Miss-O

Miss-O, released by Williams in 1969, designed by Norm Clark with artwork by Christian Marche.

This would be Christian Marche’s 5th “Pointy People” art for a pinball machine. He had been developing his style; pointy but more representative with geometrical swashes of color. Miss-O is a stellar example with the pool table trying to exist in the 4th dimension while the singular light is altering the shapes in the shadows. The blonde in the foreground sports hot pink jeans that are anything but pointy. The colors are brighter and more saturated, not the muted tones used by Kelley and appliance manufacturers of the day. Although it gets a little tangled graphically, the backglass’s focal point and inherent story is crystal clear; the ladies are put off by the pretty blond getting all the attention from the boys.

On the playfield the man posing with the cue stick looks as if he was ripped from an advertisement in a European fashion magazine, very similar to Doozie, an earlier game with art by Marche. Although more easily read by players, the contemporary art offered by Marche was still derived from a Cubist/Minimalist standpoint and met with mixed response from players.

-M. Schiess