Babes Cooley and Earl Borchard from The Color of Money (the novel!)

[CurvedCue]

I'm re-reading Walter Tevis's novel, "The Color of Money" after many years. It remains a terrific read. So much better than the movie!

But I'm curious to know if there were real-life models for the "bad-guys" that Fast Eddie has to face and beat.

They are the young, edgy champion nine-ballers. They supplement their play with sleek fashion and drugs:

[Earl] Borchard was only a vain, edgy kid. Without his pool cue that was all he was. Eddie turned toward him and said, "Sometimes it's a b***h."
Borchard turned sharply. "I'm not your friend," he said, barely moving his lips.
He looked away from Eddie and took a paper cup from the wall dispenser, half filled it with water, abruptly turned to Eddie again. "I'm going to beat your ass." He looked down at the water in his hand and smiled, then turned back to stare unblinkingly into Eddie's face. "This is going to beat you." He parted his lips. On his tongue sat a wet drug capsule, green and black.
Eddie's response was like a reflex. His open hand came up immediately, slapping Borchard full on the cheek, the way a parent slaps a smart-assed child. Borchard dropped the water.

Babes Cooley wore shiny black pants that fit his narrow butt as tight as elastic, draping with a Las Vegas crease to the tops of alligator shoes. His shirt was collarless and of pale blue silk; around his neck hung a slender gold chain. His black hair was feathery from blow-drying; his face electric from cocaine.

I assumed "Earl Borchard" was based on Earl Strickland. The book is set in 1983. Didn't Strickland first break out in a big way in '83? Yet, Borchard is druggie and I never heard that about Strickland.

Who might Babes Cooley have been based on? Was there ever such a pro on the circuit?

(In the film version, of course, both characters morphed into the “Vincent”/Tom Cruise character)

 

[Black-Balled]

Any similarity to persons true or fictional is unintentional and purely coincidental.
These are their stories.

Earl is a country boy. He ain't sporting no Las Vegas crease.

 

[CurvedCue]

Any similarity to persons true or fictional is unintentional and purely coincidental.
These are their stories.

Earl is a country boy. He ain't sporting no Las Vegas crease.

Actually it's Babes Cooley who sported the Las Vegas crease. NOT Earl Borchard.

But I got your drift.

 

[boogeyman]

Any similarity to persons true or fictional is unintentional and purely coincidental.
These are their stories.

Earl is a country boy. He ain't sporting no Las Vegas crease.

___________________________________________________________
We have to assume the disclaimer in the quote.
Do we really think Mr. Tevis even knew Earl?

Perhaps it's safer to claim that Mr. Tevis had run into enough smart-ass pool (and otherwise) players in his time so as to come up with such dynamic character(s) as he did in his work.

 

[CurvedCue]

I thought this '83 ESPN championship match between 22-year-old Earl Strickland and veteran Steve Mizerak might've influenced Tevis's description of the televised showdown between Earl Borchard and Fast Eddie (which also occurs in the ballroom of a Lake Tahoe hotel in 1983):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8vzkWtdP8g

Borchard -- that delicate, quiet Eastern country boy with his heavy, drooping mustache and his crepe-soled shoes -- seemed to have the ball on a string. He didn't look at the crowd or the referee or at Eddie, but bent his entire attention on the nine balls and eased them one after another into the pockets with his cue ball always stopping exactly where it should stop. He chalked after every shot and his small eyes never left the table. The cameramen danced their slow dance in and out and around him and the table; the audience applauded louder and louder after each sinking of the nine ball; and Borchard's expression and concentration did not change. He made the nine six times before a bad roll on the break made him play safe. -- Walter Tevis

PS -- As an aside, it's funny how Earl The Pearl was called "Little Earl" back in '83.

 

[jeffj2h]

The character of Vincent from the book does not seem derived from with the Earl or Babes characters from the book. Earl and Babes are on top of the pool world, cocky, and even mean spirited. Vincent is a naive kid with great natural talent but would Bridget just as happy playing video games.

For anyone that has not read the book, I recommend it. Eddie's emotional journey is much better fleshed out. His self doubt. His feeling that pool excellence is the one way he can achieve self esteem. In the movie he's already successful so his journey back comes across as more optional.

One sequence in the movie that is better then the book is the period after Eddie is beat by the hustler and gets motivated to spend days and weeks refining his game through practice and getting back in action. It's a great part of the movie and there is no similar sense of hard work and dedication in the book.

 

[CurvedCue]

One sequence in the movie that is better then the book is the period after Eddie is beat by the hustler and gets motivated to spend days and weeks refining his game through practice and getting back in action. It's a great part of the movie and there is no similar sense of hard work and dedication in the book.

Jeff, you can't be serious!

That montage sequence in the movie doesn't hold a candle to the hard work and dedication Felson puts in as described in the novel!

That sequence: the practicing, getting new glasses, swimming, etc, was all derived from the book but utterly lacked the book's intensity.

In the novel, he's reduced to renting a room in Skid Row and waking up at the crack of dawn so he go practice at a University Faculty Club before anyone's the wiser, because he lost his pool hall in a divorce. Prior to that, he practiced in his dusty, old pool hall, but each time he went in there were less and less tables; they were being sold off; he was like in a haunted house.

And what about his journey through roughneck barrooms as he resumes hustling but this time on coin-op tables, something so new to him it throws off his game? Not to mention enduring the stares from "small eyes set in seamed faces, like a photograph from the Great Depression." And getting beaten unconscious by a big yokel after winning an all-night 8-ball match.

The film really missed a lot of great opportunities to show Felson's struggle.

Jeff, I suggest you go back and read the book again, especially the first half. Cheers! :thumbup:

 

[jeffj2h]

The scenes in the book with Eddie traveling to spots and gambling are terrific. I wish that was in the movie more (e.g. Boomer).

Regarding practice, in the book he constantly refers to it boring him. He seems to embrace it more in the movie, which i like (what can I say, I like to practice). I recall that by the time he's playing in the facility room, he's living with his high-end girlfriend's apartment and he has permission to go to the facility room, given by one of her friends, a professor.

Overall, the book is grittier, like The Hustler. I liked TCOM movie, but a version true to the book would have been more of a classic. The good news is they could always make that version today, if the right actor could be found.