1951 THING (CHICAGO COIN. . .yes, Chicago Coin)
I preface my selection of the most under-the-radar pinball machine with the disclosure that I am partial to EMs. However, I appreciate games from each era. Indeed, in my 25+ years of collecting, I have owned (and continue to own) games from the 1930s through modern production games (e.g. Wizard of Oz) and every decade in between. With that said, my vote goes to Chicago Coin's 1951 enigmatic woodrail THING, sporting fantastic Roy Parker art and terrific gameplay. For a full description of why I consider THING to be outstanding, please see the corresponding article appended to my Pinside profile. An excerpt of that article (describing THING's remarkable audio feature) is cut and pasted below. This section refers to the game's inspiration, a popular song which topped the charts the year before the game's release:
The song was performed in 1950 by Charles Randolf Green. The Phil Harris version is the best known. You may enjoy listening to the Phil Harris version, which is available on YouTube. Many other vocalists have recorded the song, included Ray Charles in 1963. Wikipedia's blurb is below:
The lyrics take the form of a first-person narration, describing the discovery on a beach of a box. Whatever is in the box is never revealed, nor is it called "The Thing" in the lyrics. When the lyrics call for The Thing to be named, the vocals simply pause for three percussive knocks. For example, the first verse ends, "I discovered a [* **], right before my eyes!" (The knocks [* **] are unequally spaced, occurring on counts 1,3 and 4 of the song's 6/8 meter. The listener could substitute any three-syllable phrase his imagination might invent, such as "dog-gone thing".)
The audio associated with the THING point score is remarkable. There are two upper pop bumpers mimicking the boom, boom, boom punch line of the song. . . very clever. The ads for the game called them "boom bumpers." The words "boom-boom-boom" are screened onto the playfield at the upper pop bumpers. It seems that the designers intended to cause a three-beat percussive effect here by creating a quarter-note, followed by a sixteenth note couplet, creating a three hit audio effect. I know of no other electromechanical pinball machine which incorporates such an ingenious audio design. I have discussed this audio effect with renowned pinball designer, John Osborne (Haunted House, Hit the Deck among many others). John states that the score motor has one cam whose points will clearly operate its switch in the aforesaid rhythm. While inspecting a THING score motor, John declared: "I was surprised to see that when rebuilding the motor unit and knew at once that it had to be done to imitate the song." Moreover, the mystery box kicker hole arguably creates the triple boom audio effect as well, confirming the intention of the designer to incorporate the song, which inspired the game, into the player's audio experience.
Initially, the song's narrator is overjoyed by his discovery of the mystery box and tries to sell it. Instead, he is thrown out by a proprietor with a threat to call the police. Undaunted, the narrator decides to give it to his wife, who also kicks him out and demands that he never return with it. Then, the narrator takes it to a brave hobo, who flees at the sight of the box. Going through life unable to rid himself of the Thing, the narrator dies and arrives in heaven. There, Saint Peter directs him to take it "down below" to hell. In the final verse, the narrator warns the listener to refrain from opening boxes on the beach.
Perhaps THING's mystery box is a metaphor for pinball collectors. Nobody wants the mystery box. . .not the man's wife, not the vagabond, not Saint Peter, not even Lucifer himself. The reaction of these would-be gift recipients may be familiar to some readers of this article. Imagine the expression on your spouse's face as you "gift" to her your next pinball machine acquisition. Don't be surprised if a "Keep Out Of Here" insert mysteriously illuminates on your porch, a metallic gate suddenly lowers to barricade your door, and you're banished, with your new machine to that place south of your man cave. For many of us pinball enthusiasts, we would be pleased to be flipping away in just about any afterlife venue, as long as the line-up includes our favorite games. For me, that line-up will include a whimsical machine called "THING," which is everyTHING that a pinball machine ought to be.
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Birmingham, AL
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