Great pics and crazy to think the amount of money Bally had to spend on that place and it didn't last 10 years! If memory serves me correct they put it up for sale in 89????

In May of 1989, Bally announced they were going to move their Gaming Equipment division to Las Vegas. This is what was in the 90 O'Leary Drive Bensenville plant at the time as Bally Pinball was already sold off to Williams.

The new Las Vegas plant had ground breaking later 1989 and was completed in 1991. The Bensenville plant was vacated in 1990 with everything that was moving loaded in several semi trailers with the service parts inventory taken to 777 2nd St in Reno to keep the service parts business operating. Slot Machine manufacturing took place there on a limited basis using the last of the 5000plus slot sub assemblies built in Bensenville until the plant at 6601 South Bermuda was up and running. Some of the trailers went directly to Las Vegas but were used as storage units on Bally property.

Love the sign pictures. I assume these show the heart breaker ?

Thanks for the reminder, my therapist isn't in until Tuesday.....

I could print out these pictures and burn them if it would help.

I did'nt know that they built a bally plant in Vegas. That 6601 Bermuda address is right up the street where I grew up in Vegas from 1959 to 1980. It was desert back then. When I worked at the slot shop at the Maxim Hotel I used to have to pick up parts from Bally down on Industrial road I believe. What memories.

Actually, that was a Highland Drive address. All of the building signage was supplied from the Chicago Belmont maintenance shop. Crazy...

Somewhere I have photos of the Bermuda plant under construction.

Id like to see that. Out in that same area in the early 70's Louis Prima had a golf course called "Fairway to the Stars". My dad was good friends with him and golfed there a lot. I could'nt remember if it was Industrial or Highland where Bally's was at. Long time ago.

Nice to see these memories of bygone days.
That Bally man sign is cool!

Great pictures. Thanks everyone for sharing.

Bally's 6601 South Bermuda Road, Las Vegas plant under construction in 1990

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From my earlier post showing the Moloney Coachbuilders signage, I actually did take a few pics of the old Belmont plant signage right after the Bally sign came off and the Moloney sign went up. This was in 1985. Note the name Moloney Manufacturing Corp. backlit in neon as LED lighting was not yet commercially available.

Also note that the Bally Icon/man was painted green and no longer was lit.20201019_205735 (resized).jpg

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...not gonna ask about the girl in these pictures.

Bally Distributing of Nevada, 777 W. 2nd Street in Reno which became the temporary home of Bally Manufacturing Corporation's Gaming Division with limited manufacturing operations for several months while the new Las Vegas Plant was still under construction in 1991. These pics were taken in 1989, just before that all took place. The Bally Systems building was around the corner on Bell Street.

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While not a factory building pic, here's one I found in the archives. From the 2000 World Gaming Congress show (Predecessor to Global Gaming Expo) in Las Vegas; Bally had this blimp flying around the Convention Center and Central Strip.

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Does anybody have any pics of the cabinet and paint shop? When they used to actually stencil the cabinet sides?

I have some of the Lenc-Smith cabinet plant in Cicero, which became a wholly-owned Bally subsidiary. I also have a few of the painting area at either Belmont or Bensenville.

That’s great. You never see any of the painting action. Thanks much.

So many cool pics and history Mr.Bally

I think I have a few more pics, but I've been purging and packing things away for a move.

1st pic is in the Cicero Lenc-Smith plant.
2nd pic is in the Belmont plant.
3rd pic and article is in the "new" Lenc-Smith plant in Franklin Park
Last pic with Paragon cabinets is the the Bally Acorn Lane plant in Franklin Park.

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And stacks of KISS cabinets in the background!

Thank you for posting your photos! Forgive me for asking if you already posted the answer to this question. Were you a employee , operator or subcontractor?

Looks like the Franklin Park Lenc-Smith picture is Skateball being stenciled.

I just found this thread. WOW... What great info and pics. I’m a Bally fan and am really enjoying seeing this history. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to this. Keep it going.

