Mars Lanes celebrates 65 years of business
Keeping it like the good old days is just how Mars Lanes likes it.
Walking through the door, customers are immediately brought back to the 1960s from the decor, to the hand scoring system; but even after 65 years of business, modernization is not on the minds of owners Gary and Ruth Geller.
“I describe us as very historic and old fashioned,” Ruth said. “We are from the 1960s. We look the same and act the same as when it was built and opened in 1959.”
Keeping with the old fashioned theme, Mars Lanes does not have an automatic scoring system in place. All bowlers keep score with pencil and paper.
Whenever new customers call in to reserve a league or time to bowl, Ruth said she always makes sure that people know what they are getting into. Even for those that are new to pencil and paper scoring, Ruth is always willing to help out.
“Most of our people are regulars and they know how to keep score,” Ruth said. “If not I can show them right there how to do it or I can just do it for them for a couple frames and leave them alone. Or they can punch in the basic numbers and then I will add them up at the end. It only takes me a minute to do because I have been doing it for 35 years. It is different because we are the only ones around that do that.”
The old fashioned way of keeping score hasn’t deterred too many younger customers, Ruth said. In recent years, younger individuals will come in and keep score using an app on their phone which helps them calculate the totals.
Mars Lanes, 262 Mars Valencia Road, Adams Township, was originally opened by Carolyn and Bob Logan in 1959 and was called Logan Lanes.
Then 30 years later, John and Jeanne Utz bought the place and shortly after, the Gellers began helping out and ended up managing the business for a few years, before purchasing it in 2002.
“We did nothing to change it,” Ruth said. “When the older people come in it brings back memories of them there or somewhere else. The younger people get excited because it’s something they have never seen before. Once you get a feeling of the place you fall in love.”
Ruth said she and Gary are the only ones who work at the business, with no employees except for their son who stops by to fix things when needed.
The most recent owners John and Jeanne Utz, still visit the business to bowl once a week, despite both being in their mid 90s.
“(The Utzes) have been very supportive of us through the whole thing,” Ruth said. “They showed us how to be good business people and how to save money. They also encouraged us to take breaks. We work really hard and my husband is a workaholic, so they really wanted us to relax at some point and get away.”
A not so well know facts about the business, Ruth said, is that it has been featured in two TV shows on Netflix, as well as the movie “Kingpin,” which starred Woody Harrelson and was released in 1996.
In 1995, executives from the movie “Kingpin” visited old bowling alleys from around the greater Pittsburgh area in search of some older looking establishments.
“They went searching for those, found nine of them and we were one of them,” Ruth said. “They said we were a little too nice, which isn’t what they wanted for the main parts of the movie, but they decided to do some scenes anyway.”
Ruth said she was even used as an extra in the movie, and she can be seen briefly about five minutes into it.
The building was then used in 2018 for a five minute scene in the Netflix series “Mindhunter” and the following year was used for the Netflix series “I’m Not OK With This.”
“At the time I didn't even know what Netflix was,” Ruth said with a laugh. “We have memorabilia from those times because everyone always asks about it.”
Ruth, 69 and Gary, 70, have no plans to retire at this point in time, Ruth said, but she does still think about what the future might bring to the business down the line.
“My fear is that someone would change it,” Ruth said of someone else purchasing the business. “I don't know if there is anyone out there that would keep it the same. It would upset me if someone were to change it, but I don't have a right to say that.”
The Gellers believe they offer something that is unique and not seen anymore.
Ruth credits the business’s success over the past two plus decades of them owning Mars Lanes to the customers, but it is also the effort the duo puts in week in and week out.
“Everyone that comes in is treated like family and there are not a lot of places like that anymore,” Ruth said.
