Latonia
About This Machine
The Latonia, manufactured by the Stoner Manufacturing Company of Aurora, Illinois in June 1937, is an early electro-mechanical payout machine, a class of game that dispensed coin awards directly to the player rather than replays. Stoner, active from 1933 to 1941, was one of the many midwestern coin-op firms competing in the booming prewar novelty and payout game market.
As a 1937 machine, the Latonia predates the invention of the flipper by a full decade; like all games of its day it was played by shooting balls onto the playfield and letting skillful nudging influence the outcome. Payout machines like this one sat on the gambling side of the industry, a lineage that would soon draw legal scrutiny in many American cities and help fuel the pinball bans of the 1940s.
Little else is documented about the Latonia, including its designer or production figures. Its age and obscurity make surviving examples a genuine curiosity, offering enthusiasts a glimpse into the payout-machine branch of pinball's family tree.