Wall Street

As one of the earlier examples of electro-mechanical (EM) pinball technology from O. D. Jennings and Company, the 1935 Wall Street is a notable find for collectors and historians alike. EM machines were a major innovation in the industry at the time, introducing electric relays and contacts to control scoring, and this early payout machine offers a glimpse into that transitional period between purely mechanical and electrically driven games.

Wall Street was built as a one-player payout machine, a common format for coin-operated games of its era, where scoring outcomes determined a player's payout. As with virtually all pinball machines of this vintage — over a decade before the invention of the flipper — gameplay depended on the ball's own momentum and gravity across the playfield rather than any player-controlled paddles. Beyond its classification as an early payout EM game, specific details about its design, art, and theme have not survived in the historical record.

What makes the Wall Street particularly interesting is its age and rarity. As one of O. D. Jennings' early productions, it represents a period in pinball's development where the transition from pure mechanics to electro-mechanical systems was just beginning. Though little else is documented about its features, the machine remains a valuable piece for museums, collectors, and historians seeking to understand pinball's formative years.