Miss America

Miss America, manufactured by Stoner Manufacturing Company in November 1937, is part of Stoner's "Aristocrat" series and showcases the early days of the pinball industry. Notably, it is the same underlying game as Stoner's 1937 'Stoner's Races,' but released with a changed theme and artwork centered on pageantry and women rather than racing.

As an electro-mechanical single-player machine from 1937, Miss America predates the invention of the flipper by a decade, so gameplay relies on the ball's natural movement across the playfield's targets and features rather than player-controlled flippers -- typical of pinball design in this era.

The pageantry-and-women theme reflects a subject that was reasonably common in 1930s pinball art. Specific details of the artwork are not documented in available records, and no designer is credited for this title. Even so, as a themed variant built on the 'Stoner's Races' platform, Miss America offers an interesting look at how manufacturers reused game mechanics with new art and theming during the 1930s.