The Ritz

The Ritz, produced by Genco Manufacturing Company in December 1933, is a small tabletop/counter novelty game -- despite using steel balls, IPDB notes it is "decidedly not a pinball." It was advertised as a black-and-silver cabinet just 19 inches long, 11 inches wide, and 6 inches high, with suction cups on the cabinet bottom to hold it in place on a counter.

The game ran on a 5-ball-for-5-cents model and was marketed by Genco as "3 games in 1," shipping with three complete, interchangeable playing strips included free with every unit. Surviving manufacturer advertising appears to show playing-card pips suggestive of poker hands, though the games represented by the other two strips are not documented.

The Ritz's playing-card and poker theme fits the small-format novelty games popular as counter amusements in the early 1930s. Little else is known about its designer or precise mechanics, but its unusual "not a pinball" classification makes it a curiosity for collectors of early coin-operated amusements.