3-Ring Circus

The 3-Ring Circus, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Corporation in July 1932, is one of Bally's early pure mechanical (PM) pinball machines, designed by company founder Raymond T. Moloney. As a PM game, it predates flippers (introduced in 1947) and the electromechanical era that would follow.

The 3-Ring Circus was a nickel-play (5-cent) game. It is historically notable as the first game on which Bally, direct from the factory, mounted a printed score card in a wood marquee on the backbox - a practice operators had already begun doing themselves to indicate payout amounts for high scores, and which could be removed to convert the machine to a straight, non-payout pin. Earlier small metal marquees are known on other manufacturers' games from a few months prior, but Bally's marquee on this title was notably larger.

The circus theme is expressed through the cabinet's artwork. Because Rock-Ola released an identical-looking version of '3-Ring Circus' around the same time, and no reliable way has yet been found to distinguish unbranded images of the two, all unmarked examples are catalogued under this Bally listing.