It does look like a Skateball cabinet. Reading the text and doing the math results in some pretty incredible stats. At 600 games per 8 hour day equals one game completed every 48 seconds. Not taking into account holidays, that equals 156,000 games per year. Really astounding.

I worked for a large route operator for about six years. I also left and went to the distributor Empire/Bally Midwest for a short time. The route operator owners came in and talked to the distributor's GM, who pulled me into his office and said I should go back to the Operator. They matched my pay and slightly increased it. Kind of like blackmail but I was quite young.

If you read my profile story, It might explain why you see these photos a bit more.

I did some research yesterday and it looks like the “Bally Man” started appearing on apron decals with Hocus Pocus in April 1975 and ended with Dolly Parton in November 1979. Although it wasn’t on Future Spa in October 1979.

It appeared way before that. Probably in 1968 or '69. No time to research, but look at games like Bowl-O, Camelot, etc.

Y’all are definitely right. I was wrong. Looks like they put it in the middle of the apron. Sorry about that.

After more research it seems to have started in November of 1968 with MiniZag, and. ended in November 1979 with Dolly Parton.

Nice find.

Gord

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Nice find.

Gord

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https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-man-wall-art-project

You can check out my Bally Man project here

I just did and it turned out awesome!!

You did a beautiful job on that!

As I'm going through stuff, I found this almost perfect pic of the Bally Icon backlit in Neon at night. I took this one with a 35 mm camera on a tripod with either Kodak Ektachrome or Fujichrome 100 color slide film which I processed myself. Date is likely 1976 or '77.

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Also found this one. My Dad took the pic while I stood by the window. Looks like the neon behind the B is out of service (probably just a fuse). That's the slot manufacturing area of the plant. 2nd shift was running....

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Oh man, that article is great addition to the history of pinball... I think it has the ONLY photo I've ever seen that shows the paint production process actually taking place on a cabinet - one dude shooting lacquer while the other holds the stencil in place... now I've got more questions... did the cab then get shot the same way on the other side? How about the heads...

Would LOVE to know the Devilbiss model sprayers they used, as well as being able to see and hold a sheet of stencil material.

Great stuff, simply awesome.

Adding on to my earlier post #111, Here are pics I took of Bally's then completed Las Vegas slot machine plant in Early November, 1992.....

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Such cool history you have captured.! Thank you.

Adding on to Post #95:
I just found this pic I took of the Bally Bingo plant around 1975 which also doubled as a staging area for the Aladdin's Castle arcade operations. It had recently been renamed from Carousel Time, Inc.

On Roscoe, East of North California. Directly South of Williams/United.

Note the two AMC classics parked in front along with a sporty Ford Maverick. Or maybe it's a Mercury Vomit.

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I also see the back end of a classic Cutlass

Love the photos you posted, thanks!

Not to derail this thread, but was Bally production moved to WMS when WMS purchased the Pinball division, or did a Bally plant stay open?

Amazing, this building still looks the same today.

Never realized before that Williams and Bally were across the street from each other.

Williams made Bally-branded pinballs at their plant at 3401 North California Ave. We saw it on a Pinball Expo factory tour. But keep in mind that Bally only sold off the Midway Games division (including pinball), but stayed in the manufacturing business for gambling devices.
.................David Marston

At the time of the sale of the Bally/Midway Novelty game assets, the Pinball equipment and assets
were taken from 90 O'Leary Dr. in Bensenville and 10601 Belmont in Franklin Park (Video game assets too) to 3401 N. California in Chicago. As David noted above, Bally continued to make Slot Machines in Bensenville. Ironically, the Midway touch screen counter top machines were built in the former Bally Bingo plant on Roscoe. Also 10601 continued making fitness equipment as Life Fitness was a Bally division at the time. Video game production was quite small as the market was small.

Where were the Pinball 2000 machines made? Those windows down the left side of the Roscoe bldg look like the ones in a production line photo I've seen before.

Pinball 2000 was made in the new plant in Waukegan.