The company continued to be successful, with sales increasing annually through the late 1940s and into the 1950s. James Prentice was called upon for speaking engagements. In one sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church, he was invited to speak on the topic, "The Development of the Electic Game Business."
Sales for 1949 totalled $554,000, a 32% increase over the sales of the successful 1948 year.
One thing was sure in the conduct of the Electric Game Company. Excluding the war years, the firm attended the annual New York Toy Fair, and 1950 was no exception.
In 1950, Mr. Prentice invented a new game called Golf-Bowling, played on a candlepin bowling lane. Details of the game, which was intended to be fun and increase bowler accuracy, are found in the Holyoke Transcript article dated April 5, 1950.
The company was also in the process of enlarging some of its games, such as baseball and football, to allow multiple players to compete against each other. A photo of children playing the table version of electric baseball at the Holyoke Boys Club headlines the pictorial below.
The table-top version of electric baseball was a highlight of the annual Boys Club of America convention in Washington, D.C. in 1950. Thomas Foley, the Holyoke Boys Club President, was allotted 20 minutes to demonstrate the game, but spent almost the entire day explaining the game to different groups and overseeing their play.
The Lawn Billiard Company was a subsidiary of the Electric Game Company. The company placed an advertisement in The New Yorker magazine, positioned at the Holyoke Canoe Club's lawn billiards setup. The game was launched in the White Mountains in New Hampshire and set up at many cabin complexes.
In 1950, the Prentices purchased the former Steiger residence near the Mt. Tom Golf Club course.
In 1951, the company leased the entire nine-story former Lyman Mills Cotton Storage plant from the Whitings. Part of the space was sublet to C. F. Church Company.
In 1951, sales revenue reached $670,000, marking an all-time high for the company.
The company entered into a contractual arrangement with RCA to produce 5,000 novel radio battery promotional games. This item was being made for the tube department of the RCA Victor division. It was Electric Game Company's first industrial contract.
In 1953, James Prentice was elected a Director for the Toy Manufacturers of the U.S.A.
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
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