This is Ames, Mister.
- Thread starter PoolBum
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GREAT photo!!!
Here is a picture of the inside of the Magic Cue, which was at 43rd and Broadway. The date on the New York Times article is August 13th, 1981. It was owned by Vince Sbarbati and had 38 tables. I played in a straight pool tournament there shortly after it opened in 1980. I think Vince found a way to make a small fortune running a pool hall near Times Square -- start with a large fortune. I don't think the place lasted long.
![CropperCapture[311].jpg](https://forums.azbilliards.com/data/attachments/384/384471-6c0eb0a54b036ccbef33ca1f996e4664.jpg "CropperCapture[311].jpg")
From that article, which was about the World 14.1 Tournament at the Roosevelt Hotel:
The Bronx Days Recalled
Some spoke with nostalgia of the poolrooms of the past. ''They were all dives,'' said Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight champion known as the Bronx Bull, who was a spectator at the tournament. ''The only home you had was the poolroom. What else you had to do in the Bronx?''
''After we came back from work, we always went there,'' the 60-year-old Bull recalled of his youth. ''By 'work' I mean stealing. Not that we stole anything, just stuff beginning with A - a truck, a car, a bike.''
Some spoke with nostalgia of the poolrooms of the past. ''They were all dives,'' said Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight champion known as the Bronx Bull, who was a spectator at the tournament. ''The only home you had was the poolroom. What else you had to do in the Bronx?''
''After we came back from work, we always went there,'' the 60-year-old Bull recalled of his youth. ''By 'work' I mean stealing. Not that we stole anything, just stuff beginning with A - a truck, a car, a bike.''
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Nice picture
Thanks for sharing
The Camel ad blowing smoke rings is world famous.
Thanks for sharing
The Camel ad blowing smoke rings is world famous.
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up the street a little bit is a Kent Cig sign, much less impressive than the Camel ne.
I miss the Checker cabs.
Love Elpine papaya drinks and frankfurters....haha
I guess Grays Papaya took em over.
Great Pics!
Frankfurters, soon it became hotdogs
billiards became pool
billiards became pool
Never actually went to CBGB..but in the seventies I was in the boutique business and between my brother-in-law and myself had a few stores, well the bunch, maybe ten, of us would occasionally wind up at an after hours place called Infinity which was directly across the street from CBGBs...what a freak joint...and what a blast. Recall driving back to Queens at 7:00 AM and always thinking..."back to sanity"...
Wasn't playing pool at the time, but before that, in my teens, visited Ames & 7/11 a few times.
Never actually went to CBGB..but in the seventies I was in the boutique business and between my brother-in-law and myself had a few stores, well the bunch, maybe ten, of us would occasionally wind up at an after hours place called Infinity which was directly across the street from CBGBs...what a freak joint...and what a blast. Recall driving back to Queens at 7:00 AM and always thinking..."back to sanity"...
Wasn't playing pool at the time, but before that, in my teens, visited Ames & 7/11 a few times.
Jimmy - My closest ( real life ) friend ( actually, he's very much the brother I never had ) has lived in NYC since 80. Starting @ 87, I began going up for a week or two weeks at a time several times a year and over 30 years or so ended up visiting 40 times, so I got to know Manhattan ( and even Brooklyn but not as well ) pretty well. And knowing it as I do, I cannot POSSIBLY imagine what the East Village was like in the 70s. It must've been TOTALLY insane. Man I love NYC. It's a world all unto itself.
There was a pool hall on Broadway and 42 or 43 that was downstairs from the Playland Amusement arcade. That may have become the Magic cue that you mention here. I think by 82 they were all gone around that area, even McGirrs not far off. I attended the Roosevelt Hotel venues for the Straight Pool- not very well attended by that time period, but still quite elegant in the manner of hosting the event.
I lived in NYC twice in the 1990's, the second time as a graduate student at Columbia.
Around that time Vince Sparbati had a room called Spar Billiards, at 300 W. 45th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue. That room was filled with beautiful black-lacquer Gold Crowns.
I played Ginky a bunch of times at the old Amsterdam Billiard Club, which was at 344 Amsterdam Avenue, between 76th and 77th Streets. I think he was 19 the first time I played him.
I got around to as many pool rooms as I could in NYC, including Soho Billiards (298 Mulberry St.), East Side Billiard Club (163 E. 86th Street, between 3rd and Lexington Ave.), West End Billiards in Elizabeth, NJ (where you could regularly find Allen Hopkins, Steve Mizerak, Tony Robles, Ginky, Joe Frady, and a host of other strong players in the weekly tournaments), and Chelsea Billiards, still my favorite pool room ever, and the first place I ever saw Johnny Ervolino play.
You never went to Coumbia! Get out... I have it on good authority that pool payers are not even allowed on campus as *visitors*, let alone as students! And it's because Columbia has a strong, unshakeable moral compass. No school who graduated Ruth Benedict ( PhD ) or Margaret Mead ( PhD ) ( among countless other upstanding citizens ) would EVER allow pool players within 5 MILES of the place!
So, yeah... Columbia... ahahahahahaaaaaaaa.
:dance:
What we got here, Michael, is a prof that can give most students the last five.
...and when it comes to making a game, they’re at a psychological disadvantage.
Ahhhhh... **psychology**! That explains it. Ok, then... all bets are off.
Sorry, PB... I'm blaming my meds.