Bally Manufacturing Wikipedia
Bally Manufacturing, later renamed Bally Entertainment, was an American company that began as a pinball and slot machine manufacturer, and later expanded into casinos, video games, health clubs, and theme parks. It was acquired by Hilton Hotels in 1996. Its brand name, and mid-20th century pinball & slot machine logo, are still used by several businesses with some trademark rights, most notably Bally Technologies and Bally’s Corporation.
History[edit]
The Bally Manufacturing Corporation was founded by Raymond Moloney on January 10, 1932, when Bally’s original parent, Lion Manufacturing, established the company to make pinball games. The company took its name from its first game, “Ballyhoo”. The company, based in Chicago, quickly became a leading pinball maker. In the late 1930s, Moloney began making gambling equipment, and had great success developing and improving the mechanical slot machines that were the core of the nascent gaming industry. After manufacturing munitions and airplane parts during World War II, Bally Manufacturing Corporation continued to produce innovations in flipperless pinball machines, bingo machines, payout machines and console slot machines through the late 1950s. They also designed and manufactured vending machines and established a coffee vending service. They made a brief venture into the music business with their own record label, Bally Records.[1]
Moloney died in 1958, and the company floundered briefly. With the financial failure of its parent company, Bally was bought out by a group of investors in 1963. Throughout the 1960s, Bally continued to dominate the slot machine industry, cornering over 90% of the worldwide market by the end of the decade. In 1964, Bally introduced the first electromechanical slot machine, “Money Honey.” They became a publicly traded company and made several acquisitions, including German company Guenter Wulff-Apparatebau (renamed Bally Wulff) and Midway Manufacturing, an amusement game company from Schiller Park, Illinois.
The 1970s[edit]
In the late 1970s, Bally entered the casino business when New Jersey legalized gambling in Atlantic City. The effort moved forward even though the company was temporarily unable to attain a permanent license for the completed casino. During this period, company head William T. O’Donnell was forced to resign because of alleged links to organized crime, which he strenuously denied.[2] When questioned by the Moffitt Royal Commission (the NSW Clubs Royal Commission) in New South Wales, Australia, during an investigation of criminal activities between the US and Australia, O’Donnell admitted that Genovese Mafia boss Jerry Catena (Gerardo Catena), once owned shares in Bally, “but I bought him out.”[2] He also denied knowing Chicago mobster Joseph Dan Testa, even though Australian police described Testa “as a representative of Bally who visited Australia.”[2]
The company opened the Park Place Casino & Hotel on December 29, 1979.[3][4] Also in the late 1970s, Bally made an entry into the growing market for home computer games with the Bally Professional Arcade. It had advanced features for the time, including a palette of 256 colors and the ability to play 4-voice music. It shipped with a cartridge that allowed users to do a limited amount of programming on the machine themselves, using the BASIC language and record their programs on cassette tape. However, because it cost more than its major competitor, the Atari 2600, and had much fewer games, it failed to compete successfully despite a loyal following. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Midway became a primary source of income for Bally as it became an early arcade video game maker and obtained licenses for three of the most popular video games of all time: Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.[3]
The 1980s[edit]
By the mid-1980s, Bally again had a strong balance sheet and began buying other businesses, including the Six Flags amusement park chain in 1983, and the Health and Tennis Corporation of America. The health club division, Bally Total Fitness, grew during the 1980s and 1990s. The company also purchased several casinos, including the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip (subsequently rebranded Bally’s Las Vegas); The MGM Grand Reno in Reno, Nevada; and the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, rebranded Bally’s Grand and later The Grand—A Bally’s Casino Resort. The expansion quickly took its toll on the company’s finances, and Bally was soon forced to sell off several divisions, including Six Flags and Bally-Midway. The pinball division, along with Midway, was acquired by Williams Electronics in 1988.Bally also opened a manufacturing plant in Dublin Ireland, and produced slot machines for the British and European markets- with models such as Gold Medalist, Hi Lo Joker and the first speaking videogame developed with Midway, GORF. This closed in the early 80’s as part of the company restructure.
The 1990s[edit]
In 1990, Bally came under new management as its largest shareholder, Arthur Goldberg, was appointed chairman and began a restructuring process.[5] By 1993, the company had sold off several divisions and used the proceeds to pay down debts, including the slot machine division (which became Bally Gaming International, an independent company); Scientific Games, a maker of lottery equipment; Bally’s Reno; and exercise equipment maker Life Fitness.[6] The Aladdin’s Castle chain of video arcades was sold that year to Namco and renamed Namco Cybertainment.
The company opened Bally’s Saloon & Gambling Hall, a riverboat casino in Mhoon Landing, Mississippi in December 1993.[7][8] It was moved to Robinsonville in 1995 and became part of a joint venture with Lady Luck Gaming.[9]
In 1994, the company changed its name to Bally Entertainment, to reflect its focus on the casino business and the fact that it no longer had any manufacturing operations.[10][11] It also announced that the health club business would be spun off to shareholders, to further narrow Bally’s focus on casinos.[11] The spin-off was completed in January 1996, with Bally Total Fitness becoming a separate company.[12][13]
In May 1995, Bally Entertainment announced plans to develop Paris Las Vegas, a new casino hotel next to Bally’s Las Vegas. Construction began in 1997, and it opened in 1999 at an estimated cost of $760 million.
