Coin-operated pin Bagatelle machines were made at a breakneck pace. At the height of the Great Depression these games were produced cheaply and quickly, offering new distractions, and ideas had to come just as fast. It was easiest to simply copy them.

Raymond T. Moloney wanted to make his own pin bagatelle machine, having issues sourcing and distributing Gottlieb’s best-selling Baffle Ball (Gottlieb, Nov. 1931). Rather than develop it from scratch, he looked to the popular magazine Ballyhoo—the MAD magazine of the 1930s—and simply used their colors and style. He even kept the title the same and called his company Bally, though this machine is labelled with Bally’s parent company, Lion Manufacturing.

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