The Golden Age of Bowling in the United States took place in the 1950s and ‘60s, and the epicenter of all that fun was Shelby, Ohio.  That was where AMF had its Bowling Division factory, and it was their job to produce every sort of innovative new aspect of the sport that eventually came to be the standard bowling experience across the nation.

The number of Bowling Alleys in the USA went from 6,000 in 1955 to 11,000 by 1963, and during this same period, the number of people in Bowling Leagues rose from just under 3 million to over 7 million.  Without question, this explosion of popularity can be attributed to one single factor: the automatic pinsetter.

America’s pinsetter machines were manufactured in Shelby. In fact, within a year of locating their bowling operations to Shelby, AMF began calling it the Pinspotter Division.

Before that revolutionary concept of bowling was introduced, every alley required a team of pinsetter boys who ran up from behind to stand the bowling pins back up.  When AMF invented the robotic system that could mechanically collect and re-set pins in the alley, the game moved much more quickly.

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Author: Timothy Brian Mckee