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Bingo Pinballs
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What’s
this “Bingo Thing” about anyway? Well
it looks like I need to sit down and read everything Russ Jensen and Dick
Bucsheul have ever written, since it has come to my attention that the origin
of the word “bingo” and how it got attached to pinballs is a complete mystery
to me. As
you know I surf quite a bit when time allows and over time I have gathered a
few “non-bingo-bingo” goodies. So
here we go: 1931: By virtue of a contract with the Bingo Novelty Co. of Chicago, D. Gottlieb & Co. take over manufacturing and distribution of Bingo:
Well
not a whole lotta readily available info out there on the Internet about
these guys. The IPD “Games List” area @ http://ipdb.org/gengames.html will
eventually lead you to 11 entries for them starting with their Banner game. 3 of their games have Bingo in their titles - Bingo, Bingo
Game of Cards, and Bingo Play Cards
all of which are listed as “Mechanical Play.” Here is a .jpg image on one of the entries that again ties them into the Gottlieb folks, it seems these boys were destine to do battle. In the long run, I guess we need to assume that the Wedheheads won out and crushed these guys out of business:
Well my search on the Bingo Novelty Co lead me to
look at 1920s and 1930s searches for bingo, and much to my surprise this
little article popped up: According
to the folks who like to keep track of such things, December is supposed to
be the birth month of the game of bingo. We can't confirm that, but we
do know that the ear-liest form of the popular game of
chance was played more than 200 years ago. The
word bingo is an alteration of bing, an interjection suggestive
of a ringing sound. Back in the 1920s, when it first began appearing in
print, bingo announced any unexpected event or instantaneous result.
After folks with a winning line or card in bingo-type games began calling out
"bingo" to announce a winning position, the game became known by
that name. This
is not to say that bingo had no name before the 1920s. In fact, the
game had many names. Lotto, which comes from the Italian word for
"lottery," was first used for it in seventeen-seventy-eight. Keno,
the name for the original American form of the game, first appeared in
eighteen-fourteen. That name comes from the French quine, meaning
"set of five winning numbers in a lottery," plus the -o from
lotto. Other
American names for bingo include beano and tango. During
the Great Depression, a variant called screeno was played at
neighborhood movie theatres. On what was known as Bank Night, patrons would
receive free bingo cards with their admission tickets and try for prizes and
cash. 1936 Fungus Amungus lists this little baby below as a
1930s Lindstrom game, and when I found it on eBay it came with this blurb: What a great find, just in time for
Christmas! Treat yourself, or that special someone, who would love this in
their collection. This LINDSTORM TOOL AND TOY CO. AIRWAYS PINBALL/BINGO TIN
GAME has some of the best vintage graphics I've ever seen. Neat Bingo
graphics on the back made of a heavy carboard. Spring launcher for pinball
works. great..
1937 Well now we all know the Bingos hit in the 1951ish time frame, but it looks like there was plenty of ground-work leading the way. Here is a “½-box” backbox from Keeney that came out in the late 30s:
Photo courtesy of Russ
Jensen and the IPD, but I have seen it borrowed and posted in several
locations. I like that Keen-O title too, makes you wonder the history there
also :) 1939 Well hell! Looks like Chicago Coin should of hung in their a little longer; they would have been the 1st n the scene with a 4-card Bingo:
194X-? Old Pinball "Bingo" Game
by TrixyToy. Pinball action. Made of wood, cardboard, tin, and nails. Appears
to be hand made but it is stamped "TrixyToy Gardner, Mass." Really
works. Measures 27" X 15" X 3", fold out legs, spring operated
shooter. If you hit it right ball will do a figure 8 around game to score big
points. Not sure why its called Bingo?
1946 D. Gottlieb & Co were also well on their way toward having
a line of Bingos with their Baffle Card:
1950 Followed very closely by their 1950 “Watch My Line” which might
even been said to have color combinations much like the later Bally Magic
Screen games:
More to come, wait until you see my Williams “Pseudo Bingos” pages :)
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