One of a handful of Bally's Tom Foolery early arcade bar/nightclub concepts that existed briefly in the early 1980's. Most were previously Barnaby's Family Inns, until Bally Manufacturing Co. purchased the chain in 1981 and converted a number of the locations to the Tom Foolery concept. The arcade crash of 1982-1983, plus the mountain of debt that Bally's was navigating at the time, put an unfortunate and swift end to this concept. All of the locations were closed in 1984, when Bally's sold the non-converted Barnaby's locations to each of their owner/operators.
This location was among the first Tom Foolery's to open and was inside Chicago Ridge Mall. We're unsure if this particular location was originally a Barnaby's. It may have been an Aladdin's Castle (an arcade chain that Bally's also owned at the time and existed in many malls across the US). Or it may have been leased and built out explicitly as a Tom Foolery. Most/all Barnaby's locations we are aware of were standalone buildings.
