Some simple math corroborates your doubts, as if he had been born in 1880 and died in 1962, he could not have reached the age of 83. One of those numbers has to be wrong, so maybe 1962 is the wrong one.
Johnson City
- Thread starter Rico
- Start date
Some simple math corroborates your doubts, as if he had been born in 1880 and died in 1962, he could not have reached the age of 83. One of those numbers has to be wrong, so maybe 1962 is the wrong one.
I never made it to Johnston City but I did go to two Stardust Opens. It's sad about the Stardust events and Mr. Jansco died before it could really take off. Another reason the Stardust event died out was the "business" that was going on there. Many of the Stardust Casino bossess loved pool and staked or made side bets on matches and action matches.I personally know of at least three business matches where casino bossess made wagers only to be sent down the river. When the bossess found out that money got paid back. Those were the wrong people to be messing with especially at that time.The closing of Johnston City and Stardust Open events sent pool into a tailspin until the Color Of Money came out.
Found the Link above intresting, but I question why the F.B.I., decide to get involved in gambling in Tennessee. Sounds like a local thing, for the local Cops, not a Federal Crime.
Anyone know why the F.B.I., decided to raid the pace, was there more then gambling going on. Laws change, and I am not a historian on the Laws back then.
It's clear that the Feds were very, very ignorant and confused. Plain and simple. They didn't even raid the correct state.
But you do have a good question. What was the federal law that was being violated?
It's clear that the Feds were very, very ignorant and confused. Plain and simple. They didn't even raid the correct state.
Well in defense of the F.B.I., most are professional, try hard, but not perfect. Believe they closed the case on D.B. Dan Cooper, guy who hi-jacked a commercial airliner, and bailed out with ransom money, recently some new evidence was found, so there on the hunt again for Cooper.
They use to say the F.B.I., always got their man, or women depending upon who their looking for. Took forever but they finally got the UNIBOMBER.
Field agents and SAC's are generally top-notch. Its the guys at the top that need to go. Those asswipes are WAAAY to political to be any good at law-enforcement. The Trump witch-hunt made that crystal clear.
"anybody from anywhere"
I don't remember the exact lingo but Fats was promoting the event on the radio. Said they had a guy there that would pay anybody from anywhere for any amount or something similar. Somehow the FBI heard about the radio interview. An agent might even have heard it first hand. Next thing you know, the raid. Interstate gambling! I resisted temptation to get involved but I warned the owners of this site a few times that the raffles were illegal. They ended up getting a cease and desist letter from the gubment I believe. When the fed's tell you to behave, you behave.
Seems like Fats was talking about Jimmy Rempe. Maybe another Jimmy or maybe I am completely off base as to who he was talking about. These times are when we need Terry Ardeno. He probably has the facts off the top of his head then would back up what he said with written documentation a little later.
Funny thing is that Fats got them in trouble with his mouth, he got them out the same way! I heard that they had put together a grand jury on the fly and after the court case was over Fats gave all of the jury members his autograph.
It wasn't the smoothest in the world but Fats had a style all his own, and he had worked out his own hustles that kept him living very well for a lifetime. Very few hustlers that aren't in high finance can make that claim.
All from memory of what I have heard and read. I caught I think two years of what little of Johnston City was televised. I am far from expert on pool history.
If nothing else what I am saying here my jog some other memories from people that know.
Hu
I don't remember the exact lingo but Fats was promoting the event on the radio. Said they had a guy there that would pay anybody from anywhere for any amount or something similar. Somehow the FBI heard about the radio interview. An agent might even have heard it first hand. Next thing you know, the raid. Interstate gambling! I resisted temptation to get involved but I warned the owners of this site a few times that the raffles were illegal. They ended up getting a cease and desist letter from the gubment I believe. When the fed's tell you to behave, you behave.
Seems like Fats was talking about Jimmy Rempe. Maybe another Jimmy or maybe I am completely off base as to who he was talking about. These times are when we need Terry Ardeno. He probably has the facts off the top of his head then would back up what he said with written documentation a little later.
Funny thing is that Fats got them in trouble with his mouth, he got them out the same way! I heard that they had put together a grand jury on the fly and after the court case was over Fats gave all of the jury members his autograph.
