Johnny Ervolino

Nice shot Johnny

https://video.search.yahoo.com/vide...&sigb=12t5angev&sigt=11dc8rdbt&sigi=12oj5q2hv

Poolhall60561 said:

Nice shot Johnny

https://video.search.yahoo.com/vide...&sigb=12t5angev&sigt=11dc8rdbt&sigi=12oj5q2hv

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I believe I was the ref for that match. I do remember working a couple of Johnny's matches.

jay helfert said:

I believe I was the ref for that match. I do remember working a couple of Johnny's matches.

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It certainly looks like you right at the beginning of the clip

Great shot by Ervolino. I wish I could do that with confidence.

Bob Jewett said:

The hair is about right but you seem to have been a lot heavier then:grin::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW_v0a2X1aU

Johnny shoots a nice carom shot 3:50 into the match.

I saw Ervolino in the 70s and 80s and I don't remember all the post-stroke jerking to the side. Did he always do that? I can't believe it helped his game.

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NOT ME!!!

I was involved in a hustle with Titanic one time.

Johnny Ervolino played in the same pool room with
a certain mark that we had picked to play.
Trouble was Johnny played at this pool room and knew
us well

We couldn't just ask Johnny to keep quiet,have you ever tried that?

So we had to remove him from the scene of what was to become
the largest score in the history of pool as far as i know

So I had Titanic call Johnny and send him tickets to Dallas along with $500
and promises of easy action and a game we would stake,,He was met at
Love Field by Billy T Dyre and kept occupied for two weeks while we laid down
a "Moose Patch or Big Store Con

Years later when I ran into Johnny again at the Cuetopia,Freddie and Mary's place in Vegas,Titanic's
name came up and Johnny told me about his mysterious dealing with Titanic and trip to Dallas,scratched his head
and said "Strange " he repeated "Strange ,but funny that Titanic never showed up in Dallas"

Everybody made money,Johnny had fun and profit in Dallas while a larger score on a bigger
stage in Vegas involving Drug dealers, Frankie blue eyes,Benny Binion,Eddie Taylor,Shecky Greene,
and a host of others willingly or accidentally were involved in once in a lifetime score that started with
pool but went way beyond just pool

Bob Jewett said:

The hair is about right but you seem to have been a lot heavier then:grin::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW_v0a2X1aU

Johnny shoots a nice carom shot 3:50 into the match.

I saw Ervolino in the 70s and 80s and I don't remember all the post-stroke jerking to the side. Did he always do that? I can't believe it helped his game.

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Definitely not Mr. Helfert, however.

Bob Jewett said:

The hair is about right but you seem to have been a lot heavier then:grin::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW_v0a2X1aU

Johnny shoots a nice carom shot 3:50 into the match.

I saw Ervolino in the 70s and 80s and I don't remember all the post-stroke jerking to the side. Did he always do that? I can't believe it helped his game.

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Johnny was a strange looking duck in his earlier days. Age actually helped his aura.

When I moved from NY to CT in 1984 I played in a room at times in DERBY CT- a town that in 1984 still looked like something out of a 1950s Twilight Zone episode, you had a midget working behind the counter, no white collars anywhere in sight,no food, no booze, no music, just pool - on the main street of town of course, a town caught in a time warp decades old! Stories were told in there of Ervolino traveling at night in the early 1960s from NYC to this room in DerbyCt to gamble with John Vives, who won the Johnston city one pocket division in 1961. Ervolino would bring a couple of Mob Goons as muscle, just in case, and of course, the entourage of gun moll broads to help spice up the evening or soften the morning when they arrived back in NYC with the cash! I believe that he played with a Paradise or Rambow back then.

:thumbup:

mikemosconi said:

When I moved from NY to CT in 1984 I played in a room at times in DERBY CT- a town that in 1984 still looked like something out of a 1950s Twilight Zone episode, you had a midget working behind the counter, no white collars anywhere in sight,no food, no booze, no music, just pool - on the main street of town of course, a town caught in a time warp decades old! Stories were told in there of Ervolino traveling at night in the early 1960s from NYC to this room in DerbyCt to gamble with John Vives, who won the Johnston city one pocket division in 1961. Ervolino would bring a couple of Mob Goons as muscle, just in case, and of course, the entourage of gun moll broads to help spice up the evening or soften the morning when they arrived back in NYC with the cash! I believe that he played with a Paradise or Rambow back then.

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Cool. Any more stories would be greatly appreciated here, so get busy.

fan-tum said:

:thumbup:
Cool. Any more stories would be greatly appreciated here, so get busy.

