Coca Cola Masked Marvel Update

I can't prove it

Growing up in a pool room in NY there was an old timer called Harry The Hat
All the old timers said he was a Masked Marvel, he was a quiet man and could play very well.
 
.....In the case of the Masked Marvels it could be that this was an effort between a promoter and an advertising agency that Coke signed off on but did not manage. So it's very likely that Atlanta has no clue who those players were.....

^ Brunswick (with the assistance of Billiards Magazine) was handling all the booking of the Masked Marvel...

I have a feeling that Coke would just show up with product on said date and location...

Known Masked Marvels:

Minnesota Fats
Andrew St. Jean
Joe Procita @ 1937 (Joe was also beaten by a prior Masked Marvel)
Leon Yonders (well known for shooting "backwards")
Willie Cotter (toured CT as masked marvel)
Robert Moore ( @1934 who was only 17 at the time, could have been a Masked Marvel Jr.?)
Erwin Rudolph (@1928-1931 played 1512 games, losing only 12)
Basil Maxwell (@1947 from Detroit)
Hank Nowak (of PA)
Buddy Bloebaum (known for his excellent ambidexterity)
Billy Church? (not verified. known for his excellent ambidexterity)
Frank Longtoe (not verified)

*Masked Marvel X Jr. toured with Cowboy Weston circa 1929


And speaking of Masked Marvels, here's something fun you never knew about Jackie Gleason :
1969 Nov 14 Gleason Masked Marvel.JPG
excerpt from the Reading Eagle Reading PA, Nov. 14, 1969
 
Last edited:
^ Brunswick (with the assistance of Billiards Magazine) was handling all the booking of the Masked Marvel, Masked Marvel X, Masked Marvel Q and Masked Marvel Jr.*
(it was also coordinated with the National Billiard Association as a part of their "better billiards" campaign which also included 20 well known pros)

I have a feeling that Coke would just show up with product on said date and location... (sorry but I cannot verify this as of yet)

Known Masked Marvels:

Andrew St. Jean
Joe Procita @ 1937 (Joe was also beaten by a prior Masked Marvel)
Leon Yonders (well known for shooting "backwards")
Willie Cotter (toured CT as masked marvel)
Robert More ( @1934 who was only 17 at the time, could have been a Masked Marvel Jr.?)
Erwin Rudolph (@1928-1931 played 1512 games, losing only 12)
Basil Maxwell (@1947 from Detroit)
Hank Nowak (of PA)
Billy Church? (not verified. known for his excellent ambidexterity)
Frank Longtoe (not verified)

*Masked Marvel X Jr. toured with Cowboy Weston circa 1929


And speaking of Masked Marvels, here's something fun you never knew about Jackie Gleason :
View attachment 267954
excerpt from the Reading Eagle Reading PA, Nov. 14, 1969

My father played a masked marvel way before I was born. My dad was born in 1900 ! Joe Procita's home town was Gloversville NY. My dad lived in nearby Johnstown NY. Gloversville and Johnstown is the upstate twin cities. So it was determined that Procita was the Masked Marvel my dad played !

:cool:
 
^ If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Basil Maxwell was a black man from Detroit. As the story goes, Basil was in the middle of a hot game with none other than Ralph Greenleaf. (Ralph vs. Masked Marvel)

Basil was leading at first, but when Ralph pulled ahead, he couldnt take the pressure and pulled his mask off (revealing his true identity) so he could see the balls better. Ralph won anyway.
 
2007.... really

LOL at a thread from 2007 with another John Barton alias and looking at the history, lots of arguing and drama. I guess it doesn't matter what you call him, you will still be stuck with the same results.

I thought the moderators had put the muzzle on the instigators........
 
After waiting over two months for Coca Cola to answer my e-mails of who were all the Masked Marvels...I wrote one more. I said I wanted to order 100 cases of Coke and a few Coca Cola Banners for an up coming Masked Marvel 75th Anniversary party, but I needed the names first to contact the families. I figure 100 cases doesn?t mean much to Coke, but if they do give me the names because of a pending order, I?ll just write back and thank them or tell them I settled for a six-pack of Pepsi I got from the supermarket. I think that they either don?t have the names of the players they hired on file or they don?t want anyone to know they were associated with pool back in the day. Johnnyt


Several years ago there was a beverage message board for people in the soft drink biz, it got shut down due to all the arguing. you would figure that people selling water and sugar (sounds like the dead nuts to me) could figure out how to get along. They can't.

Now my point, what I learned on that board was the local bottlers are the shot callers in most cases. so whats happening with Coke in Zimbabwe and San Francisco and Miami are 3 totally different things. So contacting Coke inc in Atlanta(their corp HQ as I recall) is useless as marketing decisions are made at the regional bottlers.


so find out who is the regional office for what ever your looking for and get with them. The corp HQ is the last place to communicate with as they are most likely not in the loop at all and will give ZERO attention to you. If your lucky they might help you find the regional people you need to talk to.


It's just a mess-the soft drink industry, Pool is a mess cause of lack of $$$, the soft drink guys got all the $$$ and still cant get along. They ALL hate Red-Bull, a start-up company that crushed them. Arrogant people. $$$ dont fix everything, but at least Coke has Corp jets to play with on the weekends.:cool:


hope you find what your looking for, let me know if i can steer you around a bit.

best
eric
 
Several years ago there was a beverage message board for people in the soft drink biz, it got shut down due to all the arguing. you would figure that people selling water and sugar (sounds like the dead nuts to me) could figure out how to get along. They can't.

Now my point, what I learned on that board was the local bottlers are the shot callers in most cases. so whats happening with Coke in Zimbabwe and San Francisco and Miami are 3 totally different things. So contacting Coke inc in Atlanta(their corp HQ as I recall) is useless as marketing decisions are made at the regional bottlers.


so find out who is the regional office for what ever your looking for and get with them. The corp HQ is the last place to communicate with as they are most likely not in the loop at all and will give ZERO attention to you. If your lucky they might help you find the regional people you need to talk to.


It's just a mess-the soft drink industry, Pool is a mess cause of lack of $$$, the soft drink guys got all the $$$ and still cant get along. They ALL hate Red-Bull, a start-up company that crushed them. Arrogant people. $$$ dont fix everything, but at least Coke has Corp jets to play with on the weekends.:cool:


hope you find what your looking for, let me know if i can steer you around a bit.

best
eric

Thanks for the info Eric. Johnnyt
 
My grandfather was Speed Olson and he was one of the Coca Cola Masked Marvels also. He was from Minneapolis.

it would be super-cool if you could find a photo - or some kind of masked marvel artifact of his ! (let me know if you do)
 
West Coast Masked Marvel

Sax Dal Porto was the Masked Marvel in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1969.
 
My Dad who was born in 1928 right next door to a pool room told me about the Masked Marvels many years ago. His best friend called Beefy who was supposed to be a top notch straight pool guy was playing one of the marvels and beating him till the owner walked over to him and told him to dump the game, lol.
I guess they didnt want the guy getting embarassed and bad mouthing the place or whatever reason. This had to be in the early to mid 40,s.
 
Back
Top