Special

Special, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago in 1936, is a single-player electro-mechanical payout machine — a coin-operated gambling device that dispensed winnings directly to players, rather than a purely amusement-only game. Play cost 5 cents for 10 balls.

An engraved plaque on the playfield lists several patents Mills had acquired via license or litigation, including patents originally filed by Frank Rentz, James S. Nicholas, Frank H. Ellison, and Arthur L. Paulin and Earl W. Froom, spanning inventions from the late 1920s through the early 1930s. This patent history is documented in detail in the 'Patent Wars' chapter of Bueschel's Encyclopedia of Pinball Volume 2, reflecting the intense legal battles over game mechanisms common in the payout-machine business of the era.

Little is known about the specific designer or artwork of Special, but as a payout machine from the mid-1930s, it offers a glimpse into the gambling side of the early coin-operated amusement industry, distinct from the amusement-only pinball machines that would come to dominate after payout devices were widely outlawed.