I miss the time where they were wearing formal clothings.
Was pool better 50 years ago?
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middleofnowhere
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I once remember seeing miz playing and he had to reach over the table. He undid his pants and tucked the whole tail of his jacket in so that he could shoot without fouling. Any balls right in front of everybody.I miss the time where they were wearing formal clothings.
I don't mind doing away with the formal wear as long as the players look good it is okay.
I'll tell you another funny thing I saw regarding players wearing suits. I was at the US Open in Chicago and I was really excited to see Luther Lassiter.
On night one I saw him in the lobby and even went up on the elevator with him he looked beautiful. On night three and four he didn't look so good anymore. It became obvious that this may have been the only suit he had. It still had powder and chalk marks on it. It was kind of sad, I think I was a little disillusioned. His play though lived up to everything I imagined.
later in the week I even had a brief conversation with him and he told me a very funny story.
I’ll play “Back to the Future.”
There’s a pool tournament going on with All Time All Stars playing, with all of them playing at their peak.
On Table 1, Joe Balsis is playing Onofrio Lauri straight pool. On Table 2, Thorsten Hohman is playing Nils Feijen. I’m watching Table 1.
On Table 3, Ronnie Allen is playing Jack Breit one pocket. On Table 4, David Alcaide is playing any Filipino. I’m watching Table 3.
On Table 5, Johnny Ervolino is playing nine ball against Jim Rempe. On Table 6, any Eastern European player is playing any Chinese player. I’m watching Table 5.
On Table 7, Ed “Cue Ball” Kelly has offered the proposition that from a full rack he can pocket ten balls into the same corner pocket rolling the cue ball three rails with his hand in X many rolls. On Table 8, any two top female players are playing nine ball. I’m watching Table 7.
On Table 9, Russian Kenny and Bill Staton are pitching quarters. On Table 10, any two American players are playing eight ball. I’m watching Table 9.
There’s a pool tournament going on with All Time All Stars playing, with all of them playing at their peak.
On Table 1, Joe Balsis is playing Onofrio Lauri straight pool. On Table 2, Thorsten Hohman is playing Nils Feijen. I’m watching Table 1.
On Table 3, Ronnie Allen is playing Jack Breit one pocket. On Table 4, David Alcaide is playing any Filipino. I’m watching Table 3.
On Table 5, Johnny Ervolino is playing nine ball against Jim Rempe. On Table 6, any Eastern European player is playing any Chinese player. I’m watching Table 5.
On Table 7, Ed “Cue Ball” Kelly has offered the proposition that from a full rack he can pocket ten balls into the same corner pocket rolling the cue ball three rails with his hand in X many rolls. On Table 8, any two top female players are playing nine ball. I’m watching Table 7.
On Table 9, Russian Kenny and Bill Staton are pitching quarters. On Table 10, any two American players are playing eight ball. I’m watching Table 9.
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Yep. And yet all the MC nimrods on here keep asking why we can't win one. WTF people its painfully obvious. If you aren't a avid pool-junkie the game might as well not exist. Hell, in my area the only time pool makes the news is when someone dies and their obit say's 'So-n-so like to play pool in his spare time' Other than that forget about it.
Ok we get it, you're older than dirt. Onofrio whooooooooo? Was electricity around then?
I always like them in suits. I know casual wear became more of a thing when the 90s came and of convenience. but love the fact that it is more of a standard uniform for cue sports. nothing against what pool players wear nowadays but just saying it's just nice to look if they dress good and not look less presentable than a server or official at it.
Your memory is failing you. Ed Kelly and Cue Ball Kelly were two different people. Ed Kelly is a BCA Hall of Famer and his nickname was Champagne Eddie. Cue Ball Kelly's real first name was Carl, and he was best known as a referee who dated back to the days of Greenleaf. I last saw him ref a match in the early 1980s. He was, indeed, well known for the prop bet you have mentioned.
I dislike suits about as much as these StarTrek clown shirts they wear now. Pair of slacks and a golf-style shirt is more than enough.
middleofnowhere
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It can probably be looked up but I think Kelly's real last name with something like a Zingle. I got to know him a little bit and learned quite a bit about ball spinning.
