' Bally ' generic term for pinball machines?

[kevlar]

This afternoon I had 2 brummies in the house completely unrelated to pinball and when seeing my collection they referred to them as Ballys. Initially I thought they must be pinheads but quickly realised they knew nothing about pinball but they came out with the old ' we used to play these old ballys down the pub ' stories. They were quite interested but knew nothing about pinball manufacturers, they just called them all Ballys. So is/was Bally the ' Hoover ' of the pinball world? Or just a brummie term for pinball? Or are these the only 2 guys that call them that?

 

[steve brum]

Often heard bingo pinballs called Bally's. 2 cafe s in centre of Birmingham used to have a line of them in each which for a teenage pinhead like me was very depressing

Most operaters I've dealt with over the years preferred pintable to pinball , deck to playfield backflash to backglass and head box to backbox

 

[Nickbs]

I've lived in and around Birmingham for 6 or 7 years one way or another and never come across that term.

When you bear in mind that Brummies believe they drive around an 'Island' whenever they meet one of those circular roundabout things in the road it seems perfectly plausible though! (Still never really got to the bottom of how a Brummie deals with going to the 'Channel Roundabouts' or the 'Roundabouts of Scilly', but that's probably just the yokel in me coming out....

 

[steve brum]

Birmingham s most famous " roundabout "

 

[steve brum]

Also my favorite proprietary eponym is tannoy.

 

[Wizcat]

Seems like a good opportunity to post this pic from my USA trip



I get the impression the Bally brand is now associated with fitness centres (as well as gambling machines).