Big Three
About This Machine
Big Three was manufactured by Westerhaus Manufacturing Company of Cheviot, Ohio, in June 1945, as a conversion of Mills' 1940 game '1 2 3'. Its World War II theme is reflected directly on the backglass, which depicts the flags of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom alongside symbols representing their wartime leaders — a cigarette holder for Franklin D. Roosevelt, a pipe for Joseph Stalin, and a cigar for Winston Churchill, representing the Allied 'Big Three.'
Gameplay could be set for either 1-ball or 5-ball play, with scoring generated by the machine's 12 passive bumpers as the ball moved around the playfield. The game's name appeared inconsistently in period advertising — sometimes as 'Big 3' and sometimes as 'Big Three' — though the backglass itself reads 'Big Three.'
As a wartime conversion produced in the final months of World War II, Big Three offers a striking example of how pinball manufacturers wove current events directly into their machines' artwork, making it a notable piece of pinball's wartime history for collectors.
Images (5)
Technical Details
- Theme:
- World War II
- Notable Features:
- 1-ball or 5-ball play. Passive bumpers (12). The flags of the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom are depicted on the backglass. They were the "Big Three" leaders who, with other allies, opposed the Axis powers during World War II. Shown in the upper backglass are representative symbols for these leaders: a cigarette in its holder (US President Franklin D. Roosevelt), a pipe (USSR Premier Joseph Stalin), and a cigar (UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill).