Ballyhoo

Ballyhoo is a single-player, flipperless electro-mechanical pinball machine from Bally Manufacturing Corporation, carrying a risque girlie theme - IPDB classifies it under "Ecdysiast Entertainment," a playful term for burlesque dancers - that set it apart from the more common themes of the day.

In terms of gameplay, Ballyhoo offers a solid feature set for a flipperless game. Ten passive bumpers and seven kick-out holes create an engaging challenge as players nudge and guide the ball around the playfield, and a dedicated Free Play hole awards a replay. Operators could configure the game for either Free Play (Replay) or Novelty operation, and could set it for 3-ball or 5-ball play. Two bells provide the game's sound.

An interesting historical footnote: Bally's first flipper game, 'Melody', appeared in November 1947, and operators of that period soon began retrofitting flippers onto flipperless games like Ballyhoo - with the new flippers often ending up in unusual places on the playfield. Surviving examples of Ballyhoo thus capture pinball at the very moment the flipper revolution arrived.