It wasn't the smoothest in the world but Fats had a style all his own, and he had worked out his own hustles that kept him living very well for a lifetime. Very few hustlers that aren't in high finance can make that claim.
All from memory of what I have heard and read. I caught I think two years of what little of Johnston City was televised. I am far from expert on pool history.
If nothing else what I am saying here my jog some other memories from people that know.
Hu
T.Rowe Price another quality/low cost alternative ‘private/for profit’ fund family to Fidelity, for those hesitant to keep all their eggs in the Vanguard basket.
From 1962 to 1972 at Johnston City I see Luther Lassiters name winning 11 times.
He really was great.
He really was great.
From The HyperTexts:
"16 titles: Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter was the overall winner of the Johnston City tournaments, with eleven category and five all-around wins."
[But it looks like there may be some question about the 1964 All-Around title, so it as either 15 or 16 titles for Wimpy.]
Nice research. Thanks for the validation. Rempe's win came in Las Vegas, as I thought.
Tom Cosmo
It took a while but I did find it! Enjoy, guys
The National Billiard News, vol. 5, No. 12, August 1968, p.19
Tom Cosmo - The One, And Only
by Tom McEwen
(Most typos have been corrected.)
Tom Cosmo bills himself as "the world's only dancing comedy trick shot artist" and it's a deadball cinch he's never been challenged on that claim.
And he does dance around a bit, a little of thisa and a little of thata, as he shoots setups, and as he tells his jokes in a ratta-tat-tat double-talk and stuttering routine like:
"I us-s-s-sus-sss to b-b-b-be a uh r-r-r-ra-ra-ra-dio a-a-a-announce-nounce-nounce-nouncer b-b-b-but th-th-th-they fired me be-be-be-be-because I-I-I-I was t-t-t-to-too short."
So, after Cosmo'd gone throught 30 minutes of it at Angus Baker's tournament room the respite offered between the tense matches in the $5,000 pool tournament Baker's staging at his Tampa Street parlor - well, it isn't every day you have a chance to find out how a fellow became "the world's only dancing comedy trick shot artist."
It was up in the room over Baker's where he's staying while on location here, and Cosmo really never got off stage even during the talks there. He's small, wiry and really wears the big horned rims that make him look owlish even without the derby and the racoon coat he wears when he makes the big entrance for his act, suitcase in hand.
In truth, it was the fur coat, that got him in the dance-comedy pool business, as you will hear, and as WALT radio station says now, the only interruptions will if I have something to say. The rest is Thomas Anthony Cosmo, talking tenory, loud, a tad gravely, always excitedly, rambly, anxiously, proudly:
"Born? Oh, Waterbury, Connecticut. Where Ed Kelly the pool player's from. You know Ed Kelly. He's in Las Vegas now. But, I was raised in Wallingford, Connecticut. Morton Downey's town."
"Humh? No, I'm forty-eight. My father? He was an opera singer. I was an opera singer. My mother passed away early and after a while the whole family separated. My father, he was a tenor. He came over from Italy. Not me, I was born here."
COSMO, ANITA & THE CARIOCA
"What? Oh, well, after being a tenor, he, we were farmers. You know, vegetables. We had a horse and wagon. Went from house to house and sold fruit."
"Eventually, I became a singer and dancer. I was a natural. I had a good voice when I was a kid and sang at Polish weddings."
"Huh? I was ten to fifteen then, I guess, and me? Some Greek people adopted me. That's how I learned to cook and that's how I went to dance halls and sang."
"My first partner was Anita. Nice name, eh? Anita. The act was Cosmo and Anita."
"Do you remember a movie called 'Flying Down to Rio'? Well, we were hired to do advertising in department stores for the movie. We did the Carioca in stores. Anita lives in West Haven, Connecticut now."
A thoughtful host and himself dehydrated by the frenzy of his whirlwind act, and it's that ("This act's got class, ain't it? I knew you people would appreciate class," he says as he picks his nose). As a pool player, well, he can beat all the local yokels, but his forte is comedy, says champ Luther Lassiter, who appreciates Cosmo's hard work at his routine, and says, "probably that fellow, like so many, is ill-paid."
