McDermott cues in The Color Of Money

Cicerone88

Cicerone88

Active member
Just for fun I thought i’d comb through the movie and see what McDermotts I could find. Everyone knows about the Joss cues, but most people don’t know that McDermott donated a bunch of cues for the movie as well. All of them are from the D series produced in 1984. Many models came in a variety of stain and wrap colors. If I missed any let me know 🍻

First up is Moselle spotted using a green stained D-6 with a green nylon wrap.

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Not a McDermott but i’m curious if anyone can identify Earl at Chalkie’s cue? My guess is it looks like it might be a Szamboti, or maybe because of the Joss connection a Bill Stroud Joss West.

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Well I thought this thread would be dumb, but I'm throughly impressed! Nice work.

What is the background of the relationship? Did McDermott pay to be an advertiser/product placement? Were they in the credits? Did they have magazine ads at the time saying something like: "our cues were in the movie, you should buy them"?
 
Some good lookin cues.

Always a trip to watch older billiard movies / footage and all you see is wood shafts, naturally.

I wasn't around back in these days, can someone tell me if people cared as much back then about their equipment as people tend to do now? Example - I have friends who are very casual shooters, but have multiple cues, different carbon shafts for each cue, specific tips they play with etc.

Did people back then just shoot pool? Or were there gear snobs too?
 
Cicerone88 said:
Not a McDermott but i’m curious if anyone can identify Earl at Chalkie’s cue? My guess is it looks like it might be a Szamboti, or maybe because of the Joss connection a Bill Stroud Joss West.

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It doesn’t look like a Joss West from that era to me. I’m no expert and the picture isn’t clear etc…and I couldn’t afford a Joss West, but I started playing pool in the COM era and there were a number of Joss Wests I saw in Denver. I’d expect the stitch rings at the joint. And since Joss did other cues for the movie I think it’s more likely a Joss. If it’s not a Joss, it looks something like some of the Hueblers then. If I had to guess on a game show I’d say Joss.
 
JPB2 said:
It doesn’t look like a Joss West from that era to me. I’m no expert and the picture isn’t clear etc…and I couldn’t afford a Joss West, but I started playing pool in the COM era and there were a number of Joss Wests I saw in Denver. I’d expect the stitch rings at the joint. And since Joss did other cues for the movie I think it’s more likely a Joss. If it’s not a Joss, it looks something like some of the Hueblers then. If I had to guess on a game show I’d say Joss.
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Yeah it’s hard to make out. I can see two rings on each end of the butt (one below the wrap and one above the butt cap) that look almost like copper. I thought it may have been a Schon but I’ve looked through so many catalogs and can’t find any matches. Maybe a joss aficionado can chime in as their archives are now hidden unfortunately. Before you could go on Joss’ website and look through them all. Now you have to email them to verify 🙄
 
RidgeRaider said:
Some good lookin cues.

Always a trip to watch older billiard movies / footage and all you see is wood shafts, naturally.

I wasn't around back in these days, can someone tell me if people cared as much back then about their equipment as people tend to do now? Example - I have friends who are very casual shooters, but have multiple cues, different carbon shafts for each cue, specific tips they play with etc.

Did people back then just shoot pool? Or were there gear snobs too?
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It was somewhere in between just shooting pool and the gear focus of today IMO. My experience…Shafts were maple. Then people would sand the crap out of them with Scotchbrite or sandpaper. The pool hall where I bought my first cue you could get a Le Pro or a Le Pro for a tip replacement. That is only a slight exaggeration. Chalk was Master. Meucci had a following. Where I played they’d make fun of the plastic joint. I had one for a while anyway, but there was a big preference for a metal joint where I played a lot. Adam was a popular brand. Heard about mystical custom brands, but saw few. Saw Joss Wests in Denver, Stroud was in Colorado then. One guy from NY had a Balabushka. Well used. Not babied at all. Saw the occasional Viking, Schon, Palmer. Mc Dermott was popular. More so at places without the strong metal joint bias where I played. No break cues. No jump cues. 1x1 or 1x2 cases mostly. The one accessory from then that has disappeared now is the apron. GC skirts would put a black line on your pants.

My recollections from my era in the mid to late ‘80’s.
 
JPB2 said:
It was somewhere in between just shooting pool and the gear focus of today IMO. My experience…Shafts were maple. Then people would sand the crap out of them with Scotchbrite or sandpaper. The pool hall where I bought my first cue you could get a Le Pro or a Le Pro for a tip replacement. That is only a slight exaggeration. Chalk was Master. Meucci had a following. Where I played they’d make fun of the plastic joint. I had one for a while anyway, but there was a big preference for a metal joint where I played a lot. Adam was a popular brand. Heard about mystical custom brands, but saw few. Saw Joss Wests in Denver, Stroud was in Colorado then. One guy from NY had a Balabushka. Well used. Not babied at all. Saw the occasional Viking, Schon, Palmer. Mc Dermott was popular. More so at places without the strong metal joint bias where I played. No break cues. No jump cues. 1x1 or 1x2 cases mostly. The one accessory from then that has disappeared now is the apron. GC skirts would put a black line on your pants.

My recollections from my era in the mid to late ‘80’s.
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Great information! Thank you for sharing!
 
Cicerone88 said:
Yeah it’s hard to make out. I can see two rings on each end of the butt (one below the wrap and one above the butt cap) that look almost like copper. I thought it may have been a Schon but I’ve looked through so many catalogs and can’t find any matches. Maybe a joss aficionado can chime in as their archives are now hidden unfortunately. Before you could go on Joss’ website and look through them all. Now you have to email them to verify 🙄
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I looked at some old Huebler brochures from then before posting. Didn’t see a ring pattern like that. But uv
Clear movie stills, unclear old brochures etc…
 
iusedtoberich said:
Well I thought this thread would be dumb, but I'm throughly impressed! Nice work.

What is the background of the relationship? Did McDermott pay to be an advertiser/product placement? Were they in the credits? Did they have magazine ads at the time saying something like: "our cues were in the movie, you should buy them"?
Click to expand...

My memory is blurry on this, but I think there’s an old thread in this forum where someone knew or had a very good theory as to how McDermott got involved in the movie. McDermott never made it publicly known of their involvement.

For the longest time everyone thought they were all Joss cues. Even Dan Janes himself is quoted in this forum saying 99% of the cues used were Joss. Which as we can clearly see now thanks to movies being remastered in HD - that wasn’t true.

McDermott did eventually mention the D series being used in the movie on their website in their retired cues section.
 
Cicerone88 said:
My memory is blurry on this, but I think there’s an old thread in this forum where someone knew or had a very good theory as to how McDermott got involved in the movie. McDermott never made it publicly known of their involvement.

For the longest time everyone thought they were all Joss cues. Even Dan Janes himself is quoted in this forum saying 99% of the cues used were Joss. Which as we can clearly see now thanks to movies being remastered in HD that wasn’t true.

McDermott did eventually mention the D series being in the movie on their website in their retired cues page.
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I live a few minutes away from McDermott. Next time I'm in there I'll ask Jamie what and how they got involved with that. I'm sure he's got the backstory.
 
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