Can anyone shed some light on who this guy was? I always hear commentators saying "it's a cosmo rack" and they mention Tom Cosmo and what a character he was. Anyone have any stories about him?
Tom Cosmo
- Thread starter cuetechasaurus
- Start date
He use to do acts over at Johnston City. His act was that he would set up 9 balls and run that out while making jokes and stuff with the crowd. That distracted people from seeing that all his shots were stop shots and stuff. Thats why when a player has an easy rack, they call it a "Tom Cosmo". Kinda like our modern "connect the dots". He also would grab a 20 out from the crowd and put it under the 9 ball. When he pocketed the 9, he would take the 20 and put it in his pocket with a grin as if he earned it by running out the rack.
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Tom Cosmo was supposed to be a dancer from what I've been told about him. He would shoot a really easy runout in exhibitions all while doing a ballet-type dance. At the end of the out, the cue ball would be resting on a hundred dollar bill. He wore some rather large eyeglasses in the pictures I've seen of him. The expression "Cosmo Out" was named for him.
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Seems to me back when the movie the Hustler came out, that word was Tom Cosmo did a very small part in the movie as a rack boy.i do remember seeing a guy called The Great Cosmo play once. i remember the 20.00 trick and remember that he played one-handed against the pool hall owner, and beat him. Might be the same guy.wow that was over 40 yrs ago.i was 18 at the time.im not real sure of the year, in 1966 i was else where i know for sure.(southeast asia for 18 months)
The Great Cosmo
I saw him every year in Johnson City from '65 to '69.
He was from New York and the earlier comments about him are basically correct. He set up a rack of all stop shots and danced around the table jabbering away while running out.
He had a funny stuttering type accent that was hard to understand, but he was very entertaining. And by the way, he could play, often winning matches in Straight Pool, his best game.
I saw him every year in Johnson City from '65 to '69.
He was from New York and the earlier comments about him are basically correct. He set up a rack of all stop shots and danced around the table jabbering away while running out.
He had a funny stuttering type accent that was hard to understand, but he was very entertaining. And by the way, he could play, often winning matches in Straight Pool, his best game.
OldHasBeen
Tom Ferry
I played Tom once here in St. Louis. - Nice Man
It was in a kind of seedy bar in downtown St. Louis many years ago. I had been going in the place because it was a hangout for the police and one of the cops played well enough to lose pretty good. He had cracked to my Dad (his sargent & boss) that he could beat anyone at pool.
Tom had arranged to do a little exibition in this place for a fee. He sets up all this stuff and is dressed like a clown. He puts on a very good and funny act that I enjoyed and so did everyone else.
After he is done he challenges anyone to some $5 8-ball. I guess he was trying to parlay his fee for the night.
I didn't really want to play because I could see he was down on his luck BUT I saw that if I didn't, this cop who could shoot a little would. I could tell Tom knew what he was doing but was way past his prime.
I beat him 4 games in a row and he quits. I ask him to have a drink but he refuses.
I could tell he was in a spot now so I give him back his $20 + $10 to hustle on.
Kind of a sad story & memory.
TY & GL, OHB
It was in a kind of seedy bar in downtown St. Louis many years ago. I had been going in the place because it was a hangout for the police and one of the cops played well enough to lose pretty good. He had cracked to my Dad (his sargent & boss) that he could beat anyone at pool.
Tom had arranged to do a little exibition in this place for a fee. He sets up all this stuff and is dressed like a clown. He puts on a very good and funny act that I enjoyed and so did everyone else.
After he is done he challenges anyone to some $5 8-ball. I guess he was trying to parlay his fee for the night.
I didn't really want to play because I could see he was down on his luck BUT I saw that if I didn't, this cop who could shoot a little would. I could tell Tom knew what he was doing but was way past his prime.
I beat him 4 games in a row and he quits. I ask him to have a drink but he refuses.
I could tell he was in a spot now so I give him back his $20 + $10 to hustle on.
Kind of a sad story & memory.
TY & GL, OHB
Billy and Rempe mentioned Cosmo in this match that Accu stats just reposted-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g2pF0f-a3o
at the 18 minute mark
Does anybody know if he is still alive?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g2pF0f-a3o
at the 18 minute mark
Does anybody know if he is still alive?
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Here's the wrong Cosmo playing pool:
https://youtu.be/lOQaZJiMm2g
https://youtu.be/lOQaZJiMm2g
If he’s living, he would be in his 90s...he wasn’t young when I saw him 50 some years ago.
He had some talent as a player also, beat Jimmy Moore in a straight pool tournament once.
Question......was it Johnson City or Johnston City?
I always got that one wrong too. It is Johnston City. We just pronounced it Johnson City.
