Today marks the tenth anniversary of my research into the game of Skee-Ball. It is hard to imagine that ten years have passed already. What I have learned about the game and it’s history is even more amazing. When I started the research, it was a commonly held belief that the game was an offshoot of box ball—it wasn’t. It was also a commonly held belief that Jonathan Dickinson Este was the inventor of the game—he wasn’t. There was even a report that Este had a son for whom he invented Skee-Ball—he didn’t.

What was not common knowledge at the time was that the game was invented by Joseph Fourestier Simpson, who was born in Philadelphia, and moved to Vineland, New Jersey in 1890. Or that Simpson received US Patent 905941 on December 8, 1908 for the game. There were, in fact, only three people who had discovered the Simpson connection before I started my research: Del Brandt, the former Cumberland County Historian, and writers Vince Farinaccio, and Michelle Moon.  

At the time I started the research, only a few people knew that Simpson and his sister had donated his papers to the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society in New Jersey. I was quite fortunate to be able to get access to those papers, as they held personal correspondence, including that between Simpson and his early Skee-Ball partner John W. Harper. Those papers revealed an intimate history of Simpson’s professional and personal life. They also revealed his and Harper’s turmoil as they struggled to market the game.

There was also something else that I would learn as I continued on my journey—there was a second archive of material that directly related to Skee-Ball in its middle years. One of my subject matter experts made the introduction to this private archive in Pennsylvania and I was invited there. Again, like the Simpson archive, I was given full unfettered access. This treasure trove of documents and photographs revealed decades of Skee-Ball’s fascinating history that had never seen the light of day. 

When Simpson was marketing the game in the early 1900s, he was not taken seriously by business people. I had a similar problem when I started contacting historical societies looking for information about the game. I wrote hundreds of letters asking for information. The letters went something like this:

Dear Archivist—

I am doing research about the early history of the arcade game Skee-Ball. Based on my research…

I can tell that this is about as far as most people at the various historical societies got in reading the letter. Looking back, I can almost certainly hear the reactions, including hysterical laughter—is this person kidding? Some probably thought I was a child—not even close. Some probably thought I was pulling their leg—again no. I was persistent. If you didn’t respond I would send another letter thirty to sixty days later. I kept file folders of letters. One was for open correspondence, another was for followup correspondence. For several years the open correspondence folder was the thickest—over two inches. Over time, we either got responses or gave up. When we did get a response, the material was always amazing, and often, the archivists who sent it had no idea that the photograph or other ephemera was even in their collection. One letter went to a historical society in New York that maintains the archive for the Wurlitzer Corporation. The keepers of the archive were completely unaware that Skee-Ball was owned by Wurlitzer for a number of years, or that Wurlitzer produced the classic, art deco alleys before World War II. They were thrilled to find out this bit of their history. Another letter went to an archive in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. There they found a photograph of three men and a boy standing in front of some original thirty-two foot long Skee-Ball alleys—they had no idea they had the photograph. To this day it’s one of my favorite photos. 

The research uncovered more fascinating details—how the pioneering features that Simpson included in his original Skee-Ball designs created the standard for all subsequent arcade alley and pinball games. How innovative the “skee-jump” or “ball hop” was, and how widely it would be copied. And how the story of Skee-Ball, invented in 1908, would wend through the major historical events of its day. Occasionally, one of the champions of Skee-Ball could be found making history themselves, including  Jonathan Dickinson Este, the man who successfully took Skee-Ball to the masses. Este was a WWI pilot, earning the Distinguished Service Cross for his success dogfighting the enemy in the skies over France in the earliest aerial combat missions. And Skee-Ball was prominently featured at the West Coast Panama Expositions in 1915, and at the World’s Fair in New York 1932.

There were some detours in the research including a visit to Harper and Simpson’s graves to pay my respects. Finding Harper’s grave was difficult but I was able to find it in Philadelphia. Simpson’s grave became a whole adventure that required three trips to Philadelphia before I was able to locate it. That adventure led to a series of articles.

Another detour was to Lincoln, California to see the storefront where some of the very first alleys were installed in 1909. And discovering how J. D. Este made $40,000 in his first year of manufacturing Skee-Ball. There were so many many other detours that made the hours and days speed by so quickly.

Over the years, I have also been privileged to meet the people at the other end of the letter and email chains: Patt Martinelli from VHAS, author Vince Farinaccio, historians Tom Keels and John Hepp, Tom Rebbie, President and CEO of Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters Inc., and others. All of them have followed our research progress, and have continued to graciously help it along. In 2016, we published our first book, “Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball” which is a deep dive into the history of the game. Since then, I continue to write articles, and correspond with people who own vintage Skee-Ball Alleys, some more than 70 years old, as well as many clones of the game. I’ve gotten to go to the factory in Wisconsin and see the new alleys up close and personal, and meet the people who make it happen including Holly Hampton and owner Larry  Treankler of Bay Tek Entertainment. I’ve been privileged to be a guest at recent Skee-Ball tournaments and meet the rollers who play the game at the highest professional level. I’ve also gotten to see some of the clones that people have restored up close and personal. 

The pandemic has not slowed anything down here, and we continue to unearth new stories. I continue the research and have a backlog of articles that I’ve been working on. I hope everyone has enjoyed the book and the articles! It has been an amazing ten years and I am grateful to have met all of you—either virtually or in person. Here’s to the next ten years!

And the balls roll on… 

About the author:

Thaddeus Cooper is the co-author of Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball, a deep dive into the history of the game. You can find more information about Thaddeus, and his co-author, and their book, at their website NoMoreBoxes.com.