Cocktail Hour

Cocktail Hour, manufactured by O. D. Jennings and Company of Chicago in April 1936, is an early electro-mechanical (EM) payout machine. For 5 cents, players received 10 balls to play, and the machine notably used red balls and ran on batteries rather than a standard electrical connection — an unusual design choice for the era.

Little else is documented about Cocktail Hour's specific gameplay, artwork, or theme. As with many payout machines of the period, it would have offered players a straightforward, chance-driven experience rather than the complex skill-based play of later pinball designs.

Given the scarcity of surviving records, much about Cocktail Hour's original rules and appearance remains uncertain. Its battery operation and red balls make it a curious footnote in the history of 1930s coin-operated amusements.