In 1942 - Mayor La Guardia did a city wide sting. He raided 1000's of gambling halls and cerimoniously smashed all the pinball machines with sledgehammers.

Why did he and other mayors hate pinball ? A harmless game to say the least.

Well there was a story that went around about what pinball representer.

The story was that pinball owners were hustling kids of their lunch money. It got associated with gambling and seediness.

This story ruined the pinball industry.

There's another story about a machine that GE invented.

GE invested millions of dollars on redesigning their MRI machines.

The man who oversaw the project saw a little girl on a hospital hallway crying. She was crying and saying I don't want to get into the MRI machine again.

This made him really sad.

They were noisy, loud and stay there for a while things happen above you. For a kid this experience was awful.

GE was in a quandrum. Either they allow vulnerable patients to suffer or spend millions more to redesign the machine.

Though they came up with something that was ingenious.

They painted the MRI machine like a pirate ship. They gave a story book to the kid a night before their MRI experience. The story revolved around the kids going on a pirate adventure.

Nurses and doctors are dressed like pirates. The kids have to stay silent and still as they go through the machine so that the pirates don't realise the kids there.