All American

All American, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company and released on October 18, 1940, is an electro-mechanical game from pinball's pre-flipper era. Carrying model number 85, it saw a confirmed production run of 2,344 units, a healthy figure for the period. Its football theme placed it squarely in the sports-game tradition that coin-op manufacturers had been mining throughout the 1930s.

As a flipperless single-player game, All American relies on its playfield layout rather than player-controlled flippers. Its sixteen bumpers dominate the design, rewarding well-aimed plunges and fortunate bounces as the ball works its way down the playfield. The straightforward rules make it an accessible example of pinball as it existed just before World War II reshaped the industry.

Chicago Coin would go on to produce pinball machines well into the 1970s, and All American stands as a representative artifact from the company's early decades, when thematic entertainment was becoming an increasingly important part of pinball design.