That's why I fell in love with it.
It was my first pin when I bought it for $30 from a friend in the 60's to save money that I was using to play the local pins.
To backtrack a bit:
The first time I ever played a pin was as a little kid at the skating rink arcade.
I climbed on a box or something so I could see the playfield and quickly figured out the flipper buttons then played my first game.
The fact it had wooden rails and legs and was a nickel game made a big impression on me but I was too young at the time to remember the name of it.
After that I started playing the great mid to late 60's metal rail pins at the swimming pool.
I enjoyed playing them too much and would try to use other methods to get free games when my allowance ran out.
I mowed neighbor lawns, raked leaves, shoveled snow etc so I could feed my pinball habit.
Blowing money on the pins started me thinking about buying a pin and it happened at that time that a friend bought one and decided not to keep it.
I bought it from him for $30 and I was fascinated with it because unlike the 60's games that I was playing:
1. It had wood rails and wood legs.
2. It awarded MORE than one replay. (I remember the replay reel racking off 26 free games when making certain combinations of the trap holes)
3. The backglass light scoring system.
4. You could play multiball by loading and launching more than one ball.
Then I couldn't bring it along when we moved across country.
My neighborhood friends took it to their house where they completedly disassembled it.
All they had left of it was the backglass.
After we settled down in our new home I asked my friends to get the name of the game from the backglass so I could find another one.
I found the year and manufacturer from the Appendix in Roger Sharpe's 1977 book, "Pinball!" and started my search for a "GRAND CHAMPION" made September 11, 1953 by Williams.
It became my grail pin for over 40 years until the first one turned up 3 years ago then this one.
The backglass is almost perfect and the playfield is very good.
I'm doing a minimal restoration with no touch ups if possible.
I'd like to leave this game all original although the cardboard apron and instruction card will be replaced with reproductions.
IMG_20180423_210613194 (resized).jpg
IMG_20180423_212104834 (resized).jpg