The Rack in Detroit

FSutton

Full Rack Banks only!
Silver Member
I love my pool history and I was wondering if anyone on here could share any stories about this famous room in Detroit. Anyone have any pictures of it? Etc I'm all ears
 

Terry Ardeno

I still love my wife
Silver Member
FSutton said:
I love my pool history and I was wondering if anyone on here could share any stories about this famous room in Detroit. Anyone have any pictures of it? Etc I'm all ears



Ed"Detroit Whitey' Beuchene used "The Rack' as him home base. That pretty much says what you need to know about the clientele! :eek:

Freddy Bentivegna will have numerous war stories to add should he see this thread.

Some of the stuff that went on there, the statue of limitations STILL hasn't expired! :D
 

12squared

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
FSutton said:
I love my pool history and I was wondering if anyone on here could share any stories about this famous room in Detroit. Anyone have any pictures of it? Etc I'm all ears

I grew up in Oak Park, MI, the city where the Rack was located (about 1/2 mile from the Detroit border). The pool room I learned to play was about 1/2 mile from it. I was friends w/"Jew Paul" Bruseloff's (sp) son. We played together at the Cushion and cue. Although I did not go to the Rack often, the first time Paul's son took me there (they had to know you to buzz you in), Jew Paul was playing Freddy Salem one-pocket on 5x10 snooker table for $10,000/game. It seemed to me that it took longer to count out the money than it did to play the game. It was an interesting introduction to the place.

I was also in attendance when Larry Hubbard brought Mike Sigel to play Cornbread some one-pocket on a 5x10 pool table. Sigel won about $35,000 and they both left town. This happened about 3 years in a row with the same result, Mike winning the dough. I wish I was interested in 1-pocket back then.

Dave
 

macneilb

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
bump to hear some stories. if freddie or jay could shine some light on probably the biggest action spot in america at one time, that'd be sweet. my dad used to play there a bunch after hitting up hazel and i wish i could remember all his stories about that place. a good one I heard from the rack was one day, just in the middle of the afternoon, cornbread playing "look-away-pool" for a hundred a ball :rolleyes: don't here too many stories like that anymore...
 

FSutton

Full Rack Banks only!
Silver Member
lol now that is just great. That's exactly the kind of stuff I want to here. "look away pool for a hundred a ball" Man you can't make stuff like that up. Is there even a place in the world today that can hold a candle to the the type of action the rack saw, it's doubtful.:D
 

wahcheck

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Piranha

Dave "Piranha" Peona (God rest his soul) first told me stories about "The Rack" .....He said when you walked into the place, you wouldn't believe how much action was going on.....EVERY table, and mostly for large dollars.....I think he said he won so much one time he went out and bought a Cadillac, and thereafter, people started calling him, "Cadillac Dave".....he said you will probably never see the likes of that place again.....
 

ironman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
12squared said:
I grew up in Oak Park, MI, the city where the Rack was located (about 1/2 mile from the Detroit border). The pool room I learned to play was about 1/2 mile from it. I was friends w/"Jew Paul" Bruseloff's (sp) son. We played together at the Cushion and cue. Although I did not go to the Rack often, the first time Paul's son took me there (they had to know you to buzz you in), Jew Paul was playing Freddy Salem one-pocket on 5x10 snooker table for $10,000/game. It seemed to me that it took longer to count out the money than it did to play the game. It was an interesting introduction to the place.

I was also in attendance when Larry Hubbard brought Mike Sigel to play Cornbread some one-pocket on a 5x10 pool table. Sigel won about $35,000 and they both left town. This happened about 3 years in a row with the same result, Mike winning the dough. I wish I was interested in 1-pocket back then.

Dave

I saw Freddy Salem again a couple of years ago while in Detroit. He spotted me when I walked in the door at Oak Park. He is still a sharp old bird.

He got me in a game real quickly with that Tony Black.
 

SJDinPHX

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Terry Ardeno said:
Ed"Detroit Whitey' Beuchene used "The Rack' as him home base. That pretty much says what you need to know about the clientele! :eek:

Freddy Bentivegna will have numerous war stories to add should he see this thread.