Did he decline a lot or was "Old Has Been" who posted above a great player? It seems like "Old Has Been" worked him in their gambling match
Can't say about Cosmo but OldHasBeen (Tom Ferry) passed in 2006.
From DILIBERTO: “You Bet Your Life” The Tales of a Gambler
By: Jerry Forsyth & Danny Diliberto
The Janscos arranged for Tom Cosmo to open the evening matches with his show. Cosmo was from New York and I had first seen him in the late 50’s in Miami Beach where he was a nightclub performer. He was a great dancer and he sang as well but his name would prove to be his legacy. As part of his act he would put nine balls out on the table. The way he did it, so casual and all, it looked like he was just randomly putting the balls out on the table, but actually each ball was placed in exactly the same place every night.
Then he could be singing and dancing and telling jokes and all the while he would be running this rack of Nine Ball. His clowning and singing distracted the crowds so many people didn’t realize that he was just hitting one easy stop shot after another. Your blind grandmother could have run those balls, but it looked good and became the touchstone for easy runs in Nine Ball. Today, whenever someone has a really easy table to run we say he has a Cosmo and that’s where the term originated, from Tom Cosmo in Johnston City. Cosmo actually was a pretty good Straight Pool player. He beat Jimmy Moore once that I know about. Jimmy had Cosmo down 124-17 in a race to 125 and Cosmo wound up beating him 125-124, so he could shoot the game pretty well.
Cosmo was a clever guy. Before he would start his ‘run’ he would grab a twenty from someone in the audience and put Jackson’s face under the nine ball. Then when he pocketed the nine at the end of his ‘run’ he would pick up the twenty, grin, and put it in his pocket. The chump in the audience would never ask for it back because Cosmo acted like he had ‘won’ it by running the rack.
To begin his act Cosmo would come out wearing a hat, a big fur coat, thick eyeglasses and gloves. He started with one-liners, pulling the gloves off of his hands as he spoke and the gloves just kept peeling off and piling up on the floor at his feet. The whole while those old vaudeville gloves were coming off the jokes just poured forth and he had the whole place roaring. It was a great show and the audience loved him. Cosmo was like Mel Tillis. When he talked he would stammer but he could sing like a bird.
By: Jerry Forsyth & Danny Diliberto
The Janscos arranged for Tom Cosmo to open the evening matches with his show. Cosmo was from New York and I had first seen him in the late 50’s in Miami Beach where he was a nightclub performer. He was a great dancer and he sang as well but his name would prove to be his legacy. As part of his act he would put nine balls out on the table. The way he did it, so casual and all, it looked like he was just randomly putting the balls out on the table, but actually each ball was placed in exactly the same place every night.
Then he could be singing and dancing and telling jokes and all the while he would be running this rack of Nine Ball. His clowning and singing distracted the crowds so many people didn’t realize that he was just hitting one easy stop shot after another. Your blind grandmother could have run those balls, but it looked good and became the touchstone for easy runs in Nine Ball. Today, whenever someone has a really easy table to run we say he has a Cosmo and that’s where the term originated, from Tom Cosmo in Johnston City. Cosmo actually was a pretty good Straight Pool player. He beat Jimmy Moore once that I know about. Jimmy had Cosmo down 124-17 in a race to 125 and Cosmo wound up beating him 125-124, so he could shoot the game pretty well.
Cosmo was a clever guy. Before he would start his ‘run’ he would grab a twenty from someone in the audience and put Jackson’s face under the nine ball. Then when he pocketed the nine at the end of his ‘run’ he would pick up the twenty, grin, and put it in his pocket. The chump in the audience would never ask for it back because Cosmo acted like he had ‘won’ it by running the rack.
To begin his act Cosmo would come out wearing a hat, a big fur coat, thick eyeglasses and gloves. He started with one-liners, pulling the gloves off of his hands as he spoke and the gloves just kept peeling off and piling up on the floor at his feet. The whole while those old vaudeville gloves were coming off the jokes just poured forth and he had the whole place roaring. It was a great show and the audience loved him. Cosmo was like Mel Tillis. When he talked he would stammer but he could sing like a bird.
Sorry- just found this short article about him- it's worth reading to memorialize him
https://www.onepocket.org/OldHasBeen.htm
https://www.onepocket.org/OldHasBeen.htm
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I always knew him as Tom Martin and although I saw him around several times we never played. He was pretty careful about showing his speed, and I played good enough to make people play if they could.
I like his stories, all authentic. We knew all the same people and hung around at the same places. He was definitely more successful than me, since I would take on anyone who walked in the door. They had to show me they could beat me. I was never a real pool hustler, but I was a pool player! The greatest compliment you could get back then was to be called a "player."
Tom was part of the fabric of the pool world back then and became an important piece of AZB later on. We probably only talked a time or two in all these years. He was a pretty sharp dude.