Peter Pan Room, SLC

Peter Pan Billiards

I understand the room opened very close to 1928 and it closed around 1984 or 1986. Lee Simon (from Peteluma, Calif) bought all of the fixtures, including the old bar etc. Lee opened Buffalo Billiards in Cotati around 1993.

I purchased 5 of the original Medalist tables by Brunswick. (Not to be confused with the modern Medalist Brunswick made). So these tables were only played on in two rooms over a span of 75 years or so!!!

These were great tables and were a main part of the great tables that were present at the Anchorage Billiard Palace. It was opened in 1988 and the property was sold in 2006. The ashes will arise again and a new ABP will open around Dec or Jan.

On a side note, one of the medalist tables was a 10' snooker. While changing the room around a little, we sold the 10' in favor of getting another 12' Kling (which was from the Palace Billiards in San Francisco). The 10' ended up going to Noah Wiley (actor and George Clooney friend). A few years later, George bought a 9' Medalist pool table (which I had at Gaslamp Billiard Palace in San Diego).

On page 202 of the BILLIARD ENCYCLOPEDIA, is a picture of our room. The table in the forefront is a medalist from Peter Pan - it is also the table that appeared in a beer ad in California - that I cannot remember the name.

I heard the owner of Peter Pan was a boxing fan and had all the poictures of the old champions, many of them signed.

Mark Griffin
builder and owner of Anchorage Billiard Palace.
BCA Pool League

swest said:

Greetings,

Any Salt Lake City shooters on the forum?

Any SLC shooters that ever played in the Peter Pan Room on the forum? (The Peter Pan Room was below street level, on State Street between 2nd and 3rd South... At least that's my recollection.)

Any SLC shooters that played in the Peter Pan Room that also know where one might find some old photos of the place?

Thanks.

- s.west

p.s. The last time I was there was sometime in 1971. I don't know when it closed down.

Click to expand...

I was a regular there, during the 2 yrs. I lived in SLC ('54, '55)..There was always a 'Life Pool' game going on on the old 6x12 snooker table in the back.. Sometimes it could get up to 20 handed, or more.

My memories a little hazy on the rules of that game, but I remember you drew pills for your ball, and you shot the closest ball to you, every shot!..If someone made your ball, you could buy back in..A bunch (8 or 10) of us better players used to play 'kills' for $1, $2, or $5 a man..If you got loose, and could run several balls, you could really clean up.

A few doors down, on the same street, was the Iron Horse pool room..They played a lot of golf there, but no life pool..Always something going on at both those joints. Dick Miles (a roofing contractor) was about the best player in town at that time..('til I moved there ) ....Good times for sure!

PS..Very interesting, that those old tables wound up at your pool room in Anchorage, Mark!
..I put a lot of miles on them, in my short time in SLC!