Red Hot

The Red Hot pinball machine, manufactured by J.H. Keeney and Company Incorporated in 1940, is a flipperless, single-player, electro-mechanical (EM) machine notable for its striking cabinet art depicting the 1939 New York World's Fair, including the Trylon and Perisphere landmarks that defined the Fair's "World of Tomorrow" theme.

One of Red Hot's standout features is its extensive use of spring bumpers — an impressive 17 are integrated into the machine. As a flipperless game, this abundance of bumpers is central to the challenge, with players relying on the ball's path through the bumper field rather than flipper control. The backbox also offers an optional feature for free games or novelty play, with the number of free games projected onto the backglass from within the backbox, and a free-play wheel that maxes out at 99.

Interestingly, some surviving examples of this machine bear the name "Red Cap" on the backglass instead of "Red Hot" — likely an operator alteration made to a payout game to avoid confiscation by local authorities, since the serial number and instruction card both confirm the original "Red Hot" name. Its evocative World's Fair theming and scarcity of documentation make it a subject of ongoing curiosity among pinball historians and collectors.