He used to do that one thing in front of an audience where he would pocket I think all 15 balls in the corner pocket and like 20 minutes or something. And the audience would keep track of the time.
He was so good at it as the time was running out there would be a few balls left and just as time ran out with maybe three or four seconds left he'd make the last ball. He did it every time.
I used to do one of his tricks where you rack up 15 balls and throwing the cue ball three rails or more make the eight out of the middle of the rack. I got to where I could bet on 10 but usually got it done in five to seven throws.
Dear SJM, garczar, and Middle of Nowhere,
Thanks for the correction on the first name. Of course I meant Carl the referee, not the Champagne Eddy. “Middleofnowhere” is nearly right. The family name was not “Zingle” but, I’m pretty sure, “Zingale.”
“Garczar,”. Yes, I am older than dirt. As for “Onofriooooo…” and “was there electricity then,” yes, there was electricity then. It was generated by waterwheels. The wheels turned as the water came over Niagara Falls. The electricity was useful for lighting pool tables in New York City. So much brighter and cleaner than the hissing gas lights. But of course we still weren’t sure that alternating current was really safe.
Lauri’s youth would have been, I imagine, in Greenleaf’s declining years. He was still around in the late Sixties as an entrant in the straight pool tournaments in New York. By then he was a “spoiler.” One of the top pro’s said of Lauri then, “No, he can’t win the tournament. But you can’t win either if YOU can’t beat HIM.”
Think Jose Parica in height but bald and in a tuxedo and in his late seventies, when the Social Security actuaries were doing their calculations based on sixty-eight as the average life span for an American male. So it was a wonder that he was still a hurdle in big time tournaments.
There was nothing unusual about playing him. Nothing at all…except maybe that if the match stretched into dinner time his wife might come into the room. She was about twice his size dressed all in black, and carried a neatly covered meal on a tray which she would put down on the table next to his chair. And then SHE would sit down and scowl at his opponent with a face that implied some form of malevolent magic. I don’t know if this was her common practice, but I do know she did it at least once during play in the ballroom of The Commodore Hotel. Talk about sharking your opponent! I have been told this also occurred in less formal settings.
According to a report, Lauri died in action. He was playing a straight pool match to one hundred in a pool room. He had something like ninety and had broken the rack nicely. He is supposed to have asked, “How many do I need?” To the answer “Ten,” I have heard that he responded quite clearly, “I don’t think I am going to make it.” The rail was astonished because the out looked easy, and then it was stunned when a few balls later Lauri collapsed. The firehouse across the street was alerted and rushed to help but Onofrio was gone.
If you know the picture of Luther Lassiter stretched out over the table to shoot left handed and using his peculiar right handed bridge, Lauri used to be sitting on the left in that picture, but these days the left side gets cropped out. There was also a fourth player, who coincidentally also died while playing. I can’t remember that player’s name. So the original shot had the player whose name I can’t remember, Lauri, Lassiter, and Irving Crane in the frame. All but Crane died with a cue in their hand.
“Older than dirt” indeed, garczar! On January 31, I’ll be eighty-three. I’ll be celebrating the day at the Derby, where I intend to spend nine days feeling disdain for this present fallen generation.
PS: And I won’t care whether the moving walkway has been fixed or not.
Thanks for the correction on the first name. Of course I meant Carl the referee, not the Champagne Eddy. “Middleofnowhere” is nearly right. The family name was not “Zingle” but, I’m pretty sure, “Zingale.”
“Garczar,”. Yes, I am older than dirt. As for “Onofriooooo…” and “was there electricity then,” yes, there was electricity then. It was generated by waterwheels. The wheels turned as the water came over Niagara Falls. The electricity was useful for lighting pool tables in New York City. So much brighter and cleaner than the hissing gas lights. But of course we still weren’t sure that alternating current was really safe.
Lauri’s youth would have been, I imagine, in Greenleaf’s declining years. He was still around in the late Sixties as an entrant in the straight pool tournaments in New York. By then he was a “spoiler.” One of the top pro’s said of Lauri then, “No, he can’t win the tournament. But you can’t win either if YOU can’t beat HIM.”
