What Happened To All Of The Good Old House Cues?

Biloxi Boy

Biloxi Boy

Man With A Golden Arm
I cannot help but wonder what happened to all of the old one-piece house cues?

I recall some really fine examples. Not all, but many were dead straight and, when shipped from the factory, must have been finished as well as today's custom cues. In my college Union, there was a particular "dark' cue that I always looked for (I now have to believe it was ebony). Some room owners took great care of their cues and kept their best house cues behind the counter -- reserved for those with respect. House cues used to be good enough that most folks did not own their own pool cues. Today, pos house cues force folks to buy their own.

So what happened to these fine old cues? Used for tomato stakes? I doubt it. Is there a house cue graveyard next to the elephants'? We know that the custom cue makers used many of the Titlists. Did they use other house cues, too? There were many examples that were definitely worthy of forming the basis of a custom cue.
 
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sixpack

sixpack

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Biloxi Boy said:
I cannot help but wonder what happened to all of the old one-piece house cues?

I recall some really fine examples. Not all, but many were dead straight and, when shipped from the factory, must have been finished as well as today's custom cues. In my college union, there was a particular "dark' cue that I always looked for (I now have to believe it was ebony). Some room owners took great care of their cues and kept their best house cues behind the counter -- reserved for those with respect. House cues used to be good enough that most folks did not own their own pool cues. Today, pos house cues force folks to buy their own.

So what happened to these fine old cues? Used for tomato stakes? I doubt it. Is there a house cue graveyard next to the elephants'? We know that the custom cue makers used many of the Titlists. Did they use other house cues, too? There were many examples that were definitely worthy of forming the basis of a custom cue.
Click to expand...

I can tell you what happened to some of them...

Leroy Garcia happened to them.

Leroy Garcia is a good player from Denver who has a bit of a temper. He had a bad habit of breaking his cue sticks. It got so bad one time I was playing him and he lost his temper and broke a cue he was borrowing to play me!

Terry McFadden, who owned Tournaments in Commerce City was there when it happened and he told Leroy: I have a bunch of retired house cues in the back room. If you need to, just go back there and break all you want and just pay me $5 each for them.

Next week Leroy loses in the tournament and looks at Terry and me standing by the tournament table and heads straight back to the back room.

CRASH! *#&@*#&% CRASH!

This went on for a full 10 minutes. Everybody stopped playing and started giggling. Finally the commotion stopped and we all tried to compose ourselves. Leroy came out, red faced and out of breath. Handed Terry a $100 bill and left without a word.

Man! We just fell about the place! (Apologies to Elton John)

One of the funniest things I've ever witnessed in the pool world.
 
TATE

TATE

AzB Gold Mensch
Silver Member
Biloxi Boy said:
I cannot help but wonder what happened to all of the old one-piece house cues?

I recall some really fine examples. Not all, but many were dead straight and, when shipped from the factory, must have been finished as well as today's custom cues. In my college union, there was a particular "dark' cue that I always looked for (I now have to believe it was ebony). Some room owners took great care of their cues and kept their best house cues behind the counter -- reserved for those with respect. House cues used to be good enough that most folks did not own their own pool cues. Today, pos house cues force folks to buy their own.

So what happened to these fine old cues? Used for tomato stakes? I doubt it. Is there a house cue graveyard next to the elephants'? We know that the custom cue makers used many of the Titlists. Did they use other house cues, too? There were many examples that were definitely worthy of forming the basis of a custom cue.
Click to expand...

Yep, the old ones were sold for $1 each to many pool cue manufacturers and customers. Palmer bought old Brunswick wall cues from pool rooms until they couldn't find any.
 
Biloxi Boy

Biloxi Boy

Man With A Golden Arm
More irony.

Cue makers bought the good house cues and converted them into custom cues.
In the poolrooms, the good house cues were replaced with crummy house cues.
Crummy house cues/loss of good house cues caused players to buy the custom cues.

So, it is possible that someone is walking around with the old "dark" cue from Union days in their cue case. LOL.

Thanks, Tate.
 
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sixpack

sixpack

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Biloxi Boy said:
More irony.

Cue makers bought the good house cues and converted them into custom cues.
In the poolrooms, the good house cues were replaced with crummy house cues.
Crummy house cues/loss of good house cues caused players to buy the custom cues.
Click to expand...

When I was younger I played so much with those 1-piece house cues I was more used to them than my normal playing cue. I have noticed they are garbage now.
 
PoolFan101

PoolFan101

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The Nuck Varner house cues seem to me the best going. They play nice and seem to be made well for the money.
 
JoeyInCali

JoeyInCali

Maker of Joey Bautista Cues
Silver Member
The domestically made Valley Supreme and Dufferin house cues are no longer made.
Thousands of them ended up as sneaky petes.
Hundreds of thousands ended up in the land fill.
Occupational hazard for house cues.
These days, they are made in China and much thinner .
And a lot more crooked.

