Fan Dance

Fan Dance, manufactured by The Garco Co. of Chicago in February 1934, is a fascinating and mysterious survivor from the early years of pinball design. Its title and imagery reference Sally Rand's famous fan dance performances at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, tying the machine directly to a contemporary pop-culture sensation.

Gameplay on Fan Dance revolves around achieving scoring objectives on the playfield; doing so briefly closes a fan in the lower playfield to reveal an apparently risqué picture underneath - a bold and playful gimmick for its time. The machine offered 10 balls for five cents and featured an ebony cabinet with an A.B.T. coin chute and a Van Velvet ball lift and plunger assembly.

Intriguingly, contemporary trade press suggests Fan Dance may never have actually gone into production: a May 1934 Automatic Age article reported that jobbers who sent payment for the game had their checks returned without explanation, and the manufacturer never advertised it again. With little known about its designer, Fan Dance remains an enigmatic curiosity from pinball's earliest days.