But, back to "I was in vaudeville, and a burlesque comedian, then later, of course, an exhibitionist pool player. Cueball Kelly, you know his name, he used to book me. He and Silvestre Livingston, another famous name, did too," said Cosmo, resuming.
"Most of this was up until 1955, when vaudeville went, Television was the thing, well, I became choreographer."
"I had my own shows. You know, fifteen or twenty girls. We played such places as Wilksbury, Pa and in the East California, too. Like Billy Grey's Bandbox."
"What? Oh, I had a Spanish show and we called it the Latin Revue. And, I had a Chinese show and we called it Cosmo and the Oriental Revue. Right? Sound okay?"
THE BENEVOLENT MRS. STRATENBURG
"Then, years ago I was a stooge. Did doubletalk, stuttering ... you know, I was a riveter ... a r-r-r-r-riv-v-v-v-v-et-ter, a professor, a comic with a stripper too."
"The pool began in the sixties, then all kinds of work along the way. I was a dance teacher at Bernie Sager's Dance Studio on Miami Beach. You've heard of Bernie Sager, of course. He's the biggest. I taught social dancing."
"Well, one time, Mrs. Stratenburg came in for lessons and she and her husband were retired from the fur business so she gave me several fur pieces and I got the big idea. I had this coat made," the one he wears is of several pieces and it is so noticeable, and intended to be. "So, I worked up this emcee routine, wearing the coat, dancing around the table and doing trick shots. I'm the only one who dances around a pool table and shoots. I do a little ballet, a little social, a little eccentric and some pantomime."
"That's how it started, and all. Now, I've written a book, which I need to get published, called Billiard Ballet. I could sell it after my act."
"What? Oh, it's only fifty pages. It's a new and easy method for shooting pool. I'm planning to publish it myself."
"I'm also making a movie. I'm going to call it 'The Clown Prince of Billiards'. How's that? Doing that as soon as I can find an angel, you know."
"What's that? Sure. It's a living. Next week I open at the Apollo Billiards in
Pinellas Park."
"And, it's show biz."
(Reprinted, with permission, FLORIDA MORNING TRIBUNE)
It took a while but I did find it! Enjoy, guys
The National Billiard News, vol. 5, No. 12, August 1968, p.19
Tom Cosmo - The One, And Only
by Tom McEwen
(Most typos have been corrected.)
Tom Cosmo bills himself as "the world's only dancing comedy trick shot artist" and it's a deadball cinch he's never been challenged on that claim.
And he does dance around a bit, a little of thisa and a little of thata, as he shoots setups, and as he tells his jokes in a ratta-tat-tat double-talk and stuttering routine like:
"I us-s-s-sus-sss to b-b-b-be a uh r-r-r-ra-ra-ra-dio a-a-a-announce-nounce-nounce-nouncer b-b-b-but th-th-th-they fired me be-be-be-be-because I-I-I-I was t-t-t-to-too short."
So, after Cosmo'd gone throught 30 minutes of it at Angus Baker's tournament room the respite offered between the tense matches in the $5,000 pool tournament Baker's staging at his Tampa Street parlor - well, it isn't every day you have a chance to find out how a fellow became "the world's only dancing comedy trick shot artist."
It was up in the room over Baker's where he's staying while on location here, and Cosmo really never got off stage even during the talks there. He's small, wiry and really wears the big horned rims that make him look owlish even without the derby and the racoon coat he wears when he makes the big entrance for his act, suitcase in hand.
In truth, it was the fur coat, that got him in the dance-comedy pool business, as you will hear, and as WALT radio station says now, the only interruptions will if I have something to say. The rest is Thomas Anthony Cosmo, talking tenory, loud, a tad gravely, always excitedly, rambly, anxiously, proudly:
"Born? Oh, Waterbury, Connecticut. Where Ed Kelly the pool player's from. You know Ed Kelly. He's in Las Vegas now. But, I was raised in Wallingford, Connecticut. Morton Downey's town."
"Humh? No, I'm forty-eight. My father? He was an opera singer. I was an opera singer. My mother passed away early and after a while the whole family separated. My father, he was a tenor. He came over from Italy. Not me, I was born here."
COSMO, ANITA & THE CARIOCA
"What? Oh, well, after being a tenor, he, we were farmers. You know, vegetables. We had a horse and wagon. Went from house to house and sold fruit."
