So, there is no definitive answer to how many bingo machines Bally produced. The IPDB has a few numbers listed, but they seem stupid low for the most part. For instance, they indicate 450 Show Time games were manufactured. If that's the case, somehow I've ended up owning almost 3% of the games ever made. So that number is completely phony. I don't have any idea where those IPDB numbers come from.

Danny has his serial number page up at http://danny.cdyn.com/serialnumbers.htm. I need to give him my numbers so he can get them in the list. I encourage anyone to do the same.

In the March 30 1963 issue of Billboard, page 53, Bally says they had manufactured "hundreds of thousands of busy Bally bingo games". I wish we knew for sure if that was hype, it would be interesting.

#2 7 years ago

NWB

bingopodcast

For Amusement Only Games

Richmond, VA

11y 131K 5,843 26 9

OP
Quoted from okorange:
somehow I've ended up owning almost 3% of the games ever made.

I think we should all just send the Show Times to you. Get that number up into the double digits at least!

After sending to Danny, consider posting to the Internet Pinball Serial Number database as well.

Note that the cabinet, head and playfield all have serial numbers and, at least in my neck of the woods, rarely match.

It would be extremely interesting to know how many were made for export as well, and if they have a different, standardized designator.

#3 7 years ago

???

okorange

Pinside member

Denver, CO

7y 33,550 215 13

Quoted from bingopodcast:
I think we should all just send the Show Times to you.

No thanks! Weird how I ended up with all of those but enough is enough!

#4 7 years ago

BES

Pinball_Muggle

Pinside member

Richmond, VA

9y 29,550 163

Sorry man - we'll never know.
The word was those records were stored in a basement by a guy with Bally connections that retired in south Louisiana.
He had all kinds of original bally bingo paper - real good shit from what I was told.
100% of it was destroyed by flooding in a big hurricane.

#5 7 years ago

???

okorange

Pinside member

Denver, CO

7y 33,550 215 13

Muggle WTF? Where did you hear that?

#6 7 years ago

???

Terry1

Pinside+ Frequent

Moncton, NB

7y 36,150 401

Since you mentioned Bally Bingo paper, Steve, do you know of any NOS Bikini paper?

#7 7 years ago

BES

Pinball_Muggle

Pinside member

Richmond, VA

9y 29,550 163

Terry,
Try Dennis Dodel or Hugh Kown or Bingo Joe or Steve Young (got my originals from Young but that was many yeas ago).

OKo,
I leaned this years ago from Jeffrey. He contacted Bally looking for Lido paper back in the '70s and spoke with Tony Regatta (who worked under Don Hooker) Tony sent Jeffrey a bunch of bingo paper. (Cool)
Tony retired and had taken a many boxes of old bally paper with him.
Here my memory gets fuzzy ... but I think I remember that it was HE that had it stored in his basement.
Well, Tony passed away. His widow was clearing out stuff - offered it to Jeffrey (may have been Hugh) but before it could be transferred the storm happened.
Now Tony may have given it all to someone else who to whom all this happened, (I'll sure up those details next time I talk with Jeffrey).
Interesting history none the less.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!

This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-bingo-production-numbers?hl=okorange and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.