Greenleaf/Mosconi; 40 titles between the two of them! Check their score totals, most of the time they dominated their opponents by a score of approximately 2:1!
Greenleaf/Mosconi tales:
Pay close attention to the comment about Edward Spears scheduling exhibitions for the tour stops.
Here's a mystery. In 1934, shortly after Willie Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf competed together in a national championship, the two icons supposedly went on the road together. Mosconi told stories about the road trip in his biography, written with Stanley Cohen. Both Mosconi and Greenleaf supposedly had been contracted by Brunswick Billiards to promote the sport during a series of exhibition matches.
Here's the mystery part: as far as I know, no one has ever produced any sort of independent confirmation of this long series of exhibition matches. I myself have gone through hundreds of articles in the
New York Times,
The Chicago Tribune and elsewhere, but have never come across a reference. I've asked a few other guys about this -- including pool historians Charles Ursitti and Mike Shamos -- and they agree that they've never come across any any sort of advertisement or news article to provide independent confirmation of the 1934 Greenleaf and Mosconi tour.
The problem may be that without a description of when and where these exhibition matches were played, it's hard to know in which newspapers to look, and in which editions. So I put it to the blogosphere: Has anyone out there hoarded an old article or advertisement from their hometown newspaper? Or how about this: Does anyone even KNOW anybody who's still alive who knew Ralph Greenleaf or his wife, the Princess Nai Tai Tai? I recently wrote about
Harold Houle. But such folks are now tough to find.
AnonymousMay 25, 2010 at 7:54 AM
In the 1990's, I swam laps daily at the Talbot YMCA in Easton, Md. Another lap swimmer introduced himself as Fletcher Hanks. He was an older man who grew up in the Chesapeake Bay town of Oxford, Md., and later became a Flying Tiger.
Mr. Hanks said Ralph Greenleaf was a "wizard" at "billards." He was particularly impressed that Ralph Greenleaf's aptitude at billiards was unaffected by his state of sobriety, or, more accurately, the lack thereof. "He was almost always toasted."
Mr. Hanks recalled that when he was a teen he tended to the boats tied up at Oxford. He remembered Ralph Greenleaf arrived in a luxurious boat with an equally lovely woman, whom Mr. Hanks assumed was Mrs. Greenleaf.
One night, Mr. Hanks watched Mrs. Greenleaf return to the boat followed far later by a weaving Mr. Greenleaf. Mr. Hanks said that while weaving, Mr. Greenleaf wove too close to the edge of the dock, slipped, hit his head on the edge of the dock and fell in the water. Ralph Greenleaf lay unconscious in the water. Mr. Hanks jumped in, fished him back, got him onto the dock, and ran for help.
If it weren't for that rescue, the dateline for Mr. Greenleaf's obit might've been Oxford, 1930 something.
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AnonymousNovember 24, 2011 at 6:18 AM
I konw a gril who lived on wheeler street that known the late Princess Nai Tai Tai. Since 1977 she has told me storys of the Princess Nai Tai Tai funny and sad. I especly remember a mirror she had of Princess Nai Tai Tais. It is good to see that she is remebered. What a wonderful life.
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AnonymousFebruary 23, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Try Brunswick. They had Edward Spears set up exhibitions and paid both Greenleaf and Mosconi. They will have payment records. Marvin Eisenhower at Brunswick is a great place to start. He is their antique pool table historian. Better hurry though because Brunswick is a boat company and is fast loosing its appetite for billiards.
Good Luck
Eddie "Legs" Rogers
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AnonymousMarch 6, 2014 at 10:40 AM
Greenleaf pretty much fell off the end of the earth after the 1933 world championship, when his wife smashed him over the head with an ashtray and he filed for divorce. He was arrested for vagrancy in Oklahoma, and was deposited at his sister's house in Champaign, where he stayed in the basement and was given a bottle of cheap whiskey every day. So I always have to laugh when I hear of Mosconi boasting about how well he did against Greenleaf on this supposed tour. It would be sort of like saying you sang better than Amy Winehouse just before she died, or that you played better golf than Tiger Woods when his life was in ruin. And, no, I've never coming across any mention of the tour in my (too many) years of research.
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AnonymousDecember 31, 2019 at 11:00 PM
I have a story about Ralph beating a snooker player from Canada in Chicago about 1931 or 32. Told to me by the janitor at our high school. Ralph beat him out of $3000. The janitor work there and watch it.
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AnonymousDecember 31, 2019 at 11:06 PM
If you want to hear it let me know it's interesting
The first name of Edward Spears, who was employed by Brunswick, is George as in George E. Spears, famous 14.1 Balkline Billiards player.
Now, where do you think that both Greenleaf and Mosconi learned their 14.1 Continuous Billiards Pocket Pool games from?
