Classic Mode

Automatic Age

Issue: 1932 September

A utomatic A ge
September, 1932
I D E A S
w ith
a
B A L L Y
9
P U N C H
o n
P U T
T O P
The Will Plus the Ability to Lead—That’s the Story Back
of the Bally Manufacturing Company’s Spectacular Rise
By Dana Hubbard
ITHIN a few month’s time
and during the most acute
period of business distress
the world has yet known, a new
leader has forged boldly to the front
in the field of coin-operated amuse­
ment devices. That leader’s growth
has been rapid. Its success has been
one of the sensations of 1932. Yet
there is nothing mysterious or baffling
about this record of achievement.
W
The organization referred to is the
Bally Manufacturing Company which
came into being some nine months
ago in Chicago. Today, h a v i n g
l a u n c h e d Ballyhoo, Ballyround,
Screwy, and 3-Ring Circus, this
company is recognized as the largest
manufacturer of pin games in this
country. Which, of course, means in
the world.
GOOFY, the Bally company’s new­
est game, is now confidently expected
to prove its most successful venture.
It has just been announced and there
are indications that it will set new
records for popularity and profits in
the months that lie just ahead.
Building a Business from the
Ground Up
Now what are the real reasons back
of Bally’s phenomenal rise during the
black days of this year of economic
© In te rn atio na l A rc a d e M use um
disaster? Just what are the forces,
the ideas, aims and policies that en­
abled this youthful company to take
root and grow while so many others
were failing and folding up? Those
questions have been asked often.
Here for the first time is the real
story, given to A u t o m a t i c A g e now
in the belief first, that it will prove
to be of more than casual interest to
thousands of jobbers and operators of
coin machines and, secondly, that
some of the i d e a s and policies
touched on may p r o v e valuable
enough to be taken over and adapted
to their own business problems.
It was in January of this year that
Ray T. Moloney with J. D. Linehan
and Chas. A. Weldt organized the
Bally Manufacturing Company as a
division of the Lion Manufacturing
Company which has been in business
in Chicago for a number of years.
The pin game, it seemed to him, had
the possibilities of developing into a
tremendous vogue, provided it was
developed and merchandised as op­
posed to being dumped on its market.
When the idea for a different type of
pin game was brought to him, he
promptly s e n s e d its possibilities.
With this idea as a nucleus, Mr. Mo­
loney began to organize those forces
that take ideas and theories, perfect
h ttp ://w w w .a rc a d e -m u s e u m .c o m /
them and finally translate them into
the actualities of everyday life.
Men, Money and Materials. These
are the three basic needs of a pros­
perous business, someone has taken
the trouble to point out. To these
three essentials let me. add Man­
agement. Without Management
the best laid plans become
hopelessly involved. Ray
Moloney was not lacking
in financial backing or
sources of m aterials.
He did need manpower
of the righ t kind.
Among his acquaint­
ances experienced in
solving sales problems
he found James M.
Buckley who saw eye to
eye with him in apprais­
ing the potential business
to be built around the new
pin-gam e idea. From that
point it was not long before Jim
Buckley, already well known to job­
bers and operators in the coin-ma­
chine industry, was planning the pro­
gram that gave Bally a nation-wide
distribution almost overnight.
One of the first steps was to see
what could be done to improve the
game itself before jumping into pro­
duction. Then the game needed a
name. Not just a name, but some­
thing with snap and life to it, some­
thing current, something infectious—
something that suggested fun, hilarity
and good times. In short, something
with a kick to it. Walking down the
street one morning with two of his
acquaintances, Mr. Maloney noticed
the lively, colorful display that a
news dealer had made of copies of a
then new magazine. It was Ballyhoo.
Everyone had Ballyhoo on his or her
lips at the m o m e n t . Everyone
seemed to be reading it— privately if
not in public— and getting a big
© In ternational A rca d e M use um
Plenty busy here noivadays build­
ing GOOFY, the new season’s game
sensation.
enough quota of belly laughs out of
each issue to keep the magazine’s cir­
culation driving ahead to new peaks
each month. “Ballyhoo! There’s the
name for the new game,” it came to
Mr. Moloney. “And there’s the color
scheme, too, for the playing board of
the game or I’m a Chinaman.”
That’s how the most popular pin
game of 1932 gots its name. That’s
how the game’s attention-provoking
play board got its brilliant, colorful
make-up— from the magazine cover.
The company name, too, came via the
same process. The last three letters of
the word, Ballyhoo, were, simply
dropped and you had Bally which is
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