Domino Bowler

The Domino Bowler, manufactured by J. H. Keeney and Company of Chicago in 1953, is not actually a pinball machine, although it sometimes appears on pinball lists. It is a puck bowler, also known as a shuffle alley: an electro-mechanical arcade game in which players slide a puck down a long alley to knock down bowling-style pins and score points.

Built for up to six players, the Domino Bowler features a playfield measuring 8 feet by 2 feet, a typical footprint for the shuffle alley games that were popular in taverns and arcades in the early 1950s. According to a June 1953 article in The Billboard, Keeney had begun quantity deliveries of the game that month.

Little is documented about the designers behind the Domino Bowler, and Keeney itself ceased operations in 1964. As a Keeney puck bowler from the golden age of shuffle alleys, it offers a glimpse into the broader coin-operated amusement industry that surrounded and overlapped with pinball in the postwar era.