democratic process.

Our rehearsals boasting that every single person shares something.

I never played in anything like that.

Like I was very shy in the beginning that.

What do you think about this?

And I was like, Really?

They really want you listen to my opinion.

Balancing 18 ideas and personal opinions can be tricky, but I think what's so amazingly unique about this group is that we do it.

It's peaceful.

It's respectful.

And in return, the performances we give their their live and the audience.

I think, really enjoys to see the way that we communicate on stage.

When we get together at the beginning of our tours, there is no real like icebreakers.

When I perform with other groups, other orchestras or other places, you kind of have to like have small talk to talk about the weather or you talk about traffic, all the kind of boring stuff.

Here we drop all of that because we already know why we're here.

It is truly a family.

I mean, you'll hear everybody say that like La Familia, but it's true.

We are the crazy family.

We are the Thanksgiving that gets out of control every night.

And it's just because it's constant laughter.

We love each other.

We take amazing care of each other, and it happens on stage and off.

We feel like a represented in each other.

We had to climb over similar obstacles to be at the level that we're at.

What makes a family is sharing good moments and bad moments.

All this struggle that each person had makes us stronger.

And when we share this struggles, we unify our strengths.

While music in Sarasota has been a long tradition here, in fact, the Sarasota Orchestra is the oldest, continuing orchestra in Florida.

I've been here at the orchestra 22 years, so I've seen this evolution of the institution, the ability for us to serve a broader and larger demographic region.

It's really been fun to be part of a community where you're part of the growth and the evolution of the art scene.

And that's exactly what's happened here over the last several decades.

It means a lot having this group come to our Sarasota community and bring their passion and their love for the music and their love for all people.

That's really the key, is really making sure that we bring organizations like the Sphinx Organization to these communities so they can see what is possible.

For me, I have a mission with music to encourage people from my country that they can pursue what they dream by.

I teach students that are very far from the big cities, and my goal in life, actually, it's to do a similar organization in Brazil.

I'm working.

Our community is not just Detroit or Michigan.

We've we've embarked on this global mission that is that the entire world that identifies with our goals.

So if the Sarasota Orchestra or whomever can identify that there are people who can be impacted by having a more global reach and effort in our goals of inclusion, then you shouldn't just stop at your, you know, your town or your neighborhood.

You should be able to go all the way.

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It's almost time to roll the credits on this edition of APPLAUSE.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

But before those credits roll.

Enjoy the warm vocals of Cleveland singer songwriter Jessica.

This is her tribute to her late parents, the lovely ballad that was all.

Shoot me and tie.

Thing is, I've seen the way you let make me feel sad.

I feel so fine.

Tried for doing things within.

Oh, my knees buckled.

We did see our.

Oh on death.

Our so had to learn Scotland take lessons from first floor.

I was so ambitious.

She didn't say anything.

She clean clothes came out the shame shame our come to our love Then Down, down, down, down.

Nothing less contriving still no letting the low stays up and down to get the silver fall Sometimes yes, you learned to love on deadline.

Production of applause and ideastream.

Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.