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Agreed. That was a fine contribution.

And he is describing the pool room I came up in...but no midgets or mob

fan-tum said:

:thumbup:
Cool. Any more stories would be greatly appreciated here, so get busy.

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I have many more great pool stories from the not so recent past, but if you refer to the thread on this site about John Schmidt breaking the 526 record, some people here apparently feel we should "erase" pool's history and "move " to a modern era- so my stories, from the 1960s, I guess, are no longer relevant to this site- according to some! that is OK though, because EVERY time i pick up a cue, which is fairly often still, those stories come to life for ME!!

mikemosconi said:

When I moved from NY to CT in 1984 I played in a room at times in DERBY CT- a town that in 1984 still looked like something out of a 1950s Twilight Zone episode, you had a midget working behind the counter, no white collars anywhere in sight,no food, no booze, no music, just pool - on the main street of town of course, a town caught in a time warp decades old! Stories were told in there of Ervolino traveling at night in the early 1960s from NYC to this room in DerbyCt to gamble with John Vives, who won the Johnston city one pocket division in 1961. Ervolino would bring a couple of Mob Goons as muscle, just in case, and of course, the entourage of gun moll broads to help spice up the evening or soften the morning when they arrived back in NYC with the cash! I believe that he played with a Paradise or Rambow back then.

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The guy behind the counter was Deacon or "Deke" as we used to call him he was definitely a short guy but I don't think actually a midget and yes that room was like it was right out of The Twilight Zone

My father regularly took me in Derby Billiards starting when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old in the sixties

They just tore down that building and many of the others on that side of Main Street maybe a dozen or so years ago

mikemosconi said:

I have many more great pool stories from the not so recent past, but if you refer to the thread on this site about John Schmidt breaking the 526 record, some people here apparently feel we should "erase" pool's history and "move " to a modern era- so my stories, from the 1960s, I guess, are no longer relevant to this site- according to some! that is OK though, because EVERY time i pick up a cue, which is fairly often still, those stories come to life for ME!!

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A lot of folks would like to hear these stories Mike!

Kickin' Chicken said:

The guy behind the counter was Deacon or "Deke" as we used to call him he was definitely a short guy but I don't think actually a midget and yes that room was like it was right out of The Twilight Zone

My father regularly took me in Derby Billiards starting when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old in the sixties

They just tore down that building and many of the others on that side of Main Street maybe a dozen or so years ago

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Deacon was the italian guy behind the counter, at one time there was a midget there as well, not to say anything about short people, but it just remember how he added a lot to that "on the fringe" feeling of the entire place

Johnny Rosato said:

A lot of folks would like to hear these stories Mike!

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Thanks Johnny - I appreciate it! I see you are from Alabama- I used to come down there to Huntsville around 1990 and play straights with Johnny Tona- who was at one time a touring Brunswick pro introduced to Brunswick by Willie Mosconi himself - Tona was a great 14.1 player from the "old" era who could play with any of the top guys like Irving and Caras and Lassiter when it came to 14.1. Had had a room in Huntsville and was also a world class fiddle player- country western style- how is that for a Sicilain! Have a lot of stories about Johnny Tona- some very sad, as his wife ran off with a realtor and they hustled him out of his house. He had to sell the Balabushka that Irving Crane had George make for him. John played the the 1989 US Open 14.1 revival in Chicago, and I first met him there. John played with Mizerak when Mizerak spent time in Alabama in his early 20s.
He would also gamble at 9 ball when approached by road players and he had great stories about those games as well.

mikemosconi said:

Deacon was the italian guy behind the counter, at one time there was a midget there as well, not to say anything about short people, but it just remember how he added a lot to that "on the fringe" feeling of the entire place

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I loved that place and the whole vibe. GC1's, timeclock, Deacon always in black pants and a button down shirt and all the pool hall characters.....:wink:

thanks for rekindling db memories. :thumbup:

did you ever go in Sams billiards one town over in Ansonia?

Never made it to Sam's. However, Jack and Jills in Brewster, NY was a very close twin to the Derby billiards look- I think that J&J in Brewster NY is still operating - so 1950s/ early 60s looking! Also the GC1s with the white leg aprons. The original owner's (TURK) Palmer cue - the famous winding Veneer cue was displayed in a glass case on the wall of J&J in Brewster. a magnificent example of a very collectible cue as only Gene Balner himself owner of Palmer cues could make that cue with the winding veneer inlays - no one else in his shop could execute those veneers as he desired.