Some of the stuff that went on there, the statue of limitations STILL hasn't expired! :D

Terry, rarely,if ever, are you wrong about pool lore. But I must correct you in this instance. Whitey's home base was the "Rathole" on Woodward Ave in Detroit.(as was Cornbread's originally) Whitey was way over the hill when "The Rack" was in full swing. Not saying he may not have been involved in a few clandestine affairs at the Rack, but I doubt he saw much action there. Maybe Steve Lomako can expound on that. Is Whitey still above ground ? THAT would be truely amazing. :eek:
Also, if Steve answers, when did the Rathole shut down ?

Dick

PS. Terry, I need two birth dates, Cole Dixon and Billy Stroud. If you have them please PM me. I have a wager in progress. Please do not post it here.
 
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ironman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
SJDinPHX said:
Terry, rarely,if ever, are you wrong about pool lore. But I must correct you in this instance. Whitey's home base was the "Rathole" on Woodward Ave in Detroit.(as was Cornbread's originally) Whitey was way over the hill when "The Rack" was in full swing. Not saying he may not have been involved in a few clandestine affairs at the Rack, but I doubt he saw much action there. Maybe Steve Lomako can expound on that. Is Whitey still above ground ? THAT would be truely amazing. :eek:
Also, if Steve answers, when did the Rathole shut down ?

Dick

PS. Terry, I need two birth dates, Cole Dixon and Billy Stroud. If you have them please PM me. I have a wager in progress. Please do not post it here.

This may be in bad taste, but, here goes.

Whitey was one of the most disgusting people I ever met.

He had this pickup truck with a camper on it and left a light on in Denver and I voluteere to give him a jump.

When we got to the truck and he opened that camper, I near puked right there. There were like 4 dogs in there and it smelled as if they hadn't been outside in a month. That was near 40 years ago and I remember that like yesterday.

I saw him take the sickest bet I ever heard of and collect. I may tell it later, but can't think of a way to tell it right now. I mean Sick.
 

daphish1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ironman said:
This may be in bad taste, but, here goes.

Whitey was one of the most disgusting people I ever met.

He had this pickup truck with a camper on it and left a light on in Denver and I voluteere to give him a jump.

When we got to the truck and he opened that camper, I near puked right there. There were like 4 dogs in there and it smelled as if they hadn't been outside in a month. That was near 40 years ago and I remember that like yesterday.

I saw him take the sickest bet I ever heard of and collect. I may tell it later, but can't think of a way to tell it right now. I mean Sick.

Ironman, how can you go with "sickest bet i ever heard of..." and not deliver with the story :D
 

bud green

Dolley and Django
Silver Member
Someone, someday, is going to have to write the full story of the Rack.

In all of pool lore, no place has a reputation for such huge action going on simultaineously. $5K a game one pocket on more than one table going on at the same time? In that era's money?

Tell me one place that even comes close to comparing.

I've heard a lot of bits and pieces on videos, here at AZB, etc... but The Rack is the pinncacle of high action in pool history as far as I know and the full story hasn't been told.

Love to hear it though...
 

TIMBER1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ironman said:
This may be in bad taste, but, here goes.

Whitey was one of the most disgusting people I ever met.

He had this pickup truck with a camper on it and left a light on in Denver and I voluteere to give him a jump.

When we got to the truck and he opened that camper, I near puked right there. There were like 4 dogs in there and it smelled as if they hadn't been outside in a month. That was near 40 years ago and I remember that like yesterday.

I saw him take the sickest bet I ever heard of and collect. I may tell it later, but can't think of a way to tell it right now. I mean Sick.


Jack Taylor was upset he was compared to Whitey in Rags to Rifle Man. He said he was nothing like Whitey "Whitey would **** a dog if the money was right".
 

freddy the beard

Freddy Bentivegna
Silver Member
I probably should keep my mouth shut...

SJDinPHX said:
Terry, rarely,if ever, are you wrong about pool lore. But I must correct you in this instance. Whitey's home base was the "Rathole" on Woodward Ave in Detroit.(as was Cornbread's originally) Whitey was way over the hill when "The Rack" was in full swing. Not saying he may not have been involved in a few clandestine affairs at the Rack, but I doubt he saw much action there. Maybe Steve Lemke can expound on that. Is Whitey still above ground ? THAT would be truely amazing. :eek:
Also, if Steve answers, when did the Rathole shut down ?

