Midway was sold to Williams, although they still continued to use the name Bally for their Midway products. In 1988 Bally had to sell their Six Flags chain and gave up their pinball sector. All of these hotels had become rebranded under the Bally name after purchasing. They then bought the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, MGM Grand Reno and Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. They bought the Six Flags chain in 1983, Health and Tennis Corporation of America, and opened up their own Health and Fitness Gyms. Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy – 1976īy the mid-1980s they really started expanding, mostly thanks to their pinball successes.Some of their pinball machines at the time included: It also entered into the arcade game development business, acquiring licenses for Pac-Man, Ms. 1980sįrom the late 1970s through the early 1980s, Midway was Bally’s main source of income, with the majority of it coming from pinball machines. This would compete with the Atari 2600, but it was a bit more expensive. With Midway they had also entered the home computer game industry with their ‘Bally Professional Arcade’ game. Although he denied these allegations, there were many statements that said otherwise.īally finally ended up getting permits and licenses to open Park Place Casino in 1979. O’Donnell had been involved with organized crime leading to his resignation. They failed due to the head of the company, William. 1970sīally made massive steps forward in the 1970s, attempting to get into the casino business in Atlantic City. During the 1960s, they dominated the slot machine market especially, covering 90% of it. The company then started trading publicly as well. They would focus on pinball machines and eventually other arcade games too. They also targeted markets in Italy and Spain, though most of their focus was on Germany.īally then bought Midway Manufacturing which would serve as their pinball division. They had indeed seen success with the EM slot machines first. This company was based in Germany, focusing on home-based games and pushed toward casino games. Bally WulffĪt this time, they bought a German company called Guenter Wulff-Apparatebau which became known as Bally Wulff. This was an Electro-Mechanical slot machine that soon transformed Las Vegas casinos. One year later, in 1964, the company made a big leap in the slot machine industry making what they said was the first of its kind. They didn’t make many pinball machines until after Moloney died in 1958.įive years after his death the company was bought by a group of investors. 1950s-1970sĪfter the war and throughout the 1950s, Bally focused on making bingo machines, pay out machines and slot machines. This had helped keep them afloat since the pinball industry had been effectively destroyed. The company kept running and actually made airplane parts and munitions for the war. The war and changing gambling laws eventually led to pinball becoming illegal, forcing them to stop production. At the time, pinball games, casino games, and other household games were very popular as it offered new forms of entertainment to the masses.īut when World War 2 began, Bally stopped making any type of machine. New Entertainmentīut Bally did not focus solely on pinball machines, as instead they would go on to improve slot machines as well. This was the beginning of Bally Manufacturing, which was originally called Lion Manufacturing. Due to the success, Raymond named the company after their hit and called it Bally. This game was a major success, with Maloney producing around 50,000 of these games. The machine became the Ballyhoo, introduced in 1932. He then decided to come up with his own game. He was a great salesman that got tired of waiting for new machines to be released. for many years prior to getting into the pinball game himself. Raymond Moloney was a salesman for Gottlieb & Co. We’ll also discuss Bally Manufacturing’s own history too, while also giving some examples of Bally pinball machines. After various owners and names, it is now called Bally Technologies.īelow, we’ll go into more detail about the history of pinball around the time Bally Manufacturing came onto the scene. The company evolved into a top pinball machine developer in the 1980s, producing some of the most famous machines on the market. Not only is the history of Bally Manufacturing interesting, but understanding it will give you a better understanding of how pinball came to be the game that it now is.īally Manufacturing began in the mind of Raymond Maloney in 1932 with the Ballyhoo machine. Bally manufacturing not only made some of the best pinball machines but also owned many different companies.
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