Sweet Sue

Sweet Sue is an electro-mechanical pinball machine produced in December 1948 by T and M Sales Company of Chicago (also advertised under the name "M & T Sales Co."). It is not an original design but a conversion of United's 1947 flipperless machine 'Havana,' and notably, Sweet Sue itself was offered to operators either with or without flippers installed.

The machine carries a beach-themed motif -- happiness, swimming, and women enjoying the water -- reflected in its artwork, and plays with nine passive bumpers and five kick-out holes rather than the pop bumpers and slingshots that would become more common in later designs. As a conversion built on 1947-era hardware, its scoring relies on passive, gravity-driven elements more than active player control.

Little is documented about the specific designer behind Sweet Sue or its production numbers, and claims about its place relative to the industry's broader shift to flippered play can't be confirmed from available records. Still, as a documented conversion of an earlier flipperless title, it offers an interesting snapshot of how manufacturers repurposed existing games during pinball's rapid transition to flipper-based design in the late 1940s.