Has anyone ever heard of a Movie called THE PLAYER Starring Minnesota Fats in 1971

boatbeach said:
even though the movie was never released, there has to be copy somewhere.
i'm going to look around, maybe europe.
european americans would smuggle anything out of the u.s.a., for fun, notoriety, fame :)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far.

A good detective would think. Hmmm Jack Colavita, metro area player (NYC) ?

Movie=video, who knows more about video that anybody and has been around for quite a while ?

:groucho:
 
oldzilla said:
I wouldn't go that far.

A good detective would think. Hmmm Jack Colavita, metro area player (NYC) ?

Movie=video, who knows more about video that anybody and has been around for quite a while ?

:groucho:
Click to expand...

I'm no detective though I've ducked a few lol
 
Scott Lee said:
The movie was never released, so it couldn't have been at a drive-in in Denver. I also saw Fats at an exhibition in Denver, at Gart Bros. sporting goods in '75. He never shot a ball, but stood by the table for 2 hours , just holding his cue, telling jokes and lies. He had all of us in stitches the whole time. I knew Rod, but he wasn't at that exhibition.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

Whatever, that is where I saw it.
 
If I may offer a suggestion, try contacting the AFI or one of the better film schools interested in history and preservation, such as Stanford or UCLA. That's where you will find the SME's, and probably more data and answers than anywhere else. If they don't have whatever info you're looking for they would probably be the best folks to steer you in the right direction.
 
read more about the travels of "The Surfer" Rod CLICK THIS LINK and enjoy some

ironman said:
I remember seeing this about or around 71 at drive i movie on the west side of Denver. That is about all i remember about it.
Some period later Fats came to Denver to do an exhibition and quite a tir when he was confronted and challenged by Surfer Rod to play some $299 one pocket/
Rod accepted and came flying from the large audience only to be intercepted by the local Police and the whole thing squashed. That was pretty outrageous in that day
Click to expand...

Surfer Rod was a legendary "Road Player," - I also traveled all around the country with his favorite "road partner," OMAHA JOHN SHUPUT.....I called them the "Dynamic Duo" but neither of them was any "boy blunder" they were like pool "hit men" that almost always got the cash....and played all games and many propositions.

To read more about the travels of "The Surfer" Rod CLICK THIS LINK and enjoy some of the best road stories from one of the "REAL ROAD MEN" and a great guy to boot. :D
 
The Movie "The Player" with Minnesota Fats

I saw this movie at a downtown St. Louis movie theater in 1971 where it played for a week. I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who saw this movie, but I've never met any player who has. I was going to college at the time and fallen in love with the sport...SO of course I had to SEE this movie in my own "back yard"!!! Fats lived in Illinois at the time, so distributors probably felt it might gain some viewers with some Midwest distribution. So I can assure EVERYONE the movie WAS RELEASED. It was a pretty cheap flick, but it had some pretty good playing scenes. To a pool connoisseur, I'd place it above "Kiss Shot, "The Baron," or even the "Baltimore Bullet" (although the production quality was lesser than that latter movie). For the culture of the time, it had an equivalent impact to that of "Poolhall Junkies" for IT'S time. I have an article where the World Premiere was in NJ, and I'm pretty sure Petey Margo would have been at THAT showing. Some of the old guard upper NJ 14.1 players would have remembered (and probably seen) this movie.

I have the poster (I looked for it decades ago, because I knew the movie WAS released), and some lobby cards as well. Minnesota Fats was the draw, but he had only one or two scenes in the movie, and I remember one of them clearly beating the star player out of a bunch of soft drinks. In the final scene where the star plays Jack Colavita (the REAL Jack Colavita straight pool player from NJ) to 150 points, Colavita runs 150 & out...(they only show portions of his "run") and in one take, Colavita's cue ball is clearly going to scratch in the corner pocket on a break shot...BUT with the magic of really cheap editing, the film is clearly cut so that the cue ball stops maybe six inches from the pocket. You can actually see the "cut" in the film. Again...a pretty cheap film, but ANY pool player would have LOVED watching it. I called up Jack Colavita in the early '80s, and he couldn't lead me to any copy of the tape. And I've never found any source for the movie in any archives, tape or DVD. What a shame!
 
the player

I watched this movie at a theatre in Ft. Myers, Florida in 1971. It was actually a really good movie. I, also, tried to track it down years later and actually contacted Rudolph at the Hermitage in Nashville, Tenn. at which time he had told me that his manager had ripped him off and the movie had gotten lost. I then went a little further and found that it had been sold to a small facility in SF and then a Production company in Canada and then , poof, it disappeared, again.... Nice poster though, huh...
 
