What would it take to build an American pool museum?
Unfortunately, the treachery of time brings forgetfulness, and some of pool’s greatest icons and their legacies are not well documented or archived for future generations of pool enthusiasts.
With the advent of modern technology, a pool museum could take the form of a website. The museum, if I may call it that, would invite its readers to embark on a journey, reinvigorating memory.
The interpretive components would be designed to address the entire range of the sport in the United States, allowing the readers to learn about the evolution of pocket billiards, American style.
Scrolling through the website, one would encounter a dropdown window looking like a vast encyclopedia of players’ names. As you move the mouse over a player’s name, a video montage of faces appear and slowly cycle through all of the men and women – road warriors, tournament soldiers, and the forgotten ones. The reader could access a Search window by typing in a time period, a player’s name, or other criteria.
On the left-hand side of the screen, a video montage could change every minute with the images of the faces and names. Words like "Strawberry,” “Minnesota Fats,” “Cornbread Red,” “Weenie Beanie,” “Wimpy,” and “St. Louis Louie” would appear. Then the images could provide a link offering short video clips of the player in the heat of the battle. It would be through these kinds of images and video clips that the legacy of the player could be communicated.
Another key component of an Internet pool museum would be to showcase a visual collection of artifacts. With a .jpeg file of Willie Mosconi’s cue stick, readers could learn about its dimensions, as an example. Displaying the artifacts of the American pool icons would create a profound visual opportunity to learn more about the champions of the sport.
Individual stories, eloquently written, could provide an historical context, and having a timeline would offer a valuable straightforward chronology and overview of pool in America.
It has been said that you need to touch the heart before you can touch the mind. Most pool players I know have a lot of heart! So I hope that this thread will invite input on how to create an actual Internet pool museum to preserve the history of the game that today we all love and enjoy.
Any suggestions?
JAM
Unfortunately, the treachery of time brings forgetfulness, and some of pool’s greatest icons and their legacies are not well documented or archived for future generations of pool enthusiasts.
With the advent of modern technology, a pool museum could take the form of a website. The museum, if I may call it that, would invite its readers to embark on a journey, reinvigorating memory.
The interpretive components would be designed to address the entire range of the sport in the United States, allowing the readers to learn about the evolution of pocket billiards, American style.
Scrolling through the website, one would encounter a dropdown window looking like a vast encyclopedia of players’ names. As you move the mouse over a player’s name, a video montage of faces appear and slowly cycle through all of the men and women – road warriors, tournament soldiers, and the forgotten ones. The reader could access a Search window by typing in a time period, a player’s name, or other criteria.
On the left-hand side of the screen, a video montage could change every minute with the images of the faces and names. Words like "Strawberry,” “Minnesota Fats,” “Cornbread Red,” “Weenie Beanie,” “Wimpy,” and “St. Louis Louie” would appear. Then the images could provide a link offering short video clips of the player in the heat of the battle. It would be through these kinds of images and video clips that the legacy of the player could be communicated.
Another key component of an Internet pool museum would be to showcase a visual collection of artifacts. With a .jpeg file of Willie Mosconi’s cue stick, readers could learn about its dimensions, as an example. Displaying the artifacts of the American pool icons would create a profound visual opportunity to learn more about the champions of the sport.
Individual stories, eloquently written, could provide an historical context, and having a timeline would offer a valuable straightforward chronology and overview of pool in America.
It has been said that you need to touch the heart before you can touch the mind. Most pool players I know have a lot of heart! So I hope that this thread will invite input on how to create an actual Internet pool museum to preserve the history of the game that today we all love and enjoy.
Any suggestions?
JAM
