MARKETPLACE, VOL. XVI, NO. 377
EDITORIAL
PAGE 2, JUNE, 1977
Bi ll Gersh
.-
Baseball has been the theme of some of the finest coin operated games ever produced.
Back in the 1880s , Adolph Caille and his brothers of Caille Bros . Co ., Detroit, Mich. ,
as well as Herbert s. Mills and his Mills Novelty Co ., Chicago, into the 1890s and even
beyond, featured baseball as a front cover attachment to their slot machines. They also
manufactured various kinds of baseball games from counter type games to the bigger and
more attractive baseball games for Penny Arcades of the 1890s .
Wm . Gent and his Gent Manufacturing Co . , Philadelphia, Pa .• , took over in the 1900s
as top builder of Penny Arcade equipment . One of his most outstanding successes was a
baseball play game for arcades. He was i ollowed a decade later by Chester-Pollard of
New York City, who built the first large , very impressive , walnut cabinet games in the
1920s, among which was a marvelous baseball play game .
In the early 1930s, Wm . Rabkin of Int ' l Mutoscope Reel Co ., New York City, and J.
Frank Myer of Exhibit Supply Co ., Chicago, the two top arcade game manufacturers of
that great era, produced various versions of baseball play games in small and large
cabinetry . It wasn ' t until the mid-JOs when the first pinball with baseball play ac-
tion clicked. This was "Major League" presented by Pacific Amusement Mfg .Co . , Chicago.
It was the first all-electric play baseball game , developed and designed by young Harry
Williams who had also designed the very first all electric pin game - "Contact".
Since then, and as long as Harry Williams was with Williams Mfg . Co. , Chicago, a new
baseball game was produced each and every year. But times change . Video games are in
the picture . Following thru on the baseball theme, these past few video game years , has
been Midway Manufacturing Co ., Franklin Park, Ill ., a division of Bally Mfg . Corp., who
have produced outstanding baseball games . This year , Midway presents , "Double Play" .
And with this game , the industry reaches its 96th year of baseball game production.
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