Bumper Senior

Bumper Senior, manufactured by Bally in February 1937, represents one of the earliest models from the company that would eventually become a giant in the pinball industry. As a single-player electro-mechanical (EM) machine (Model 140), it comes from the pre-war, pre-flipper era of pinball: flippers would not be invented until 1947, so play on machines like this relied on a spring plunger to launch the ball into a field of bumpers, pins, and scoring holes, with mechanical relays and switches tallying the score.

As its name suggests, Bumper Senior likely emphasized bumper-based scoring, a common design approach for Bally's payout and novelty machines of the mid-1930s. Beyond that, specific rules, artwork, and theme details for this machine are not well documented.

The lack of detailed information on its designer, theme, and notable features makes pinpointing specifics challenging. Still, as one of Bally's early machines, Bumper Senior offers a glimpse into the pre-flipper days of pinball and is of interest to collectors and historians studying the company's formative years.