Sources
Contributors to this record: Flipcommons AI Descriptions (Manufacturer), Flipcommons Catalog.
- description
- Flipcommons AI Descriptions (Manufacturer)Automatic Amusements Company was the first company of [[person:harry-williams]], one of the most consequential figures in pinball history. Operating from Los Angeles, California between 1932 and 1935, this small outfit served as the laboratory where Williams developed ideas that would reshape the entire industry. The company's earliest known game, *[[title:old-orchard-2]]* (1932), was a [[technology-generation:pure-mechanical]] table. But it was *[[title:advance]]* (1933) that announced Williams as a force: his first complete design, it introduced both the tilt mechanism — his answer to players who shook and shoved the cabinet — and the visible coin chute. These innovations became standard across the industry within months. Williams then pushed into [[technology-generation:electromechanical]] territory with *[[title:signal]]* (1934) and *[[title:action-sr]]* (1934), the latter produced under a manufacturing agreement with [[manufacturer:bally]] that gave Bally distribution rights to both junior and senior cabinet sizes. By 1935, Automatic Amusements was producing a rapid succession of EM games, including *[[title:triangle-2]]* (1935) — the first Williams design with a light-up backboard — and *[[title:dealer-2]]* (1935), which pitted the player against an automatic dealer score. The company produced at least fourteen known games before ceasing operations in 1935. Williams moved on to design the groundbreaking *[[title:contact-senior]]* (1933) for [[manufacturer:pacific-manufacturing-corporation]], and ultimately founded [[manufacturer:williams]] in Chicago in 1943 — carrying forward the inventive spirit that had its origins on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles.
- name
- Automatic Amusements CompanyFlipcommons Catalog
- slug
- automatic-amusements-companyFlipcommons Catalog