Holiday Hits

Holiday Hits is a single-player electro-mechanical pin game produced by the International Mutoscope Reel Company of New York in November 1935. Mutoscope, best remembered for its arcade viewers and other coin-operated amusements, was active in the pin game business in the early-to-mid 1930s, and Holiday Hits dates from the final stretch of that run.

As a 1935 machine, Holiday Hits comes from the pre-flipper, pre-bumper era of pinball, when games were essentially electrified bagatelles: players launched balls with a plunger and relied on nudging and luck to land them in scoring positions. The electro-mechanical elements of games from this period typically powered scoring or payout functions rather than player-controlled devices.

Unfortunately, little information survives about Holiday Hits' playfield layout, artwork, or theme. The lack of documentation means much about the game remains a matter of speculation, but this rare 1935 machine is nonetheless a fascinating artifact of the industry's formative years, offering a glimpse into pinball before flippers changed the game.