Quoted from electricsquirrel:I kind of wondered about that, too.
Saratoga, is known for horse racing and spring water.
There is a ship called Saratoga too:
"USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s."
Yet there are references of neither on my glass.[quoted image]
My apologies for necroposting so hard here. When I first joined the hobby I had noted the pinball machine after my city’s namesake, Saratoga.
On the backglass I believe is depicted the Grand Central Hotel, however it COULD be the United States Hotel.
In the late 1800s Saratoga Springs was a worldwide destination for any upper class Victorian traveler. It is world renowned for its historic racetrack (the oldest operating track in the country!) and it’s healing waters. “Taking of the waters” was considered a high society activity. The Native Americans for many generations believed the springs had healing powers and taught this to the white settlers. And to this day the Lincoln Bathhouses still stand for those who want a day at the spa.
Anyway, in the late 1800s the hotels in Saratoga exploded, they started building on entire city blocks. They build many famous hotels such as: Congress hotel, the United States Hotel, the Grand Central Hotel, the Grand Union Hotel, and the only one still remaining: the Adelphi. Most of these hotels were “the biggest in the world” so not to be outdone the next guy logically just build a bigger one down the street. Most the city was dominated by these ultra-massive hotels that we really don’t see anymore in modern times. We’re talkin’ college campus hotels, with their own enclosed courtyard as seen on the backglass.
Most of these obviously succumbed to fire pretty rapidly since they had to use lanterns and kerosene to heat and light the builds back then. Some of them only a couple years after construction.
It’s a very cool game and it’s notable in my opinion because it’s one of the very few places that had a game based off it back in the early years of pinball.
I’m very passionate about the history of the city, so if anyone ever has a Saratoga they’d like to sell or they happen upon, please let me know. Ideally it will be arranged to have it placed in the Horse Racing Museum, or possibly the Canfield Casino in Congress Park. The park was originally mostly the Congress hotel but when it burned down the destruction was so massive, the city basically took the land as payment for the cleanup and turned it into a park!
Vista, CA
