1959 · Gottlieb
Race Time
Pale blue sky with soft white cumulus clouds, painted racecourse rail and turf implied behind the galloping horses and surrounded by a varnished timber frame with glass front, grass visible beyond the frame edges.
- Year
- 1959
- Maker
- Gottlieb
- Type
- Electro-mechanical
- Display
- Score reels
- Players
- 2
Made by
- Design
- Wayne Neyens
- Art
- Roy Parker
Vision analysis
On the backglass
Written by a machine from the photos, so details may be off.
Backglass
- light blue
- red
- yellow
- brown
Fingerprint: Sweeping stampede of galloping racehorses with jockeys in bright numbered racing silks, yellow ribbon banner spanning middle with "RACE TIME" in large red serif capitals, two large orange-yellow window boxes with yellow light bulb borders containing score reels, cream shield between reading "Gottlieb's 2 PLAYER" with yellow pinballs beneath
The lower half is a single sweeping stampede of galloping thoroughbred horses with jockeys in numbered racing silks, one horse ridden by a jockey in a black-and-white checkered top. Above the horses a huge yellow ribbon banner spells RACE TIME in fat red arched capitals that tilt up at both ends like a scroll. Two big bulb-bordered orange windows of mechanical score reels flank a central cream shield, each with a yellow pinball ball tucked beneath it. Smallest memorable detail: a handwritten white square sticker marked 7 stuck on the glass beside the top-centre logo.
Setting
- Pale blue sky with soft white cumulus clouds
- Painted racecourse rail and turf implied behind the galloping horses
- Surrounded by a varnished timber frame with glass front, grass visible beyond the frame edges
Symbols
- Two yellow pinball balls
- Rows of round yellow incandescent bulbs framing the score windows
- Red triangular funnels/megaphone shapes above the central banner
- White racecourse rail with diagonal struts at the lower left
- Yellow inverted-trapezoid ball tray
- Red numerals 1 and 2 in round bezels on the players panel
- Scroll/ribbon banner
- Heraldic shield
Lettering
- Main title in large arched red serif capitals with dark outline on a yellow ribbon; player labels in white sans-serif on purple; score-window and players headings in red sans-serif capitals; top heading in ornate blackletter/fraktur script with flourishes; the quote panel in purple italic script; small 'a game of skill' in purple sans-serif capitals.
Themes
- Horse racing
- Jockeys
- Competition
- Two player
- Skill game
- Sports
Title on it
- Race time
Text on it
- An Amusement Pinball
- Machines at Home and Abroad
- 1987
- D. Gottlieb & Co.
- Gottlieb's
- 2 PLAYER
- 1st PLAYER
- 2nd PLAYER
- RACE TIME
- 1 or 2 CAN PLAY AT THE SAME TIME
- It's more Fun to Compete
- A GAME OF SKILL
- PLAYERS
- BALL in PLAY
| Kind | Description |
|---|---|
| Other | Top left, above the 1st player reel box: a blonde person in a sleeveless orange dress with white polka dots and a wide white collar, head turned in profile to the right, one arm raised holding a small object, pale skin. |
| Other | Top right, above the 2nd player reel box: a rider in yellow cap and yellow-and-orange silks leaning forward over a rearing brown horse with a white blaze, mane flying, forelegs off the ground, set against a white cloud swirl. |
| Animal | Bottom scene: a pack of roughly six chestnut, bay and black racehorses all galloping left to right, legs extended mid-stride, manes and tails streaming, overlapping one another across the full width of the lower panel. |
| Other | Jockeys on the galloping horses: one in a yellow top with a black number 3 and white breeches; one in magenta/pink with a white number 1 and white cap; one in black-and-white checkered silks; one in green silks with a yellow helmet; one in white with a red number 2; one in dark silks with a red cap, all crouched low in the saddle with elbows bent. |
A horizontally oriented, wood-framed backglass lit from behind, showing a sky-blue sky with soft white cumulus clouds as the background. Across the middle a big yellow ribbon banner carries the title RACE TIME in large, slightly arched, red serif capitals with a dark outline and shadow. Above and below it the art is symmetrically packed with panels: two orange-and-yellow window boxes with rows of round yellow light bulbs along their borders contain mechanical score reels, the left one labelled 1st PLAYER in white on purple and the right one 2nd PLAYER; between them sits a cream shield reading Gottlieb's 2 PLAYER, flanked by two lemon-yellow pinball balls. At the top centre an ornate black-letter heading reads An Amusement Pinball over a line of tiny text ending in 1987, above a white-and-red D. Gottlieb & Co. logo panel. The lower half is dominated by a painted crowd of galloping racehorses and their jockeys in bright racing silks, charging left to right across a track rail. A small white square sticker with a handwritten 7 is stuck to the glass right of the top logo. A yellow wedge panel with red lettering sits at lower right, and a cream text box at mid-left. Glass reflections, dust specks and grass beyond the frame are visible.