Hare-n-Hound

The Hare-n-Hound, produced by Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) of Chicago in November 1937, is a scarce piece of pre-flipper electro-mechanical pinball history. Exhibit Supply, which operated from 1932 to 1957, was one of the many Chicago manufacturers competing in the crowded coin-op market of the late 1930s.

The game offered five balls for 5 cents, standard pricing for the era, and its playfield was dominated by fourteen spring bumpers. Bumpers had only recently swept the industry following their introduction around 1936, and Hare-n-Hound's generous complement of them shows how quickly manufacturers embraced the feature. As a pre-flipper game, play centered on skillful plunging and the luck of the bounce among those bumpers.

The machine's hunting theme - the hare and the hound of its title - places it among the many sports-themed games of the 1930s. Specific details about its designer and artwork have not been documented, but Hare-n-Hound remains an interesting artifact from the bumper era, a brief but transformative chapter in pinball's mechanical evolution.