CHANGING LANES BOWLING CENTERS ENJOY FAMILY-FRIENDLY MAKEOVER.

Byline: RICK COCA Valley News Writer

Operators of San Fernando Valley bowling alleys are knocking down stereotypes that cast their businesses as poorly lighted hangouts for smokers and drinkers and are setting up the centers as family-friendly recreation venues.

Part of the centers' makeover has come from technology as owners seek to attract younger crowds with ``midnight bowling,'' full of glow-in-the-dark lanes, elaborate light shows and big-screen TVs playing the latest music videos.

Hosting childrens' parties and corporate events have also helped. Another aspect of the sport's image makeover was court-ordered, as California law in the 1990s prohibited smoking in restaurants and bars and other public places.

Gene Giegoldt is the owner of the Canoga Park Bowling Center in Winnetka. He started there as a manager in 1987. He said the smoking ban was good for bowling's reputation and helped usher in the era of ``bowling centers'' rather than dingy ``bowling alleys.''

Like most operators in the Valley, Giegoldt tries to maintain lane space for seasoned league players, while also offering lanes to young people and families just out to have some fun.

The center is in a constant state of improvement, as Giegoldt adds the ``latest and greatest thing,'' whether it's computerized scoring (standard fare nowadays), or the more resilient synthetic lanes to replace wooden ones, which tended to chip and crack and required yearly maintenance.

Despite all the improvements, the center continues to run the same automatic pin-setter machine installed in 1958.

``If it isn't broke, there's no need to fix it,'' Giegoldt said. ``These machines built in the '50s and '60s, they're like Cadillacs or Mercedes. They'll just run forever.''

Pin-setting machine mechanic Max Ballou of Sunland has worked at Pickwick Bowl in Burbank for 13 years.

``The face of bowling has changed,'' Ballou said recently while watching over the AMF 8270s pin-setter machines from the back of the 24-lane facility.

Ballou, 43, said in his younger days, bowling was a simpler game.

``You'd bowl for Blue Chip stamps,'' Ballou said.

Established in 1957, Pickwick Bowl used to cater to Lockheed Corp. and other nearby aerospace companies, long since closed, Ballou said. Today, it hosts a number of events for nearby entertainment studios.

Keeping those pins coming is Ballou's job.

Seeing the machines in constant motion as they sweep up pins and send them on a circular conveyor belt onto a swinging arm that sends them forward (like fish swimming upstream, Ballou says), before the arms place each pin in just the right slot for proper lane placement, looks like a minor mechanical miracle.

Ballou said a good mechanic has to have the right mix of mechanical inclination and common sense.

``I've taught many people to work on these things,'' Ballou said.

Dolores Lamore, 68, of Atwater Village has bowled at Pickwick since 1962. For the past 15 years, she's been employed there.

``Sometimes it slows up and sometimes it picks up like gangbusters,'' said Lamore, a party hostess at the lanes. ``Right now, (it's going) like gangbusters.''

At Mission Hills Bowling Center, Leticia Rivera, 48, of Riverside bowled one recent Saturday along with her 4-year-old grandson, Joseph Marquez.

The pair bowled with the bumper rails up, which guards against gutter balls and increases the fun factor for youngsters like Marquez.

Rivera spoke about her family's recent history with bowling.

``I bowl in a league on Sundays,'' Rivera said. ``It's a lot of fun. You look forward to it. My cousins bowl, too, so it's like a little tradition we have, to bowl together on Sundays.''

Someone who knows about family tradition and bowling is Brandon Dziengielewski, 24, assistant manager and league coordinator for Pinz Bowling Center in Studio City. Dziengielewksi is a native of Buffalo, N.Y.

He worked at a bowling facility there, as well.

He said there are major differences between the working-class atmosphere of his hometown lanes and Pinz, which is about as cool as the Valley gets with its popular ``Rock N' Bowl,'' which is frequented by young Hollywood celebrities.

``Where I worked in New York, just in the aesthetics (there was a big difference),'' Dziengielewski said. ``They still had the shag carpeting on the walls.''

He said in Buffalo, there is a culture that's embraced bowling for generations. Dziengielewski's great-aunt owned a bowling alley and, like himself, his father worked at a bowling alley as a young man.

``There, you grow up with the bowling alley, then you join the adult league,'' he said. ``It's a whole family kind of thing.''

Dziengielewski, currently attending California State University, Northridge, working on a master's degree in screen writing, said despite some of the aesthetic differences, bowling, on the West Coast or the East Coast, has the same appeal.

``It's the sport that ties it together,'' he said. ``You don't have to be an Olympic athlete to be a good bowler. (Any) age can have fun doing it.''

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Frank Natarelli, 93, of Mission Hills, enjoys stopping in at Mission Hills Bowl to shoot the breeze with friends and watch the bowling action.

(2 -- color) Bowling with friends at AMF Rocket Lanes in Chatsworth.

(3 -- color) Max Ballou, pin-setting machine mechanic at Pickwick Bowl in Burbank, says that the rows of pins floating across conveyor belts look like fish swimming upstream.

(4 -- color) Jason Alas, 8, enjoys his first time bowling at Canoga Park Bowl in Winnetka with his father, William, sister, Katherine, and mother, Delmy.

Rick Coca/Valley News