"Eventually, I became a singer and dancer. I was a natural. I had a good voice when I was a kid and sang at Polish weddings."
"Huh? I was ten to fifteen then, I guess, and me? Some Greek people adopted me. That's how I learned to cook and that's how I went to dance halls and sang."
"My first partner was Anita. Nice name, eh? Anita. The act was Cosmo and Anita."
"Do you remember a movie called 'Flying Down to Rio'? Well, we were hired to do advertising in department stores for the movie. We did the Carioca in stores. Anita lives in West Haven, Connecticut now."
A thoughtful host and himself dehydrated by the frenzy of his whirlwind act, and it's that ("This act's got class, ain't it? I knew you people would appreciate class," he says as he picks his nose). As a pool player, well, he can beat all the local yokels, but his forte is comedy, says champ Luther Lassiter, who appreciates Cosmo's hard work at his routine, and says, "probably that fellow, like so many, is ill-paid."
But, back to "I was in vaudeville, and a burlesque comedian, then later, of course, an exhibitionist pool player. Cueball Kelly, you know his name, he used to book me. He and Silvestre Livingston, another famous name, did too," said Cosmo, resuming.
"Most of this was up until 1955, when vaudeville went, Television was the thing, well, I became choreographer."
"I had my own shows. You know, fifteen or twenty girls. We played such places as Wilksbury, Pa and in the East California, too. Like Billy Grey's Bandbox."
"What? Oh, I had a Spanish show and we called it the Latin Revue. And, I had a Chinese show and we called it Cosmo and the Oriental Revue. Right? Sound okay?"
THE BENEVOLENT MRS. STRATENBURG
"Then, years ago I was a stooge. Did doubletalk, stuttering ... you know, I was a riveter ... a r-r-r-r-riv-v-v-v-v-et-ter, a professor, a comic with a stripper too."
"The pool began in the sixties, then all kinds of work along the way. I was a dance teacher at Bernie Sager's Dance Studio on Miami Beach. You've heard of Bernie Sager, of course. He's the biggest. I taught social dancing."
"Well, one time, Mrs. Stratenburg came in for lessons and she and her husband were retired from the fur business so she gave me several fur pieces and I got the big idea. I had this coat made," the one he wears is of several pieces and it is so noticeable, and intended to be. "So, I worked up this emcee routine, wearing the coat, dancing around the table and doing trick shots. I'm the only one who dances around a pool table and shoots. I do a little ballet, a little social, a little eccentric and some pantomime."
"That's how it started, and all. Now, I've written a book, which I need to get published, called Billiard Ballet. I could sell it after my act."
"What? Oh, it's only fifty pages. It's a new and easy method for shooting pool. I'm planning to publish it myself."
"I'm also making a movie. I'm going to call it 'The Clown Prince of Billiards'. How's that? Doing that as soon as I can find an angel, you know."
"What's that? Sure. It's a living. Next week I open at the Apollo Billiards in
Pinellas Park."
"And, it's show biz."
(Reprinted, with permission, FLORIDA MORNING TRIBUNE)
Attachments
Last edited:
I knew Tom Cosmo. He was a fairly decent Straight Pool player out of New York. He was a fifty ball runner which put him in a second or third echelon of players. He had a staccato like voice, rattling off everything in rapid fire sentences. It could be hard to understand what he was saying but I did my best. Where the "Cosmo" came from was something he liked to do for some odd reason. He would set up a rack of nine ball, all spread out on the table in such a way that he could shoot all stop shots to convert the run out. Thus it was a simple chore to run the rack. He loved to show off by doing that. Thus whenever a player had a simple runout it became a "Cosmo."
When that raid took place, George Jansco had been dead for over six months and his brother Paulie ran the event. Paulie was not "connected" to the Southern Illinois mob and George was. They would have never raided the place had George been alive.
My dear friend Jimmy Reid got one thing right. There has never been anyone like Minnesota Fats before or since. Like Jimmy, I'm so glad I got to spend time around Fats. He was by far the most mesmerizing person I ever met.
That's a Frank Paradise cue he's playing with. All the rage back then. It was considered to be "state of the art."
Thanks Jay. Geez, you think I'd have enjoyed Johnston City?