I remember visiting the late great cue maker Judd Fuller. He told he could make 3 sneaky petes a day. So, he charged $175 for them.
 
Lawnboy77

Lawnboy77

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
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I’ve got a couple from the old pool room I grew up playing in. You guys are right, these old cues are sweet! I wish I had gotten a few more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
WildWing

WildWing

Super Gun Mod
Silver Member
They were also bought by cuemakers just to make shafts. Very old wood, stabilized nicely over decades in many cases. Cut the maple down as far as you can, make a shaft out of it.

I suspect some of the nicest shafts still being played with came from older house cues.

All the best,
WW
 
pt109

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
The good old house cues weren’t all that good. Bowling alley grade maple.
Many were good for butts only.
I went through about 5,000 one summer...only found maybe ten good shafts.
 
TATE

TATE

AzB Gold Mensch
Silver Member
Once pool room owners and employees started realizing the old quality wall cues were worth something, they started disappearing and the import wall junk started showing up. One pool room in the San Fernando Valley replaced their old cues with import two piece cues - I think he paid $5 each for them.

For awhile, 15 years ago, I looked for old Dufferin one piece which were still going cheap, the ones with the clear insert from the 1980's and 1990's. Bought a few batches. Solid cues but abused - warped, faded, uneven points, raised points, broken ferrules - got disgusted and stopped buying them. It seems to me that Dufferin sold their 2nds and blems in batches to the pool halls. I still have a batch which I use as my wall cues. I can tell you my Dufferin house cues that I bought new in 1990 stayed perfectly straight.
 
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C

CocoboloCowboy

Cowboys are my hero's
Silver Member
Brunswick Titlists have become in vogue, people convert em. They make great playing Cues.

The Oak Titilsts bring crazy price. But the are the hardest to find.
 
WildWing

WildWing

Super Gun Mod
Silver Member
TATE said:
Once pool room owners and employees started realizing the old quality wall cues were worth something, they started disappearing
Click to expand...

That was the point I was making. You had to know where to look to get some good house cue wood. Unfortunately, I'm out of green for the moment.

All the best,
WW
 
JoeyInCali

JoeyInCali

Maker of Joey Bautista Cues
Silver Member
pt109 said:
The good old house cues weren’t all that good. Bowling alley grade maple.
Many were good for butts only.
I went through about 5,000 one summer...only found maybe ten good shafts.
Click to expand...

Never saw one I could salvage as shaft.
Most were green wood that went banana.
 
Lawnboy77

Lawnboy77

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The standard shaft maple was never the appeal for me, it was the exotic woods they used for the butts that make these so unique and beautiful. The very old house cues! I would guess the ones from my old room were from at least as far back as the 1930s.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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G

Geosnooker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The cues where we play are fine. Some donated by players, the public, etc.

Most are Dufferins. If someone banged a house cue or banged their own cue on the table they would be told to apologize or leaves. We don’t tolerate bad or rude behaviour.

Needless to say nobody does it. A culture of proper behaviour needs to established and enforced. Let it slide and it slides further.
 
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pt109

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
JoeyInCali said:
Never saw one I could salvage as shaft.
Most were green wood that went banana.
Click to expand...

I bought and sold a lot of Dufferin one piece cues.
I kept the ones that had purple heart or ebony butts.
After 20 years, the ones that didn’t stay true, I gave to my favourite
pool hall. One of the ebony survivors is now Alex’s 3/4 snooker cue.
Less than 20 stayed straight.
 
Brookeland Bill

Brookeland Bill

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
sixpack said:
I can tell you what happened to some of them...

Leroy Garcia happened to them.

Leroy Garcia is a good player from Denver who has a bit of a temper. He had a bad habit of breaking his cue sticks. It got so bad one time I was playing him and he lost his temper and broke a cue he was borrowing to play me!

Terry McFadden, who owned Tournaments in Commerce City was there when it happened and he told Leroy: I have a bunch of retired house cues in the back room. If you need to, just go back there and break all you want and just pay me $5 each for them.

Next week Leroy loses in the tournament and looks at Terry and me standing by the tournament table and heads straight back to the back room.

CRASH! *#&@*#&% CRASH!

This went on for a full 10 minutes. Everybody stopped playing and started giggling. Finally the commotion stopped and we all tried to compose ourselves. Leroy came out, red faced and out of breath. Handed Terry a $100 bill and left without a word.

Man! We just fell about the place! (Apologies to Elton John)

One of the funniest things I've ever witnessed in the pool world.
Click to expand...

In the early 60’s I would hide my house cue in a closet in the pool hall. It had lost its bumper and had a piece of thin white tape circling the bottom of the butt. That was 60 years ago and I can still visualize it.
 
Biloxi Boy

Biloxi Boy

Man With A Golden Arm
I hid them all over.

As to quality, I was playing with cues I figure were at least 30 years old. The bad ones had been culled out over the years -- those remaining had endured a process of selection and only the strong had survived. I had long wondered how I looked up one day and they were all gone.
 
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