Gus Mueller ... Owner/House Pro at Panarama Billiards ...

Str8PoolPlayer

Str8PoolPlayer

“1966 500 SuperFast”
Silver Member
For those of you who lived in the greater St. Louis area in the 40's - 60's, do you remember an Old Pro Player named Gus Mueller ? ... He owned and operated Panarama Billiards in Belleville, Illinois (just east of St. Louis) for 20 or more years ... It was located on the lower level of Panarama Bowl and had a lot of high quality Brunswick Tables ... The place was classy, especially for a bowling alley room ...

Anyway, Gus was a great guy and taught my best pal and I how to play Pool over a 10 year period between 1950 - 60 ...
 
I just read about him in an old pool magazine of mine. They said he did a trick shot of a 15 ball combination. Did he show you that??
 
as we age and die off we are forgotten as time passes by. that is the way of the world and life. sad but true.
 
How many people remember Chris Raftis from the Dayton and Detroit area during the 60's and 70's? Only one of the two greatest one handed players ever, along with Goosatay. I never saw anyone beat him and many tried. He could hold that cue like a spear and shoot balls in and draw his cue ball for position!

George Rood's name is not in any record books, but he beat all those guys who are in there, even Lassiter lost to him once. He said Jimmy Moore was his toughest opponent for the cash.
 
Last edited:
Jay , there was a George who would show up at the Broadwater Corner Pocket Billiards Lounge from time to time in Billings Mt and would play anyone for the cash .
Sadly his last name escapes me but he was a real character that I enjoyed a great deal , I wouldn't play him for money but I bought his table time to shoot a few racks .

As for Jimmy Moore , I can see how anyone would have a hard time beating him he was something else , I had a chance to visit and play a few racks of 8 ball with him , his " slip stroke " was something you needed to see to believe ! How he kept from dropping his cue I'll never know !

And no I didn't win many games if any against either of them .
 
jay helfert said:
How many people remember Chris Raftos from the Dayton and Detroit area during the 60's and 70's? Only one of the two greatest one handed players ever, along with Goosatay. ...
Click to expand...
Was he the same Chris Raftos who later wrote books on how to play?
 
rusty that was george frank or franks. he played well and gambled for decent cash. but you had to fall asleep waiting for him to finish his turn.
he came from ny city and played and owned a poolroom back there.
if i remember right he ended owning that one after frank mckowen sold it to him or something like that. i used to go over there to hustle and gamble in that town. i knew frank from fishing as that was his thing in life.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Was he the same Chris Raftos who later wrote books on how to play?
Click to expand...
Probably. The last name is ‘Raftis’.

He used to carry little news articles about himself and show them to people at the tournaments around town (Detroit) and try to sell whatever book he had.
 
Granted yes George Frank loved one pocket and yes he owned the Corner Pocket Billiards franchise but I never played him , the George I was referring to was a old biker type of fella who grew out his mustache until it was down to his waist literally and you would swear if you looked at it to long you would expect to see something move in it ha ha

He from the stories he told me was involved in some interesting money games from LA to Billings and he loved college towns and college students with more money than brains .

George still is down at his Casino every morning on Broadwater Ave in Billings and is sadly dealing with Alzheimer's .

Frank McGown passed away year's ago he and I were also hunting and fishing buddies , I miss his stories of pool tournaments and games from years gone by .
 
stevelomako said:
Probably. The last name is ‘Raftis’.

He used to carry little news articles about himself and show them to people at the tournaments around town (Detroit) and try to sell whatever book he had.
Click to expand...
I never realized he was a top one handed player. Here's one of five or six books he did...

1707108796758.png
 
Rusty in Montana said:
Jay , there was a George who would show up at the Broadwater Corner Pocket Billiards Lounge from time to time in Billings Mt and would play anyone for the cash .
Sadly his last name escapes me but he was a real character that I enjoyed a great deal , I wouldn't play him for money but I bought his table time to shoot a few racks .

As for Jimmy Moore , I can see how anyone would have a hard time beating him he was something else , I had a chance to visit and play a few racks of 8 ball with him , his " slip stroke " was something you needed to see to believe ! How he kept from dropping his cue I'll never know !

And no I didn't win many games if any against either of them .
Click to expand...
That might have been George Franks who was also the founder of Corner Pockets Billiards, a large chain of poolrooms in the 1980's and 90's, that started out in Montana and spread across the upper Midwest and down into Nevada. He also played pretty good and had deep pockets and liked to gamble. George hired Frank McGown to come out from New York and help him manage his business. McGown was a top player but the slowest Straight Pool player I ever saw. I ref'd a couple of his matches at Fred Whalen's tournaments in L.A. I had to keep repeating the ball count over and over in my head so I didn't lose track. :p
 
Last edited:
Bob Jewett said:
I never realized he was a top one handed player. Here's one of five or six books he did...

View attachment 741500
Click to expand...
Too bad, you missed something great. He was simply amazing. No one today in his league, not even close. Probably Young Sergio was the closest, and last I heard Sergio was in Chicago, but that was long ago. He would be near 60 now.
 
Last edited:
Then there was Frank Thompson, a young guy out of Texas somewhere. He played in the BCA National Eight Ball Championships (1980ish) wearing a veil hiding his face, all accept his eyes. He was suffering from cancer at the time and died not so long after. He played pretty good too. Everybody wanted to watch this masked guy play, especially after hearing about his illness. I think Jimmy Reid won that one. Jimmy was a classic too. We ran around together out on the West Coast, and even as a young kid (maybe 20) he wasn't afraid to play anyone. Probably the most cocky pool player I ever knew. Jimmy got better and better and eventually was considered, along with Buddy Hall, as one of the two best heads up Ten Ball players alive. A great shotmaker with a powerful stroke.
 
stevelomako said:
Chris was a real strange person then. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Click to expand...
My dad bought a pool table from Chris (a big 4x8 Brunswick Sport King) and put it in our den. He knew I was hooked on pool and tried to get me to stay home instead of hanging out all night in poolrooms. It didn't work, although I would practice on that table in the afternoon after I woke up and head to the poolroom at night looking for a game.
 
stevelomako said:
Chris was a real strange person then. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Click to expand...
He may have been but he was also a pretty sharp cookie. He hung out with Jake Spitler in Dayton and they were always wheeling and dealing all kinds of stuff. I saw Chris cream Eddie Taylor playing one handed (Taylor shot off the rail and Raftis shot up in the air) in a $2,000 money game. I think George Rood and Russ Maddox backed Raftis. Chris could run a rack of 9-Ball that way, any time he had an open table. He beat Taylor something like 11-5 or 6.
 
Bob Jewett said:
I think you slipped a decimal if it's the same one. The Chris Raftis I knew was older than I was and in a wheel chair. Here is a picture from his 1991 book, Teach Yourself Pool. He was in the BCA instructor program when it started a couple of years after that. He moved to Greece, maybe around 2000.

View attachment 741610
Click to expand...
I was talking about Young Sergio. Read my post again Bob. Raftis would be in his 90's now at least. He is long gone, maybe 15 or 20 years now.
 
Str8PoolPlayer said:
For those of you who lived in the greater St. Louis area in the 40's - 60's, do you remember an Old Pro Player named Gus Mueller ? ... He owned and operated Panarama Billiards in Belleville, Illinois (just east of St. Louis) for 20 or more years ... It was located on the lower level of Panarama Bowl and had a lot of high quality Brunswick Tables ... The place was classy, especially for a bowling alley room ...

Anyway, Gus was a great guy and taught my best pal and I how to play Pool over a 10 year period between 1950 - 60 ...
Click to expand...

Miss playing with you Howard. RIP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top