Nine Bells

Nine Bells was manufactured by Glickman Industries of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in February 1942, during the company's short run producing pinball conversions between 1942 and 1944. It was itself a converted game, adapted from Genco's 1939 title 'Mr. Chips'; Glickman initially performed the conversion for operators, fitting a new backglass and bumpers and repainting the cabinet, before later selling it strictly as a conversion kit that operators could install themselves.

As a flipperless, single-player electro-mechanical machine, Nine Bells reflects the simple, luck-driven gameplay typical of pre-flipper pinball, where players scored points by guiding the ball into scoring positions with bumpers and rollovers rather than active player control.

Little else is documented about the specific design, art, or theme of Nine Bells. Its history as a wartime conversion kit, at a time when metal shortages and manufacturing constraints pushed companies like Glickman toward repurposing existing games, makes it a notable curiosity for collectors and historians of early pinball.