of the market by American slot machines. Once
they hit the bars and parlors, the now "quaint"
games of skill did not have the appeal of the fast,
flashy foreign competition. "Out sourcing" may be
the new buzz term but the concept has been around
a long time.
Even though Bajazzo's
fate as a star performer was
sealed back in the 20's, his
cousins continue the scam
even today. (Photo "D") is
a game called simply "The
Clown." It is the standard
Bajazzo with a large
"money wheel" at the bot-
tom right determining the
payout. Depending upon
which section of the wheel
is next released by a winning catch, you are
rewarded with either two or three Swiss "20
Rappen" coins or nickels. I can find no informa-
tion of this specific game but on the interior case is
the date October 18, 1967 written in pencil. This
clown is much cruder than Bajazzo but still retains
an appealing charm with his blue clown shoes, red
coat and large red nose. Bajazzo may be a clown
by dress but he's a pickpocket by trade!
The game is offered today as a compare and con-
trast with his bigger brother, "Multiball."
Another one of the irritations regarding research
into the antique British games (besides the lack of
comprehensive information) is the problem of mul-
tiple identifications of the same game by different
authors. The British game enthusiasts really need
an author the quality of a Dick Buschel to exhaus-
tively research and document the early games. I
have seen this game, "Multiball" also identified as
"4 Ball" and "Improved Pickwick." Regardless of
the name, it is an impressively large ball catcher by
Handan-Ni, circa 1913. For the small sum of one
penny (a large British lD penny, that is) you get
four balls to attempt to catch. For each ball caught,
you get a penny returned. The contrast to
"Multiball" is "Domino- Model Four," also from
1913. A much smaller game, the play is basically
the same. A penny provides four balls. If you
catch all four, you get your penny back and the
admiration of your buddies. Visually, these are
very attractive games. The play is difficult to win
and impossible to master. This probably explains
why these machines were abandoned and replaced
with faster, easier games like allwins.
The Handy-Knee Twins
Make that fraternal, not identical twins. Due to
their early introduction onto the gambling scene,
most catchers were made by the earliest coin-op
companies and as such, these companies usually
went out of business sooner rather than later. Such
is the case of the company that made the following
two machines. The company was Handan-Ni Ltd.
of London. They started around 1913 and pro-
duced under the name Handan-Ni until 1919 when
they changed names to London Automatic
Machine Co. Ltd. They went out of business
around 1929. Two games by them that I own are
"Multiball" (Photo "E") and "Domino-Model 4"
(Photo "F".) COCA readers will recall my earlier
misadventures with "Domi no-Model 4" ("COCA
Times", July 2003, "Domino And The Devils.")
Payramid
The most popular catching game, hands down,
belongs to Bryans Automatic Works of Kegworth.
Formed by mechanical genius, W.E. Bryan in
1926, "Bryans" became one of the premier makers
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