Episode 273 - 1932 Gottlieb Cloverleaf

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·10m 17s·analyzed·Dec 9, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

Deep dive into 1932 Gottlieb Cloverleaf payout marble game mechanics and design.

Summary

Nick Baldridge analyzes the 1932 Gottlieb Cloverleaf, an early payout pinball machine that used marbles instead of balls on a small playfield. The game featured a skill-shot center hole mechanism that triggered mechanical payouts in pennies, with scoring ranging from 100–2,000 points on regular holes and 5,000 points for the skill hole. Cloverleaf came in both payout and novelty versions, with minimal graphics and stained wood cabinetry.

Key Claims

Gottlieb did make payout pinballs but stopped after David Gottlieb saw the writing on the wall for one-ball machines in the late 1940s
medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, introduction to episode
Cloverleaf used marbles instead of pinballs because the playfield was much smaller than modern standard playfields
high confidence · Nick Baldridge discussing game mechanics
The payoff mechanism was triggered by hitting a switch in the bottom middle of the playfield
high confidence · Nick Baldridge analyzing payoff trigger
The skill hole was worth 5,000 points, the highest value on the playfield
high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing scoring
Cloverleaf came in two versions: a payout version with a money drawer and a novelty version without
high confidence · Nick Baldridge comparing cabinet variants

Notable Quotes

“Contrary to popular belief, Gottlieb did make payout pinballs. But they really stopped doing them once David Gottlieb saw the writing on the wall for the one balls in the late 40s.”
Nick Baldridge @ 0:30 — Clarifies misconception about Gottlieb's payout machine production history
“You paid in one penny, and you got ten balls. This is not unusual for 1932. But the balls themselves were not what you might think of as pinballs currently. They were marbles.”
Nick Baldridge @ 1:20 — Explains the marble-based mechanics unique to early small-playfield games
“If you manage to land one in there and you would have to nudge the machine in a pretty interesting way in order to get it to go in this particular trough just based on the way the ball travels.”
Nick Baldridge @ 3:15 — Describes the skill-shot difficulty and nudging requirements
“When better coin machines are built, Gottlieb will build them.”
Gottlieb company slogan (from Cloverleaf flyer) @ 7:45 — Early Gottlieb marketing confidence and brand positioning

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonCloverleafgameGottliebcompany David GottliebpersonJay StaffordpersonFor Amusement OnlyorganizationIPDBorganization

Signals

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historical_signal: Detailed technical breakdown of 1932 Gottlieb Cloverleaf's mechanical design, including marble-based playfield, skill-shot mechanism, and payout architecture from early pinball era.
high · Nick Baldridge's episode provides comprehensive mechanical analysis of Cloverleaf's pinwheel layout, marble propulsion, switch triggers, and dual cabinet variants.
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design_philosophy: Cloverleaf balanced profit incentive (payout triggering) with scoring goals, requiring players to attempt difficult skill shots rather than random marble rolls.
high · Nick Baldridge explains payoff triggered by center hole switch requiring specific nudging technique, while side holes offer lower point values, creating strategic tension.
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historical_signal: Gottlieb ceased manufacturing payout pinballs in late 1940s after David Gottlieb recognized market shift away from one-ball gambling machines.
medium · Nick Baldridge states Gottlieb 'really stopped doing them once David Gottlieb saw the writing on the wall for the one balls in the late 40s.'
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design_innovation: Use of marbles instead of standard pinballs on reduced-size playfield represents mechanical adaptation to space constraints; smaller diameter and weight enabled superior ball travel on compact playing surface.
high · Nick Baldridge explains: 'They were marbles... there's a smaller area. the ball still has to travel quite a ways, but with the smaller diameter ball, it's able to make that journey quite a bit better, and because it weighs less too.'
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product_strategy: Cloverleaf offered in two cabinet variants: payout version (with coin drawer) and novelty version (solid wood cabinet), targeting different venue types and operator preferences.