I tracked down the Producer of this movie about three or four years ago. He told me his family owned a small chain of theaters and it was released in all of them for about one week each, just to recoup some of their investment. He said the large movie chains would not release it since it was an independent film.

He said he had one copy left and would try to find it for me. I made him an attractive offer to buy it. He never could find it and thought it may have been lost in a move. There were only about 30 prints made and it's entirely possible that none still exist. He said some were erased to re-use later on another project. .

I had several long phone conversations with him. He was a very nice guy. His family eventually sold their theaters when the price of real estate went up.

P.S. Yes, there was a premiere in New York.
 
Many people have tried to locate the movie with apparently no success. Its more than a little odd that it seems to have completely disappeared. Youd think a movie with Fats would be something worth holding on to. I hope a copy surfaces eventually.

We have documentation and photos from many of the premier locations and it's pretty clear that it definitely drew large crowds of people. If they had shown it near me, I'm thinking that I would have gone to see it as well. We've also located what appears to be an official trailer for the movie , which as far as I can tell, might be the only piece of the movie left on the planet, I guess time will tell. If anyone finds a copy please let me know!
 
jay helfert said:
I tracked down the Producer of this movie about three or four years ago. He told me his family owned a small chain of theaters and it was released in all of them for about one week each, just to recoup some of their investment. He said the large movie chains would not release it since it was an independent film.

He said he had one copy left and would try to find it for me. I made him an attractive offer to buy it. He never could find it and thought it may have been lost in a move. There were only about 30 prints made and it's entirely possible that none still exist. He said some were erased to re-use later on another project. .

I had several long phone conversations with him. He was a very nice guy. His family eventually sold their theaters when the price of real estate went up.

P.S. Yes, there was a premiere in New York.
Click to expand...
I don't know anyone who had ever seen it.
 
Mr. Bond said:
Many people have tried to locate the movie with apparently no success. Its more than a little odd that it seems to have completely disappeared. Youd think a movie with Fats would be something worth holding on to. I hope a copy surfaces eventually.

We have documentation and photos from many of the premier locations and it's pretty clear that it definitely drew large crowds of people. If they had shown it near me, I'm thinking that I would have gone to see it as well. We've also located what appears to be an official trailer for the movie , which as far as I can tell, might be the only piece of the movie left on the planet, I guess time will tell. If anyone finds a copy please let me know!
Click to expand...

I think the movie was sooo bad it was never going anywhere.
But it is some old pool history !
That would be the only value imo.

:yeah:
 
Well with my connections I could make that happen .. But then again maybe it is in a certain private collection or maybe the only remaining film has degraded beyond repair and was disposed of !

Maybe when I find the time I could look into that particular film and the possibility of it's existance .

What else would you like ?

The Golden Steer , Roosevelt rd. Forest Park , IL. Saturday night I will be enjoying my Dinner .
 
oldzilla said:
I think the movie was sooo bad it was never going anywhere.
But it is some old pool history !
That would be the only value imo.

:yeah:
Click to expand...
Plan 9 from Outer Space has actually made a lot of money. If a copy of this probably horrible pool movie does exist, I think everybody would like to see it. It would have some value at least as a novelty. It is likely that no copy exists though.
 
jay helfert said:
I tracked down the Producer of this movie about three or four years ago. He told me his family owned a small chain of theaters and it was released in all of them for about one week each, just to recoup some of their investment. He said the large movie chains would not release it since it was an independent film.

He said he had one copy left and would try to find it for me. I made him an attractive offer to buy it. He never could find it and thought it may have been lost in a move. There were only about 30 prints made and it's entirely possible that none still exist. He said some were erased to re-use later on another project. .

I had several long phone conversations with him. He was a very nice guy. His family eventually sold their theaters when the price of real estate went up.

P.S. Yes, there was a premiere in New York.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jay. I saw the movie in San Francisco. It stunk!
 
I saw it at the Movies

My wife and I were bored in early seventies and went to the movies not knowing it was about pool but we saw the Player staring Minnesota Fats and some beautiful young lady who fell in love with Fatty ( fat chance) but to my surprise I knew many of the people in the movie as it was filmed in Shoppper's Pool Room in Baton Rouge. I had lived in Baton Rouge in late 60s so many of my friends were in the movie, most notably was Lambert Louiviere, who owned several pool rooms in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I would love to have a copy if any becomes available , but it did play at the movies in NewOrleans !:thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top