Star Lite

The Star Lite, designed by Frank K. Maitland and manufactured by Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) in January 1935, is a single-player electro-mechanical pinball machine with an unusually early multiball-style mechanic for its era. When a ball falls into the Hatch hole, it is returned to the player to shoot again, and a six-pointed star lights up in segments on the playfield, opening or closing six color-coded gates to match. A closed gate holds any ball that lands in it until its gate opens, meaning multiple balls can be active on the playfield at once.

The machine plays 7 balls per game, uses a single scoring bell, and its tilt buzzer is simply a bell unit without the bell — ending the game outright on a tilt. It was battery-powered from the factory, and its playfield glass and playfield itself both slide out through the removable back panel for servicing. The game measures a compact 38 by 18 inches.

The Star Lite's light-selector mechanism, patented by Maitland (Patent No. 2,096,348, granted October 1937), uses a spring-driven, damper-controlled spinning bar to determine which gates open after each ball is served — a clever piece of period engineering. With no elaborate theme or decoration, the machine's design centers entirely on this mechanical gimmick, making it a notable early example of a game beyond a wholly-manual pinfield.