Topics

Early pinball design and mechanics (pre-1940s)primaryPayout/gambling pinball machinesprimaryGottlieb manufacturing historyprimaryMarble-based playfield gamesprimarySkill holes and mechanical triggerssecondaryCabinet design and artwork (1932 era)secondary

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.031

What's that sound? It's For Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to For Amusement Only, this is Nick Baldrige. Tonight I wanted to talk about another Gottlieb oddity. Another payoff machine. Now, contrary to popular belief, Gottlieb did make payout pinballs. but they really stopped doing them once David Gottlieb saw the writing on the wall for the one balls in the late 40s. Tonight's selection is October of 1932's Cloverleaf. So I'll admit that I was looking at pictures of this game and I had recorded most of an episode and was talking about how I didn't understand how the payoff mechanism itself worked, and then I finally pieced it together. So I threw out that episode, and you're getting, of course, the wonderful gold that you're listening to right now. So let's talk about the game itself. Now, the game, you paid in one penny, and you got ten balls. This is not unusual for 1932. But the balls themselves were not what you might think of as pinballs currently. They were marbles. So, ten marbles for one penny. Now, the marbles rolled on a playfield, which is much, much smaller than today's standard playfields. So, that's why they use marbles, is because there's a smaller area. the ball still has to travel quite a ways, but with the smaller diameter ball, it's able to make that journey quite a bit better, and because it weighs less too. So looking at the play field, what you'll see are a huge number of pins, and these pins are essentially just little troughs that kind of funnel the ball into a specific area. Now the game gets its name from the four kind of rounded areas in the upper and bottom left and right And a ball shot with enough force will actually make a huge rotation all around the playfield. In fact, if you look on IPDB, one of the photos, it looks like the fourth one in from Jay Stafford, shows a playfield that has significant ball travel shown on it. And you can see kind of the path that the ball takes. now this game being a payout game you have a specific goal it's not just all about score you want to do something to trigger the payoff and in this case it looks like the payoff is triggered by hitting a switch in the bottom middle of the playfield Now remember, this is purely mechanical. So one thing that I don't understand is, do you have to do this multiple times in order to actually get a payoff? I'm not sure. But the basic way that it works is that the marbles will sit in this trough. As I mentioned, there are pins on either side which kind of guide it in. and if you manage to land one in there and you would have to nudge the machine in a pretty interesting way in order to get it to go in this particular trough just based on the way the ball travels you know it's going to attempt to make this whole circuit around the play field and you're going to have to stop it at some point and get it to run into a wall or you know do something weird that it wouldn't ordinarily do in order to get it to attempt to go towards this skill hole. But basically, if the ball makes contact with this switch, it will flex the payout unit and force it to pay out money. Now, it looks like it pays out in pennies because of course that what you feeding into it So it uses that as the source Now I mentioned that points weren really important Of course they are but your main goal is to make your money back at least So you're going to want to try to shoot for that skill hole every chance you get. So let's talk about points because it'll also illuminate why you'd want to shoot that thing anyway. Your points range from 100 points all the way up to 2,000 points on the normal holes. That center hole that I was talking about is worth 5,000 points. So, if you can sink one or more balls in that 5,000 point trough, you're doing pretty good. now on the left and right sides at the bottom of the cloverleaf there are troughs marked out and of course those balls do not score so ideally you want to get as many in the skill hole without going out as possible any others which incidentally make it into one of the other scoring values you're probably not going to be super satisfied with because most of them are going to score in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Now this game came in two different versions. There was a payout version and then a novelty or a normal version. The payout version essentially only had an extra little drawer on the front left of the cabinet right beside the coin door, and it just had a little tray that the money fell into. So on the novelty version, of course, that little tray is not there, and it's just a solid wood cabinet. Now, the play field and the game, you basically have to take them together on these early games because there's very little in the way of side art. In this case, there is a diamond, which is etched onto the side of the cabinet on both sides. And the finish on the playfield as well as on the cabinet is this beautiful stained wood It's a dark wood. It's very attractive. The playfield has an image of a cloverleaf, and then the word cloverleaf written on top of it. aside from that the only other graphics are this giant arrow which points straight down to the skill hole which is marked skill hole and then the point values for each of the troughs but that's it there's no other graphics on the playfield the score and instruction card has an image of a cloverleaf on the left and right side In between, it's got the name, Cloverleaf, and then your instructions. Put in your penny, get ten balls, shoot them, leave happy. It doesn't say the last part. Now let's read the flyer together, shall we? proved the phenomenal moneymaker cloverleaf see this great machine that's harvesting real profits caution make no mistake cloverleaf is not an ordinary pin game in addition to the unique playing field its remarkable payoff feature is sensationally profitable operators everywhere are ordering and reordering. Investigate and convince yourself. One of my favorite touches on this flyer is down at the bottom. When better coin machines are built, Gottlieb will build them. Rather healthy attitude to have at this stage in their manufacturing career. Well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for joining me. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com, or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram, also at bingopodcast, or you can listen to us on our website, which is for amusement only dot libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.