history of 5x10's in the US?

S

smashmouth

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
continuing the recent 5x10 chatter...

can anyone speak to the history of these in the US? some people here are under the impression that playing POOL on these beasts used to be the standard but is that really the case?

were they mostly converted billiards tables?

were they the standard for pool or the exception to the norm?

were they specific to certain regions?

what were the world pool championships played on throughout the 30's-60's?

Billiard Historians please enlighten me
 
10 footers were the tables. It was in the 40's that they changed to 9 footers so they could get more money per foot in the pool halls. They did it again to fit tables into bar rooms (6ft)...more dollars per feet...Pure economics...
 
JamisonNeu said:
10 footers were the tables. It was in the 40's that they changed to 9 footers so they could get more money per foot in the pool halls. They did it again to fit tables into bar rooms (6ft)...more dollars per feet...Pure economics...
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My God, Jamison got it right! Except the bar tables are 7'. Mosconi had something to do with making the standard tournament table a nine footer. They had been ten footers up until the 40's, when they changed over. He could run a lot more balls on the smaller table. That was when the real conversion began in pool rooms all across America.
 
jay helfert said:
My God, Jamison got it right! Except the bar tables are 7'. Mosconi had something to do with making the standard tournament table a nine footer. They had been ten footers up until the 40's, when they changed over. He could run a lot more balls on the smaller table. That was when the real conversion began in pool rooms all across America.
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The 6' bar box that came out in bars all over Northeast in the early 1950's was a 3'x6'=the original bar box. Also on Long Island, NY in the early 1950's there were over a hundred town fire depatments. Each had a pool table or two. Probably over half were 5' x 10' tables. In most of the poolrooms at that time 9' tables had already replaced the 5' x 10' tables. A lot of the old style rooms kept one or two 5' x 10' tables until the 1960 to 1970's. Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
The 6' bar box that came out in bars all over Northeast in the early 1950's was a 3'x6'=the original bar box. Also on Long Island, NY in the early 1950's there were over a hundred town fire depatments. Each had a pool table or two. Probably over half were 5' x 10' tables. In most of the poolrooms at that time 9' tables had already replaced the 5' x 10' tables. A lot of the old style rooms kept one or two 5' x 10' tables until the 1960 to 1970's. Johnnyt
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Thanks Johnny. I've only seen a couple of 6' bar boxes in my life. I think they were made by the Irving Kaye Co.
 
Seen a few 6 ft. ers. Pool hall here used to have one 6 ft valley i think (they were newer tables) and 2 7 ft. for their coin ops. Have a friend who picked up a 10 ft brunswick in the 70's in Ohio when a pool hall was selling off their tables. They still had a number of them when they did that.
 
the UK style pool tables are also commonly available in 6 foot size, though they also have 7 and 8.
 
convertible tables

This may be of interest ... I just came across a 5x10 Madison that was pictured with two sets of balls: both pool balls and carom balls. I asked about that and found out that it came with two sets of rails.
Anyway, I did some research and found that Brunswick offered convertible tables. I'm not sure how common they are.
The table is in my garage now. It was a free listing on craigslist if you can believe that!
:thumbup:
I don't have the long carom rails, but will get them if they turn up. I'm okay with that since it really isn't practical to switch rails on a regular basis.
I'm looking forward to playing and shooting drills on this beast. Oh, it has 4.5 inch pockets.
Karl


smashmouth said:
continuing the recent 5x10 chatter...

can anyone speak to the history of these in the US? some people here are under the impression that playing POOL on these beasts used to be the standard but is that really the case?

were they mostly converted billiards tables?

were they the standard for pool or the exception to the norm?

were they specific to certain regions?

what were the world pool championships played on throughout the 30's-60's?

Billiard Historians please enlighten me
Click to expand...
 
I had an antique 10 foot Brunswick Balke Candler convertible in my house for about 10 years and switched the rails a couple times a year to fool around with carom.

Wish I still had it.
 
Bensingers & the crackerboxes

My old room, Bensingers in Chicago, up until about 1975 had twelve 5 x 10's and only two 4 1/2 x 9's. Visitors to Bensingers usually didnt fare too well on the Big Bertha's.
Also, in Chicago in the 60s, the first bar tables were even smaller than 3 x 6, they were 2 1/2 x 5! We called them crackerboxes. However, I havent seen one of those in at least 25 years. They must certainly be collector's items by now. Damn, I wish I had one now.

Beard
 
Jay, shows how often I play on them. lol

Willie played so well they tried to make it fair by moving to the smaller tables for the pro's and Willie was 100% against it.

Just like Raymond they made the game smaller so he wouldn't win every event...This did not help them slow Willie down so they brought in nineballs...
 
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In San Francisco in the mid-60's Cochran's still had mostly 5x10 ft. tables. I was a kid who had been playing on a fairly tight Gold Crown and didn't think there could be much difference. Was I ever wrong! Every time I think about the old-timers who ran 300+ with clay balls, I am amazed again. Size does matter.
 
freddy the beard said:
My old room, Bensingers in Chicago, up until about 1975 had twelve 5 x 10's and only two 4 1/2 x 9's. Visitors to Bensingers usually didnt fare too well on the Big Bertha's.
Also, in Chicago in the 60s, the first bar tables were even smaller than 3 x 6, they were 2 1/2 x 5! We called them crackerboxes. However, I havent seen one of those in at least 25 years. They must certainly be collector's items by now. Damn, I wish I had one now.

Beard
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2 1/2' x 5'. I sure never heard of that one before. Johnnyt
 
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