Hi Dave,
Yes you are quite right, the first Money Honey dodel had a white flash on the sides, the original model also had a bottom glass showing two dummy jackpots, the Nevada Gaming Commission would not allow this, and Bally had to change it with their famous Bally name emblazoned accross the bottom glass and surrounded with various fruit symbals.
The original forerunner to the Money Honey was derived from the 1946 Bally High Boy model, they used the original mechanism with various modifications, that used a 110 volt circuit, this was called the commander, my late partner Mickey Wichinsky installed the first models in the Sands casino, but they fell to pieces in the first two weeks, then Doc Kaufman and Bob Harpling of Bally resigned the cabinet and handle mechanism, stepped down the voltage to 50 volts and the model 742 was born, it was later named Money Honey by another partner of mine in the 1960's by the name of Cyril Shack.
Mickey Wichinsky then installed the new models in the Tropicana Casino, but they would mysteriously pay out when the airplanes landing at the nearby airport was flying overhead. so they went back to the drawing board and the 742 was the official first modern Bally slot machine that made Vegas what it is today, I have attached pictures of both the originally Commander , the reel mech from both the 1946 and 1963 models, along with the front of the original brochure for the White sided Money Honey. A great machine.
Freddy