1949 · Gottlieb
Bowling Champ
Indoor bowling alley with polished wooden lanes receding in perspective, wooden spectator grandstand with a seated crowd, ball return rack holding several dark bowling balls, dark blue night sky at the top edge behind the million lettering, cream crescent moon with a dark red bowling ball and plain pale blue-grey field behind the title lockup.
- Year
- 1949
- Maker
- Gottlieb
- Type
- Electro-mechanical
- Display
- Backglass lights
- Players
- 1
Made by
- Design
- Harry Mabs
- Art
- Roy Parker
Vision analysis
On the backglass
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- red
- yellow
- green
- blue
Fingerprint: Arched cascade of score-value boxes sweeping across upper half, rainbow-coloured. MILLION and CHAMP titles, red-and-cream cursive over cream-yellow block letters. Blonde woman in yellow top mid-bowling delivery. Crescent moon with bowling ball, tumbling pins. Large red triangle with ten numbered pins.
A giant arched rainbow of bordered score-value boxes (10,000 up to 900,000) sweeping across the whole upper half of the glass, with the word MILLION arcing above them. The title is a two-part lockup: red-and-cream cursive Bowling stacked over enormous cream-yellow CHAMP block letters outlined in red. A large red triangle at the bottom right contains a full set of ten white bowling pins numbered 1 through 10. A blonde woman in a yellow top and maroon skirt frozen mid bowling delivery dominates the lane scene, with a crescent moon and tumbling pins in the top left corner.
Setting
- Indoor bowling alley with polished wooden lanes receding in perspective
- Wooden spectator grandstand with a seated crowd
- Ball return rack holding several dark bowling balls
- Dark blue night sky at the top edge behind the million lettering
- Cream crescent moon with a dark red bowling ball
- Plain pale blue-grey field behind the title lockup
Symbols
- Crescent moon
- Bowling ball
- Bowling pins - three free-falling at top left, ten numbered in a triangle at bottom right
- Numbered pin set 1-10
- Ball return rack
- Crescent-and-ball emblem
- Comma-grouped score numerals in coloured rectangles
- White dot inside the crescent moon
Lettering
- Million in large arched white sans-serif capitals with red inline and heavy black outline; bowling in slanted red script with cream interior and white drop shadow; champ in very large cream-yellow condensed block capitals with a red outline and slight rightward lean; score values in flat cream and dark red numerals inside colour-bordered rectangles; d. gottlieb & co. in black cursive script on a green banner
Themes
- Bowling
- Ten-pin
- Sports
- Score values
- Amusement arcade
- Vintage electromechanical
Title on it
- Bowling champ
Text on it
- MILLION
- Bowling
- CHAMP
- D. Gottlieb & Co.
- MFG.
- CHICAGO
- 500,000
- 600,000
- 700,000
- 800,000
- 900,000
- 100,000
- 200,000
- 300,000
- 400,000
- 40,000
- 50,000
- 60,000
- 10,000
- 20,000
- 30,000
- 70,000
- 80,000
- 90,000
- KINGS
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Woman | Young adult, short blonde bobbed hair, yellow short-sleeved top with red lettering across the chest, maroon knee-length skirt, bare legs, flat shoes; lunging forward down the lane with right arm swung back and left arm extended for balance, bowling a red ball that is mid-curl just ahead of her hand |
| Man | Adult with short dark hair, seen from behind and in profile at the left of the lane; mustard-yellow shirt with kings printed on the back, green trousers, cradling a dark red bowling ball against his hip as he watches |
| Other | Small painted crowd of roughly a dozen spectators in coloured shirts and caps seated in the grandstand above the lane, facing the play |
Painted bowling-alley backglass dominated by an arched cascade of scoring value boxes across the upper half. Along the top edge the word MILLION is spelled out in large white block capitals with red inline shading and dark outlines, arcing over the boxes. The upper left corner shows a cream crescent moon with a dark red bowling ball tucked against it and three white bowling pins with red neck bands tumbling in a row. Below, rows of bordered rectangular boxes carry score values: 500,000 (red), 600,000 (green), 700,000 (yellow), 800,000 (pale pink/white), 900,000 (yellow), then 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, and a block of 40,000 / 50,000 / 60,000 in green boxes over 10,000 / 20,000 / 30,000 in red boxes, plus 70,000, 80,000 and 90,000. The title sits right of centre: Bowling in slanted red-and-cream script with a white drop shadow, above CHAMP in huge cream-yellow block letters outlined in red. A green banner beneath reads D. Gottlieb & Co. with MFG. CHICAGO. The lower left shows a wooden bowling lane in perspective with a blonde woman in a yellow top and maroon skirt mid-delivery, a dark-haired man in a mustard shirt and green trousers holding a red ball, a crowd of small spectators in the stands, and a ball return rack of black, blue and green balls. The lower right holds a large red triangle containing ten white pins numbered 1 to 10.