Kings of the Turf (First Model)

Kings of the Turf (First Model) is a 1935 electro-mechanical pinball machine from H. C. Evans & Company, notable for genuine uncertainty over whether it was ever actually produced. It was exhibited at the February 1935 Coin Machine Exposition in Chicago and advertised for future delivery, but no photographs of an actual production unit in this configuration have surfaced; a later ad from May 1935 describes production starting with a different playfield and cabinet design, suggesting this 'first model' may never have gone into full production.

As a non-payout horse-racing themed machine advertised at $43.50, Kings of the Turf offered players 10 balls for 5 cents. Distinguishing features attributed to this first model include the game name displayed without a ribbon banner at the top of the playfield, horses racing to the left, a single-color playfield background, no numbers in the center of the track, and an oblong multi-coin viewing window on the coin slide.

The second, confirmed-production model, Kings of the Turf (Second Model), followed later in 1935 with a different design. Because of the scarcity of surviving documentation and the doubt over whether the first model was ever manufactured, Kings of the Turf (First Model) remains an intriguing case study for collectors and historians of early 1930s pinball.