1956 · Williams
Cue Ball
Interior billiards hall with a wall of red, orange, yellow and white vertical stripes, green pool table with red, white and yellow cabinet panels and dark navy upper background with pale green corner field.
- Year
- 1956
- Maker
- Williams
- Type
- Electro-mechanical
- Display
- Backglass lights
- Players
- 1
Made by
- Design
- Harry Williams
- Art
- George Molentin
Vision analysis
On the backglass
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- blue
- yellow
- red
- green
Fingerprint: Enormous glossy yellow cue ball sighted by grinning blond man with cue stick, CUE BALL drawn from billiard balls (C red, U yellow, E yellow-red, BALL multi-coloured with white highlights), fan of brightly coloured numbered circles curling upper-left with diagonal white MILLIONS banner, two women in dresses flanking green-felt pool table with scattered coloured balls, billiards illustration
The hero element is an enormous glossy yellow cue ball with a lone black spot, dwarfing everything and being sighted down by a grinning blond man holding a cue stick. Behind it the word CUE BALL is drawn as huge individual billiard balls - the C is a red ball with white dots, the U yellow, the E yellow with red dots, and the BALL below uses yellow, green, red and yellow balls with white highlights. A fan of brightly coloured numbered scoring circles (6, 1, 8, 9, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) curls down the upper-left corner, with a diagonal white MILLIONS banner tucked among them. Two women in party dresses flank a green-felt pool table loaded with scattered coloured balls. A steep diagonal cascade of white score lozenges (900000 down to 60000) runs across the green felt.
Setting
- Interior billiards hall with a wall of red, orange, yellow and white vertical stripes
- Green pool table with red, white and yellow cabinet panels
- Dark navy upper background with pale green corner field
Symbols
- Billiard balls
- Cue stick
- Pool table
- Numbered scoring circles
- White diagonal ribbon banner
- Yellow oval badge
Lettering
- Large hand-lettered title built from shaded billiard-ball letterforms in red, yellow and green with white highlights; manufacturer name in white cursive script above
Themes
- Billiards
- Pool
- Pool hall
- Nightspot
- Scoring ladder
Title on it
- Cue ball
Text on it
- Williams
- CUE
- BALL
- MILLIONS
- BALLS PLAYED
- 900000
- 800000
- 700000
- 600000
- 500000
- 450000
- 400000
- 300000
- 280000
- 60000
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Man | Grinning blond-haired man in a light blue jacket at upper right, holding a cue stick in his right hand, aiming down-left at the giant yellow ball |
| Woman | Woman in a short white dress at left, bent forward with both arms on the green table cushion, blonde hair, pale legs |
| Woman | Blonde woman at right behind the table, upright, wearing a green top and a full yellow skirt, hands near the table edge |
A hand-painted mid-century backglass with a dark navy-blue upper background and a cream-and-red striped lower wall. Upper right: a smiling blond-haired man in a light blue jacket grips a cue stick angled down-left, aiming at a giant glossy yellow billiard ball with a single black round mark and a small white highlight. Upper left: a fan of coloured numbered circles - white 6, red 1, pale blue 8, red 9, red 5, pale blue 4, orange 3, yellow 2, red 1 - over a pale green area, with a diagonal white ribbon banner reading MILLIONS. Lower half shows a green-felt pool table in red, white and yellow cabinet sides, scattered with red, white and yellow billiard balls; a woman in a short white dress leans forward over the left cushion, and a second blonde woman in a green top and yellow skirt stands behind the right end of the table. Diagonal white-bordered lozenges cascade across the middle carrying descending score figures. A small yellow oval badge sits bottom-right.