pinball machine: American Girl|Julie's Pinball Machine

The American Girl dolls represent the products of a company with a particular message to the American parents who purchase the dolls for their daughters and to the American girls who play with the dolls. Pleasant Company was founded in 1986 by Pleasant Rowland, a former educator, newscaster, and author of children's books and educational materials. According to corporate documents, the company manufactured dolls intended "to enrich the lives of American girls by fostering pride in the traditions of growing up female in America and celebrating the lifestyle of girls today." The historical dolls each represented an era of America's past. Julie Albright was the seventh of the Historical Characters. She represented the 1970s.

Pinball is the perfect marriage of America’s technological ingenuity and zeal for play. Although rooted in the 18th-century parlor game bagatelle, the flipping, flashing, and popping mechanical and electronic game of today originated in the 1930s. The 1970s marked an important decade in pinball history. New York City ended its more than four decade ban on pinball after a pro-pinball lobby led by Roger Sharpe helped demonstrate that pinball was a game of skill rather than purely chance. Cities across the country lifted similar bans. During the mid-1970s, pinball manufacturers also transitioned from producing electromechanical games to machines using solid state electronics. Lastly, pinball manufacturers began basing more of their games on licensed popular cultural characters and franchises such as Williams’ Monster Bash (1998), a horror movie-themed game in which players try to assemble a rock band made up of Universal monsters, and Stern’s Star Trek (2013), based on director J.J. Abrams Star Trek science fiction film franchise.