I posted this in 2004, and quite frankly, maybe I missed where others have posted that this year had marked 25 years since Gus Szamboti passed away. Its also been 13 years since my uncles passing, so in retrospect I wanted to repost this.
Ok.. always here me say I own a cue that isn't for sale at any price.. well here it is. Its not Gus Szamboti's fanciest cue, but it couldn't mean more to me if Gus made it for me. The cue was built in 1977 for Miami Gonzales, who at the time was in Paterson NJ at City billiards, he now plays in Livonia Mich. He didn't want the cue so my uncle told him he would pay Gus and take over the cue. So my uncle took his drive to Pa, his first of at least 10 trips, to see Gus and get the cue. The cue didn't have a leather wrap, my uncle said I would like a very nice black leather wrap put on the cue. Gus pulled a piece out of a box, he said Georgie.. I am putting this wrap on the cue for you because it came from another famous George.. Balabushka. (The wrap has been redyed twice, once by Gus and once by Barry.) The cue cost $ 175.00 brand new, 2 shafts, ivory ferrules. Now it gets good.. my uncle then sold the cue about 6 months later to Mike the Russian...in partial trade for a Joss. After about a week, he tracked the Russian down in NYC and bought the cue back. The cue never left his sight again, except for two shafts and a refinish by Gus in the early 80's, then to Barry in the late 90's. So anyways.. here are some pics.. BTW the work Barry did, refinish, redye and 2 shafts... $800.00 over 4x the original purchase price.
Since this post, Miami is now in the Dominican, or Puerto Rico. One thing I will always cherish are the people that I have met in pool. In the beginning in NJ, Miami, Miz, Hopkins, Calavita, Toby, Ray Martin, the list is long all the north easts finest and some of the unfinest, Steve the Whale ... aka Big Steve, Freddie the Persian, but colorful none the less... Back to Gus, when I was 14 I got to meet him while my uncle picked up a real nice cue, I think it was 325 or 375 back then. I just started playing and my uncle was going to give me the cue on a payment plan, but hey I had other things on my mind. What I remember on that trip was Gus was very nice, my uncle asked for him to put a GS in the cap and he gave my uncle some sh*t and said if he scratched it he would have to take it as is.. he did it flawlessly as you would expect.
Here is a pic of my Gus, still have the Fellini.
JV
Ok.. always here me say I own a cue that isn't for sale at any price.. well here it is. Its not Gus Szamboti's fanciest cue, but it couldn't mean more to me if Gus made it for me. The cue was built in 1977 for Miami Gonzales, who at the time was in Paterson NJ at City billiards, he now plays in Livonia Mich. He didn't want the cue so my uncle told him he would pay Gus and take over the cue. So my uncle took his drive to Pa, his first of at least 10 trips, to see Gus and get the cue. The cue didn't have a leather wrap, my uncle said I would like a very nice black leather wrap put on the cue. Gus pulled a piece out of a box, he said Georgie.. I am putting this wrap on the cue for you because it came from another famous George.. Balabushka. (The wrap has been redyed twice, once by Gus and once by Barry.) The cue cost $ 175.00 brand new, 2 shafts, ivory ferrules. Now it gets good.. my uncle then sold the cue about 6 months later to Mike the Russian...in partial trade for a Joss. After about a week, he tracked the Russian down in NYC and bought the cue back. The cue never left his sight again, except for two shafts and a refinish by Gus in the early 80's, then to Barry in the late 90's. So anyways.. here are some pics.. BTW the work Barry did, refinish, redye and 2 shafts... $800.00 over 4x the original purchase price.
Since this post, Miami is now in the Dominican, or Puerto Rico. One thing I will always cherish are the people that I have met in pool. In the beginning in NJ, Miami, Miz, Hopkins, Calavita, Toby, Ray Martin, the list is long all the north easts finest and some of the unfinest, Steve the Whale ... aka Big Steve, Freddie the Persian, but colorful none the less... Back to Gus, when I was 14 I got to meet him while my uncle picked up a real nice cue, I think it was 325 or 375 back then. I just started playing and my uncle was going to give me the cue on a payment plan, but hey I had other things on my mind. What I remember on that trip was Gus was very nice, my uncle asked for him to put a GS in the cap and he gave my uncle some sh*t and said if he scratched it he would have to take it as is.. he did it flawlessly as you would expect.
Here is a pic of my Gus, still have the Fellini.
JV
