Broadway

Broadway (Bally Model 576) is a notable bingo machine designed by Don Hooker for Bally Manufacturing Corporation. It holds a genuine distinction in the bingo machine world: it was the first 'Magic Squares' game, introducing the feature that let players rearrange numbers on the bingo card itself. Note that Bally made an earlier bingo game with the same name but a different backglass and no movable numbers, its 1951 'Broadway' (Model 535).

As an electro-mechanical bingo machine, Broadway features 25 trap holes on the playfield corresponding to numbers on the backglass card, along with the Bally Hole and double/triple scoring. The signature Magic Squares feature allows the player, when the option is purchased, to press buttons to rearrange numbers on the card in the backglass before shooting the 4th ball and again before the 5th ball, an innovative twist that added real strategy to bingo play and showcases Hooker's ingenuity.

The game carries a Pageantry - Women theme, a nod to the era's fascination with spectacle and display. Beyond its design and gameplay features, little else is documented about this machine, but as the progenitor of the Magic Squares line it occupies an important place in the history of Bally's bingo machines.