There were always a handful of guys that attracted the crowds for whatever reason. Here are a few I remember.
Ronnie and Keith number one and two!
When Ronnie played the place was PACKED! He was the most well known player of his era. He had a personality that was bigger than life and anyone who met him never forgot him. And he was a great promoter, of himself and for pool! Ronnie was famous for being a great One Pocket player (the best!), but he could play all games. He was exciting to watch, very creative, a great shot maker and had the heart of a lion. And all the time keeping a running patter going with his audience. You couldn't help but pull for him, even if he owed you money.
Keith was like the clone of Ronnie, but in a very distorted way. He also attracted throngs of people wherever he played. Poolrooms, tournaments, bars, it made no difference. If Keith was in action, the word got around and people flocked to see him play. Keith was truly an American original. He pulled lines out of the air that any stand-up comedian would have been proud of. And he made pool look so damn easy. Everything Keith did looked effortless. Shots that would stymie the best players were like child's play for him. He would snap that ball in and glide the cue ball three rails for shape with just a flick of his wrist. No one before or since made hard shots look so routine. He would make some impossible shot and dead pan to the crowd, "It was a hanger!" He was also perhaps the best player ever in super pressure situations. Nothing fazed Keith! NOTHING! No bet made him flinch and no shot made him blanche. He didn't so much have nerves of steel, but no nerves at all.
LOUIE! Oh the magnificent Louie Roberts! Handsome, dapper, with a charming sense of humor and the straightest stroke of all time. There was never (and probably never will be) a straighter shooter than Louie Roberts. He would rifle balls in from anywhere on the table. And everything hit the pocket at warp speed. Imagine the hardest cut shot you can think of, and then know that there was a player who could make that shot time after time, and the object ball would never touch a rail or the edge of the pocket either. Louie just didn't miss anything, from anywhere. But of course what goes hand in hand with that type of game, is lost control of the cue ball. That's why Buddy could give him the seven and beat him. Louie never missed a ball he could see, but he might scratch or get hooked on the next shot. More than that though, is that Louie had CHARISMA! Gobs of it. He was a star wherever he went. People (especially girls) wanted to see him, to meet him, to talk to him. If pool had become a major sport he would have been the superstar. The Arnold Palmer of our game. Alcohol was his undoing and he lived only forty short years.
And then there was the grand daddy of them all. FATS! Fats was the pied piper. He attracted crowds wherever he went. He didn't need to be in a poolroom either. On the street people stopped what they were doing to listen to him. Children would not leave his side, forsaking their mothers to follow him wherever he went. He was the single most memorable man I ever met. Uneducated but brilliant! He had an insight into everything, and everybody. NO ONE could out talk him! Even Muhammed Ali raised his hand when they met and debated who was the Greatest. Fats had no equal, and that (more than any movie) is what made him a household name. He was the biggest star pool has ever had, by a long shot! No one is even close to his level of celebrity. Today we would call him "A List." But unlike celebrities today, Fats loved to mingle with the people and talk to everyone. Yes he could play pool, but that was secondary. His fans didn't care if he ever made a ball. They just wanted to listen to him talk!
Today, the only player I can think of with this kind of charisma is Alex. As colorful as he is, he would be no match for any one of the above four guys. Efren can attract the crowds as well, but it's his remarkable talent that brings the people to see him. The four I previewed here had more than pool skills that made people want to see them. They had some kind of magic that really cannot be defined.
