ANATOMY OF A CLOWN
-- Part II --
by John Peterson
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If your memory is superior to mine, (not much of a challenge, I will admit,)
please forgive me while I recap our story up to this point.
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At the end of ANATOMY OF A CLOWN, PART I, I was
awaiting delivery of my latest love, a Bajazzo or clown
catching game that I purchased in an Ebay auction . The
game was non-working but advertised as being complete
- maybe - and with several features that began to make me
think, after I had already made the successful bid, that the
game was not original. Two items in particular that caused
the most doubt were the hinges that definitely had something
funky going on, and the domed top to the case, a feature
that I had never, ever seen on a clown catcher. My concern
was that I had purchased a composite game, one where the
original door and mechanism had been added to a much later
(and incorrect) case.
The Day of Reckoning arrived. The doorbell rang and
Greg, my main UPS man smiled as he delivered the oversize
box. I tore into it and carefully removed my treasure. I could
hear a ball rolling inside the mechanism so I did what any
proud owner would do; I deposited a coin and held my breath
as I activated the ball-lift lever. Boink! Something dropped
inside the case. I opened it up and there, lying on the bot-
tom of the case, was a small blue marble. These games are
made to operate on a steel bal I bearing. A glass marble is too
light to trigger the inner workings of the game. I replaced
the marble with the correct size bearing and activated the
game with another
coin. As I raised
the ball-lift lever
again, I heard the
same sound only
louder this time as
the steel bearing
fell out of its hold-
er on the way to the
top entry hole.
Now
would
be a good time to
explain how this
game works. Photo
Photo A
A is the ball lift arm at rest at the bottom of the arc. You can
see the ball resting in its "carry" position at the end of the lift
arm . Using the "T" handle on the right side of the front of the
game, the player is able to lift the ann from its full "down"
position to the full "up" position where the ball enters the
top of the playfield . Af-
ter a round of the game
has been played, win or
lose, the ball is retained
inside the mechanism
at a "gate." Putting a
coin into the coin slot
opens the "gate" and
releases the ball which
rolls down into the car-
ry position at the end of
the lift arm , Photo A.
Photo B is a wider
shot of the interior
mechanism. You can
see the ball I ift arm
Photo B
at rest. The crescent-
shaped flat metal piece
extending from bottom
to top, right side, is the
track that keeps the
bearing from falling out
while it is lifted to the
top where the ball rolls
out, entering the play-
Photo C
field at the hole seen
in Photo C. The player
controls the clown and
if the ball is caught by
the clown after bounc-
ing through the pinfield,
the clown is retracted to
the far left and the ball
Photo D