Gotham advertising their new factory to the toy world in 1940.
Electric Football history can still be found in the “here and now,” being scattered across a few anonymous sites in the U.S. and Canada. The skeletons of the game, or at least where the games were conceived and produced, are there to be found…if you know where to look.
Tudor’s former 176 Johnson Street site is now a condo building called The Toy Factory.
We know that in Brooklyn, where the game was born in 1949, the old Tudor factory still stands at 176 Johnson Street. And in what seems a fitting tribute to Tudor’s long and storied history, the building has become “The Toy Factory,” an upscale condo development that helped spur the revitalization of the neighborhood.
Gotham’s former factory in the Bronx. The company was at this site in the 1930’s, and from 1960 to 1973.
Not far away in the Bronx, two different old Gotham Pressed Steel factories still stand. One is a large building that takes up almost an entire block of Wales Avenue at East 144 Street. Gotham used this site during the 1930’s, and then moved back to the building in 1960. While it’s really remarkable that the structure is still standing, its fate seems quite the opposite of Tudor’s Brooklyn building. Having been converted into a chemical plant after Gotham was absorbed by Munro Games in 1973, the building now has a real state sign on it. It remains to be seen whether any manufacturer would find the site attractive in 2015, or whether the owner is waiting for this part of the Bronx to become the next Brooklyn in terms of revitalization.
Another Gotham factory site in the Bronx. Gotham occupied this building from 1940-60.
Gotham’s other factory site is at East 133rd and Cypress Avenue. This is actually where Gotham was located when they entered into Electric Football in 1954 and became Tudor’s main competitor. Gotham operated in this building from 1940 until 1960. At one point in last decade this was home to an auto repair business, but the area appears pretty quiet in 2015. A far cry from the toy world bustle this building witnessed in the past.
So for anyone who wants to view the living fossils of Electric Football, they are still out there. And you don’t have to risk going to Jurassic Park to find them.
Earl & Roddy