Think Jose Parica in height but bald and in a tuxedo and in his late seventies, when the Social Security actuaries were doing their calculations based on sixty-eight as the average life span for an American male. So it was a wonder that he was still a hurdle in big time tournaments.
There was nothing unusual about playing him. Nothing at all…except maybe that if the match stretched into dinner time his wife might come into the room. She was about twice his size dressed all in black, and carried a neatly covered meal on a tray which she would put down on the table next to his chair. And then SHE would sit down and scowl at his opponent with a face that implied some form of malevolent magic. I don’t know if this was her common practice, but I do know she did it at least once during play in the ballroom of The Commodore Hotel. Talk about sharking your opponent! I have been told this also occurred in less formal settings.
According to a report, Lauri died in action. He was playing a straight pool match to one hundred in a pool room. He had something like ninety and had broken the rack nicely. He is supposed to have asked, “How many do I need?” To the answer “Ten,” I have heard that he responded quite clearly, “I don’t think I am going to make it.” The rail was astonished because the out looked easy, and then it was stunned when a few balls later Lauri collapsed. The firehouse across the street was alerted and rushed to help but Onofrio was gone.
If you know the picture of Luther Lassiter stretched out over the table to shoot left handed and using his peculiar right handed bridge, Lauri used to be sitting on the left in that picture, but these days the left side gets cropped out. There was also a fourth player, who coincidentally also died while playing. I can’t remember that player’s name. So the original shot had the player whose name I can’t remember, Lauri, Lassiter, and Irving Crane in the frame. All but Crane died with a cue in their hand.
“Older than dirt” indeed, garczar! On January 31, I’ll be eighty-three. I’ll be celebrating the day at the Derby, where I intend to spend nine days feeling disdain for this present fallen generation.
PS: And I won’t care whether the moving walkway has been fixed or not.
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vintagecollectibles831
Well-known member
Only a little less entertaining? Pool is boring as hell now. All the players using the same exact breaking method, all of the time, lol. It seems like they are all copying each other.
And, what is with that stupid looking Cut Break, that all the pros are now doing? What happened to the days of the random power break?
Now, it is all pattern racking, soft breaks, and all players doing exactly the same thing.
It must have been way more exciting, and interesting, back in the 70's.
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middleofnowhere
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Onofrio Lauri is in a movie with Kirk Douglas called the Brotherhood. He's in the bocce ball scene. Have no idea why he's there other than maybe he used to actually play bocce where the scene was shot. I believe he's maybe the third or four guy from the end sitting along the wall when Kirk Douglas throws the ball.
middleofnowhere
Registered
From an article I read I think in the old billiard news or maybe the bowling and billiard journal. The movie clip can be found just google Just say bocce ball scene in the brotherhood.
middleofnowhere
Registered
I just checked he can be clearly seen if you freeze it third from the left on the end.
The player in the 50’s and 60’s had colorful pasts and lives. They also had great road stories. You just don’t see that today.
Pool was bigger 50 years ago, as there was no internet, hi-tech video games, social media, email, texting, online pornography. Pool was recreation, and every town had a Pool Room.
Plus there were only two sexes 50 years ago, Male & Female, there was no third SEX……………..I Call Confused.
Plus there were only two sexes 50 years ago, Male & Female, there was no third SEX……………..I Call Confused.
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I think it's kind of sad, Stu. I mean, what if 50 years from now, football teams from Singapore, Albania, Iraq, Vietnam, Lithuania, Bosnia, Hungary, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Serbia, Spain, Poland, Taiwan, Scotland, Greece, Austria, Russia and Estonia, all play (American) football better than the teams in the NFL? Do you think anyone in the US would still be watching the NFL? Why would they, if the best teams are from somewhere across the ocean?
Maybe that's why no one in the US watches pool these days. It's not "our" sport, anymore.
The earnings curve dropped off quick . Top earnings didn't compare to average earnings for snooker professionals.
Depends on your "decent". Some might consider owning a car that they could sleep in as Decent. Shrug
wink 
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