Towers
About This Machine
Towers is an electro-mechanical, single-player, flipperless pinball machine produced by J. H. Keeney and Company in 1942. According to pinball historian Dick Bueschel (writing in the January 1994 issue of GameRoom magazine), Towers was the last game Keeney made before the War Production Board banned production of non-essential items during WWII - Keeney never advertised the game itself, and Bueschel estimated its date as January 1942. It was later advertised as a used, free-play game by wartime resellers, including in a 1947 catalog listing it at $39.50.
Gameplay centers on 19 passive bumpers. The backglass depicts an art-deco fantasy rooftop cityscape - office buildings in the foreground and taller, stylized tower structures behind them - bisected by an aerial viaduct filled with streamlined cars in motion, while several aircraft are shown on the playfield.
Towers' art-deco styling and aviation motifs reflect the design sensibilities of the early 1940s, and its unusual production history - built right at the edge of wartime restrictions - makes it a notable piece of Keeney's catalog even without formal factory advertising.
Images (2)
Technical Details
- Notable Features:
- Passive bumpers (19). The backglass shows an apparent rooftop view of a downtown city area with office buildings in the foreground and several taller, tower-like structures in the background. These towers do not appear to be meant to hold people and look more like art-deco fantasy than representative of real structures. The downtown area is bisected by an aerial viaduct full of long, streamlined cars in motion. Several aircraft are depicted on the playfield.