Who new that once upon a time Los Angeles outlawed pinball machines!?! This photo was taken on May 15, 1940 and shows Urban F. Emme, chief clerk of city marshal’s office, wielding a sledgehammer on a confiscated pinball machine. The previous December, Los Angeles City Proposition No. 3, banned pinball games on the grounds that they were used for petty gambling. It wasn’t until after the law went into effect that the authorities realized that pinball machines were so widespread that there weren’t sufficient police to enforce the law.