In June 1996, Bally agreed to be acquired by Hilton Hotels Corporation.[14] The sale was completed on December 18, 1996, with Hilton paying $3 billion ($2 billion in stock plus $1 billion in assumed debt).[15] Later, Hilton’s casino division, including the former Bally properties, was spun off as Park Place Entertainment (later the first incarnation of Caesars Entertainment, Inc.), which was acquired in 2005 by Harrah’s Entertainment (later Caesars Entertainment Corp.), which eventually acquired in 2020 by Eldorado Resorts (later the current incarnation of Caesars Entertainment, Inc.).
The name[edit]
The logo for Bally Sports, one of the many businesses worldwide that use the Bally name and logoMany casinos and businesses worldwide took on the Bally name and logo in the maze of ownership, division spin-offs and licensing agreements.
Midway, and Williams (after buying Midway) continued to use the Bally name for its pinball games, until Williams’s parent company WMS Industries ceased pinball production in 1999. In March 2005, WMS Industries licensed the firm Mr. Pinball Australia Pty. Ltd. (formerly known as The Pinball Factory) to use the intellectual properties and the rights to remanufacture existing Bally/Williams Pinball machines. The Mr. Pinball firm also bought the right to manufacture new games using the company’s new hardware system under the Bally brand. The license was transferred in October 2010 to Planetary Pinball Supply (PPS) of San Jose, California.
Alliance Gaming, which bought Bally Gaming International in 1995, changed its name to Bally Technologies. Bally Total Fitness, gambling distributor Bally France, and arcade distributor Bally Pond still use the same ‘Bally’ logo, though any formal business relationships, as of June 2007, are coincidental. The rights to use the name for casinos were sold by Caesars in October 2020 to Twin River Worldwide Holdings, which then changed its own name to Bally’s Corporation and said that it would rename most of its properties under the Bally’s brand.[16] Bally’s Corporation then reached a 10-year naming rights agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group to rebrand the Fox Sports Network group of regional sports networks as Bally Sports, beginning in 2021.[17][18]
The Bally name is mentioned in the song “Pinball Wizard” in the rock opera Tommy and its soundtrack, by the British rock band The Who.
Items using the Bally brand[edit]
The following is a selected list of companies, places, machines, and other items using (or have used) the Bally brand:
Companies[edit]
Casinos[edit]
Pinball machines[edit]
Developed by Bally or Bally-Midway[edit]
* Aladdins castle (1975)
* Amigo (1974)
* Ballyhoo (flipperless) (1932)
* Bally Baby (slot machine) (1932)
* Ballyhoo (flippers) (1947)
* Baby Pac-Man (1982)
* Big ben (1977)
* Blackwater 100 (1988)
* Pool Sharks (1990)[19]
* BMX (1982)
* Boomerang (1974)
* Bow and Arrow (1974)
* Capersville (1967)
* Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (1976)
* Centaur (1981) & Centaur II (1983)
* Cybernaut (1985)
* Dixieland (1968)
* Dogies (1968)
* Dungeons & Dragons (1987)
* Eight Ball (1977)
* Eight Ball Deluxe (1981)
* Elektra (1981)
* Embryon (1981)
* Evel Knievel (1977)
* Fathom (1981)
* Flash Gordon (1981)
* Fireball (1972)
* Fireball II (1981)
* Fireball Classic (1985)
* Firecracker (1971)
* Freedom (1976)
* Four Million B.C. (1971)
* Frontier (1980)
* Future Spa (1979)
* Gator (1969)
* Hi-Lo Ace (1973)
* Hokus Pokus (1975)
* KISS (1979)
* Lady Luck (1986)
* Lost World (1978)
* Mata Hari (1977)
* Monte Carlo (1973)
* Night Rider” (1977)
* Nip-It (1972)
* Nitro Ground Shaker (1978)
* Odds and Evens (1973)
* Old Chicago (1976)
* On Beam (1968)
* Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man (1982)
* Paragon (1979)
* Party Animal (1987)
* Playboy (1978)
* Power Play (1977)
* Shoot-A-Line (1962)
* Sky Divers (1964)
* Strange Science (1986)
* Strikes and Spares (1978)
* The Six Million Dollar Man (1978)
* Supersonic (1979)
* Vector (1982)
* Wizard! (1975)
* Xenon (1980)
* Space Invaders (1981)
Developed by Midway[edit]
The Crocodile Hunter Outback Adventure based on the wildlife documentary television series The Crocodile Hunter was in development by Australian pinball manufacturer The Pinball Factory under license from Bally. It was abandoned at the end of 2007 due to the death of the main character of the game, Steve Irwin, and never went into production.[20]
Video games[edit]
Slot machines[edit]
* Money Honey (1964)
* Big Top (1982)
* Jackpot Riot (1993)
* Blazing 7s (1993)
References[edit]