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Episode 44 - The Notorious Bally Art Department w/ Greg Freres
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago52 min listen
Highlights
- Pinball was banned in Chicago until 1978; Greg didn't experience pinball until vacationing in Wisconsin as a kid.
- Greg was hired at Bally on June 12, 1978, after a one-week backglass design test featuring artwork called 'Summertime'.
- Kevin O'Connor, a pinball artist, got a job at Bally and called Greg six months later to encourage him to apply.
- Paul Faris was the art director at Bally when Greg joined; Faris valued Greg's darkroom experience and set up a complete darkroom with film processor.
- Black Pyramid marked the peak of the 'Bally high' period; after that, pinball declined as video games took off.
- Hardbody was a photographic backglass game forced on Greg by corporate (Bally had acquired Chicago health clubs and wanted to feature Rachel McLish); it was the only photographic backglass Bally ever produced.
- Dan Langlois was a young designer brought to Bally to shake things up; he worked on experimental games like Black Belt, Strange Science, Lost, and Escape from the Lost World.
- Early pinball artists (1940s-1960s) worked with simplicity, primary colors, and geometry; art was based on the philosophy that happy characters on the playfield should encourage coin insertion.
- American Pinball's Whoa Nellie was inspired by the classic Daisy May (made July 1954), which coincidentally was Greg's birth month/year.
Notable quotes
“Back in the day, we did things differently back then.”
“If those people on the back glass and on the playfield are having fun, I'm gonna have fun by inserting a coin and playing this game: that's the theory.”
“The artists are the minstrels of the soul.”
“You know what, I'm gonna give you a test. I want you to take one week and come up with something that looks like a pinball backglass.”
“Why didn't you say that in the first place? I'm setting up a complete darkroom with a processor, and we're gonna keep a lot more of that work in-house.”
“This is the best fraternity I could have ever been in.”
“For me, my biggest accomplishments in high school ironically were not through biology or chemistry: they were through film, helping others with film projects, and playing rock and roll for money.”
“We had to battle Steve Ritchie himself and come up with something that would grab attention compared to what he was doing.”
Entities
- American Pinball· company
- Bally (Bally Midway / Williams)· company
- Black Belt· game
- Black Knight· game
- Black Pyramid· game
- Daisy May· game
- Escape from the Lost World· game
- Hardbody· game
- High Speed· game
- Lost· game
- Skateball· game
- Strange Science· game
- Whoa Nellie· game
- Wizard· game
- Dan Langlois· person
- Dave Christensen· person
- Dennis· person
- Greg Ferrer· person
- Kevin O'Connor· person
- Margaret Hudson· person
- Pat McMahon· person
- Paul Faris· person
- Roy Kurtz· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Tony Ramone· person
