Most scholars trace the presence of bowling in the United States to Dutch colonists. Though it enjoyed a certain amount of respectability in the 19th century and was played in some of the most elite private residences in the country, it was ultimately popularized, in part, by the influx of German immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s. Through the end of the 19th century, bowling developed as a sport of the masses, typically associated with working-class immigrant communities.
Like other physical sports enjoyed by adult men, bowling frequently appeared in male-dominated saloons and bars alongside billiards and gambling. Because of the real estate that the lanes required, bowling usually happened in windowless basements, which were most often dingy, dark spaces—in short, not an ideal spot for family gatherings.
Further to that point were the presence of pinboys–young boys or even itinerant men who were paid a few cents to retrieve bowling balls and reset the pins after each set, or “frame.” The job was unskilled but hazardous, with heavy balls speeding down the alleys that could easily smash fingers or cause other injuries. Pinboys were known for being unreliable because of their age, and for being intimidating and trash-talking players, and created an ambiance that was unrefined and rude, at best. Incentivized to continue this behavior and keep up the rapid flow of games (their wages were tied to the number of games played), pinboys, together with the bowling lane’s location, made the sport one played almost exclusively by men.
By the 1930s and 1940s, bowling leagues began to formalize and spread across the country. These leagues were popular in factories and manufacturing plants, reinforcing the association of the sport with working-class males. World War II saw a great increase in bowling’s popularity and the War Department added more than 4,000 alleys to military bases around the world.
In the early 1950s, American Machine & Foundry (AMF) emerged as a leading company in the bowling industry. Established in 1900 by Rufus L. Patterson, the inventor of the first automated cigarette manufacturing machine, the company produced a wide assortment of recreational equipment in the first half of the twentieth century, ranging from yachts and garden equipment to sewing machines and bowling machinery. During the late 1940s, the company invested in the development of an automatic pinsetter that ultimately eliminated the need for pinboys. After several iterations, the improved equipment quickly became very profitable, particularly with the increasing interest in bowling.