KUDOS to Jay Helfert

cueball1950

cueball1950

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just wanted to give Jay helfert a BIG thumbs up for the article ("Never Never Land") he wrote for 1 of the programs he recently sold me. I believe it was for the 1982 Budweiser Classic held on September 9-12th 1982 At Caesars Tahoe. The article i am referring to was a memorable trip that Jay and some friends made to Jays 1st Johnson City tournament. The story definately brought back some memories for me with such names mentioned as Larry "Boston Shorty" Johnson, Bill "Weenie Beenie" Staton, New York Blackie, Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter and of course the great Ronnie Allen. I must say that this great article was very well written and will be cherished by me for years to come. And Jay, if you get or have any more that you would like to seel please give me 1st bite at them. I also am looking for ones that have been autographed as well....Again, thanks for the books and the well written article...........mike

PS....as a side note i could not fail to notice all the ads in this book. Although the tournament was in Tahoe i saw ads for pool rooms as far away as Connecticut. Also a big thanks to Richie Florence for doing this tournament. I have no idea if Richie is still with us. But he appeared to be a man that got things done...........mike
 
Richie Florence is not with us anymore. He passed a few years ago.He was a class act.
 
cueball1950 said:
I just wanted to give Jay helfert a BIG thumbs up for the article ("Never Never Land") he wrote for 1 of the programs he recently sold me. I believe it was for the 1982 Budweiser Classic held on September 9-12th 1982 At Caesars Tahoe. The article i am referring to was a memorable trip that Jay and some friends made to Jays 1st Johnson City tournament. The story definately brought back some memories for me with such names mentioned as Larry "Boston Shorty" Johnson, Bill "Weenie Beenie" Staton, New York Blackie, Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter and of course the great Ronnie Allen. I must say that this great article was very well written and will be cherished by me for years to come. And Jay, if you get or have any more that you would like to seel please give me 1st bite at them. I also am looking for ones that have been autographed as well....Again, thanks for the books and the well written article...........mike

PS....as a side note i could not fail to notice all the ads in this book. Although the tournament was in Tahoe i saw ads for pool rooms as far away as Connecticut. Also a big thanks to Richie Florence for doing this tournament. I have no idea if Richie is still with us. But he appeared to be a man that got things done...........mike
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Jay is the only connecting link /bridge between the past and present.Many old timers that are alive do not have much knowledge about the younger generation players like Tony rex,Raj Hundal,Orcullo, Manalo,Alcano etc.But Jay knows Masconi to Raj Hundal.:cool:
 
cueball1950 said:
I just wanted to give Jay helfert a BIG thumbs up for the article ("Never Never Land") he wrote for 1 of the programs he recently sold me. I believe it was for the 1982 Budweiser Classic held on September 9-12th 1982 At Caesars Tahoe. The article i am referring to was a memorable trip that Jay and some friends made to Jays 1st Johnson City tournament. The story definately brought back some memories for me with such names mentioned as Larry "Boston Shorty" Johnson, Bill "Weenie Beenie" Staton, New York Blackie, Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter and of course the great Ronnie Allen. I must say that this great article was very well written and will be cherished by me for years to come. And Jay, if you get or have any more that you would like to seel please give me 1st bite at them. I also am looking for ones that have been autographed as well....Again, thanks for the books and the well written article...........mike

PS....as a side note i could not fail to notice all the ads in this book. Although the tournament was in Tahoe i saw ads for pool rooms as far away as Connecticut. Also a big thanks to Richie Florence for doing this tournament. I have no idea if Richie is still with us. But he appeared to be a man that got things done...........mike
Click to expand...


Jay is the only connecting link /bridge between the past and present.Many old timers that are alive do not have much knowledge about the younger generation players like Tony rex,Raj Hundal,Orcullo, Manalo,Alcano etc.But Jay knows Masconi as well as Raj Hundal.:cool:
 
vagabond said:
Jay is the only connecting link /bridge between the past and present.Many old timers that are alive do not have much knowledge about the younger generation players like Tony rex,Raj Hundal,Orcullo, Manalo,Alcano etc.But Jay knows Mosconi as well as Raj Hundal.:cool:
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Vagabond.....definately have to agree with your assessment of Jay's knowledge. To bad some other players who have this knowledge don't share it.......mike
 
vagabond said:
Jay is the only connecting link /bridge between the past and present.Many old timers that are alive do not have much knowledge about the younger generation players like Tony rex,Raj Hundal,Orcullo, Manalo,Alcano etc.But Jay knows Masconi as well as Raj Hundal.:cool:
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And I'm only 39! That is what is really amazing.
 
As a newer player I learned about the more established players from Robert Byrnes books. Trick shots and the techniques book.

Both had nice tidbits of info on history and characters.

I pretty much learned billiards from that book and the BCA handbook.

Looks like Jays going on my reading list.

If they only had easier ways of filming things, this would settle a lot of theoretical disputes I have with other players about who is better than who. I'll still pick the myth over the fact anyday.
 
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ibpoolshark said:
http://www.tropicanabowlingalley.com/richie.html

and i still have a custom cue built by Dale Patton (uncle) from the 80's and the pamphlet of his cues...nice solid cues
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Richie might have been the best tournament promoter ever. He was putting on $100,000 tournaments in the early 80's, and was the first man to get them on national TV (yes, ESPN), with full length matches.

He trusted me and made me his tournament director in 1981 for the first Caesar's Tahoe Billiard Classic. Sigel won the first event and $33,000! How's that for 1981. Earl won the second one in 1982 for $25,000 plus a new car worth over ten grand.

And then we had the Caesars Palace tourney in 1984 where the players refused to sign the television releases. The tourney never aired (Earl won it for another 25K), and Richie never had another event. One more case of the players shooting themselves in the foot.

Richie had a chance to put on huge tournaments, but some players were jealous of him and thought he was making too much money. I heard all the talk back then. He was trying to make them rich and famous. DUMMIES! Instead they listened to Bill Cayton who never did a thing for them.
 
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