Dick

Dick, in order to justify Terry's claim about Whitey and the Rack, I am going to have to 'fess up hanging out some with that lunatic. Firstly, Ironman was right about Whitey being one of the world's most disgusting individuals. I also have some Whitey tales that are so brutal, that I don't know how I could possibly air them. Whatever hideous stories you all might have heard about Whitey are probably true. I mentioned a few of the tamer ones in my book The GosPool. However, I hate to have to admit that I was fascinated by the man. He liked me and sort of semi-behaved around me. We went in partners one night in the Greek Barbut dice game at the Rack. We put up $75 apiece. In an hour Whitey got up to be $14,000 ahead. Jew Paul got in the game and busted us in four bets, 4k, 4k, 4k, 2k. We got knocked out so fast we didn't have time to take any money down. Later, Whitey tried to keep his image up and he told some people that he held out a g-note on me anyway. Believe me, he didn't go south with a dime. I watched him like a chicken hawk. Houdini couldn't have went south and gotten away with it, as close as I was sweating. Whitey just didn't want people to think that he had given me a square shake. Getting back to the main point, Whitey spent a lot of time in the Rack, but SJD was right about 1 thing, his speed was way off. The only thing he still played real strong was snooker. Is he still alive? Don't know. Last time I heard from him was when he and the famous tush hog Sugar Shack Novak called me from Florida, drunk. A year earlier Whitey had sold Sugar Shack 2k worth of phony gold chains. Sugar caught up with him and instead of killing him, he was so impressed with Whitey's nerve that he got him drunk instead. Whitey had just beaten throat cancer and was hooked up with a voice box at the time. There is a word to describe Whitey perfectly, it's, egregious. Outstandingly bad.

the Beard
 

1on1pooltournys

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The rack?

Is this the place that you had to be let in by somebody? I heard an old timer talking about this a couple days ago. Said they gambled higher than the sears tower.
 

freddy the beard

Freddy Bentivegna
Silver Member
Close

TIMBER1 said:
Jack Taylor was upset he was compared to Whitey in Rags to Rifle Man. He said he was nothing like Whitey "Whitey would **** a dog if the money was right".

You're getting close.

the Beard
 

SJDinPHX

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
King of all a--holes.

daphish1 said:
Ironman, how can you go with "sickest bet i ever heard of..." and not deliver with the story :D

I am sure Ironman is refering to Whitey's wager involving one of his female dogs genetalia. It is the most disgusting thing you can imagine.
Whitey was, without a doubt, the crudest human being I've ever met.
I have a story about him and Canadian Pete that I will share someday.
It is worthy of the Beard's War stories column. If he had done to me, what he did to Pete, he would have met his demise much earlier. He was a man with absolutely NO scruples.

Dick

PS. Whitey could give Jack Taylor the 5 out and the break for treachery. And Jack played that game real well.
 
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ironman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
SJDinPHX said:
I am sure Ironman is refering to Whitey's wager involving one of his female dogs genetalia. It is the most disgusting thing you can imagine.
Whitey was, without a doubt, the crudest human being I've ever met.
I have a story about him and Canadian Pete that I will share someday.
It is worthy of the Beard's War stories column. If he had done to me, what he did to Pete, he would have met his demise much earlier. He was a man with absolutely NO scruples.

Dick

No, I heard about that one too though. This is one about his own genetalia.

He laid it out on the billiard table at the old Fun Center in Denver and allowed a guy to smack it with a billiard ball,,,,,,,for $10.00. My skin crawls thinking about that event.

The next day he was in there playing Fat Marty {Martin Kaman} one pocket.
 

SJDinPHX

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ironman said:
No, I heard about that one too though. This is one about his own genetalia.

He laid it out on the billiard table at the old Fun Center in Denver and allowed a guy to smack it with a billiard ball,,,,,,,for $10.00. My skin crawls thinking about that event.

The next day he was in there playing Fat Marty {Martin Kaman} one pocket.

Had not heard that one Lewis, but I'm sure not shocked. To be around Whitey when he was broke, (which I have been) was like standing next to a ticking time bomb. He would do ANYTHING for money.

Dick
 

jasonlaus

Rep for Smorg
Silver Member
FSutton said:
lol now that is just great. That's exactly the kind of stuff I want to here. "look away pool for a hundred a ball" Man you can't make stuff like that up. Is there even a place in the world today that can hold a candle to the the type of action the rack saw, it's doubtful.:D

Where are you at? they've been playin $5,000 a set 1 hole for 4 or 5 days now. Give me a call when you're coming up.
 
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