Ballys Las Vegas 1986-2022. Back in 1930s Chicago a fella named Ralph Moloney helped popularize pinball and his company that made the machines was Ballys Manufacturing Co. Pinball in the 30s-40s was declared a dangerous, corrupting scourge of society, so of course it was highly profitable. Naturally, Ballys went into making slot machines. By the mid-60s every casino in Las Vegas had Ballys machines. Ballys in the 80s was a major publicly-owned company when they bought the MGM Grand Hotels of Las Vegas and Reno. Ballys Grand inherited a Dean Martin residency, and the epic Jubilee! stage show, the last place we would ever see the now-extinct species of real Las Vegas showgirls. The hotel-casino evolved through the decades amidst a maze of corporate mergers and acquisitions. They installed a new high tech sign on the corner of the Strip & Flamingo Rd that is so large they explored opening a bar inside the structure. (1,2) by “JA” (3,4) by Matt Harvey, (5) copped from @lasvegaslocally