Greatest pool hall of all time

Just ran across this history of the Hollywood Athletic Club. This place was unreal and all the hustlers from the old Hollywood Billiards used to hang out there.

Man what a frickin place.

http://www.thehollywoodathleticclub.com/rooms/Gameroom/

You can click around in the website and see all the original rooms and history of the place. I never knew that Tom's partner was David Gilmour.

Denis The Kid said:

Great link, I'm sure it has seen some action!

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Robert Cotton was the House pro.

In the Gymnasium room there were say 30 gold crowns and a huge English snooker table.

In the entrance there room there was say five or six good crowns with another snooker table.

Then in the Moroccan room there were like say 20 more gold crowns.

Upstairs had private rooms with elegant pool tables for parties.

It also had and English Grill and bar.

The infamous Hollywood Jack ran a liability game on the Gymn rooom snooker table. Mars of Pool Hall Junkies fame played there for thousands always with a house cue.

Never seen a room like it. They had celebrity pool tournaments that were off the hook.

Patrick Johnson said:

It was one of my favorite places to play during the first half of its life ('90-'93) when I lived out there. Spaciousness and elegance like no other pool hall.

pj
chgo

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Dude I was a regular then. Tom Salter who ran the place never Eighty Sixed a single pool hustler and some acted very badly on occasion.

Most pool room proprietors end up hating the pool players but not Tom, he was an English eccentric. He also was buzzed most of the time.

Celebrities would hang out there because it had those big bouncers with head sets on that didn't allow trouble to get started.

The regulars got away with murder cause the place was doing so much business.

Old Hustlers would take down actors that were young dudes at the time and now have big careers today, for like 800 to 900 dollars at a time. In the early 90s that was real money. Guys like the infamous " Drummer ".

Mars and Chris wrote " Pool Hall Junkies " at that time and were playing there just about everyday.

The main action table was the right when you walked into the Gym room next to the bar.

LMB said:

Sorry misread the title of the thread.

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Yeah that place is a legend with Cornbread Red playing there and Jew Paul. I know all about that place.

But the fact is, as far as rooms go there never was a place like the HAC. There never was the kind of action there was at " the Rack " but nonetheless it still was very sporting.

How many pools halls would you play with some crusty old pool hustler one day and then the next day you might play a set of Nine Ball with a cat that ended up making 25 million dollars a picture?

That world of pool halls like the HAC is long gone in Los Angeles. The new Hollywood Billiards was a fantastic room too and its gone.

I am not a professional pool player. You got to have game for Hard Times.

Homey don't play champions.

Guys like Tall Bobby started to play at the HAC. I remember when he couldn't form a real bridge.

Bobby ran some of the finest nightclubs in town at that time. He now is one of the highest betters in pool and a big time card player.

I played him many times when he was coming up.

Seeing all these old pool hustlers mingling with the Hollywood crowd was wild.

You have to remember that Hollywood in 1990 was out of control with gangs and drugs.

The HAC was like an oasis in a desert. Tom Salter had the whole pro tour come into the HAC and we all played with Buddy Hall, Mike Sigel, Johnny Archer, CJ Wiley, Kim Davenport and the Black Widow etc..

The regulars had the place wired. We would play all night and and slip an employee a twenty and they would put it in their pocket and wipe our time off the computer.

If there was a waiting list we went to the front. Our highballs had a lot more booze in them.

I used to battle it out with the maintenance man at the HAC Joe. He married Zsa Zsa Gabor's daughter Francesca Hilton. She used to sweat our action.

I know name dropping is obnoxious but the place was filled with a lot of interesting folk.

Upstairs Van Halen had its offices. How cool is that? Joe Strummer of the Clash was in there a lot.

I played a little at Hollywood Billiards down in the basement but that place was very intense and on one of the worse corners in the city at the time.

So I picked up the yellow pages and they had this advertisement for the HAC and I was there from the very first week it opened.

Sometimes I'll get together with old friends like Robert Tobin and we will start to reminisce and it gets emotional.

jrctherake said:

I agree! Hollywood was way better for the "pool player".

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In fact no. So many of the old hustlers came over to the HAC and they complained about all and sundry, like pool players always do, but they were there for the action smorgasbord.

They were incensed at the price of a cheeseburger but the action was easy pickins. Keep in mind the longer you play at one location the harder it is to get good action.

Hollywood Jack the original owner of Hollywood Billiards lived at the HAC.

Years later we became good friends but in those days he was all business at the HAC.

JAM said:

Keith loved Hollywood Billiards. He said Keifer Sutherland and many other movie stars from down the road used to come in. In fact, Keither, according to Keith, enjoyed games of stake and would sweat them for hours and hours.

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Your talking about when it was down in the basement before the earthquake. KS and his buddy Jude used to play at the HAC a lot too.

The best player in the basement was " Dana ". He had monkey like strength and could walk down the steps to the basement from the street on his hands.

JoeyInCali said:

I love the Hollywood Billiards .
Great food, clean place.
And on the second floor , they had a snooker table and a 3-cushion table for those who want a quiet action .
Saw Efren play some 3-cushion there back in '96.
While drinking some rum and eating chicken wings.
I'll never forget it. Efren played with his Meucci and his opponent, played with an elephant ear wrapped Gina billiard cue.

Oh, across the street was a Thai restaurant. We ate there one time and some Filipinos recognized Efren .
They had pictures taken with the legend , of course.

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Jeff got rid of the snooker and three cushion tables later on. The New Hollywood Billiards was a really great pool hall too.

My Buddy who died Bruce played Efren three cushion upstairs. Bruce was a big dude who loved three cushion.

JAM said:

Are you talking about the weather or Keith?

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That was back in the day when Keifer was supposed to marry Julia Roberts and it turned out that he was shacked up with a stripper in a flop house across the street from Hollywood Billiards.

That was the story back in the day. That corner is all gentrified today but back around 1990 it was a very dangerous hood.

The air down in that basement was toxic. You could cut it with a knife it was like a fog.