World's Fair Jigsaw

Type: Pure Mechanical (PM)

Theme: Centennial Celebration

Specialty: Flipperless

Notable Features: 1 cent or 5 cent play. 10 balls for 5 cents is one pricing example. Playfield animation (puzzle pieces align themselves when balls fall into holes). Game advertised as 38 inches long, 19 inches wide, and 42 inches high.

Design by: David Rockola

Notes: Commemorated the Chicago World's Fair of 1933.

Two popular "fads" came together in 1933--Jigsaw Puzzles and the Chicago World's Fair. The Rockola Jigsaw pinball machine celebrated both.

The height of this game on its legs was advertised as a "new" 42 inches, which implies a change from any previous Rock-Ola pin game that had legs or came with an optional stand.

According to Dick Bueschel's book Pinball 1, the formal name of this game is the single word 'Jigsaw'. However, it was frequently advertised as 'World's Fair Jigsaw'. The manufacturer advertised it both ways, and also showed a hyphenated spelling of 'Jig-Saw' on the playfield.

Jigsaw was the highest product pinball machine ever (~70,000) and was a tremendous money-maker for it's operators. Now they are only found in private collections. Certain reproduction parts are made available from Buckwerx.com