Looking for Info on my grandfather Wallace "Wally" Ohran.

Dexter36

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My extended family is very LDS. My grandfather apparently did a fair bit of hustling with a pool cue over his life. This was shunned because of the association with alcohol and drinking, I had no idea at all until I was 19 and I told my grandfather how much I loved the game.

Here's what happened:

When I told him I shot pool he told me enough facts about his days that I was super excited and enthused to know more. He gave me his pool cue, which obviously made my day. Had I known that would be my one and only chance to talk pool with him I would have bugged him for stories till the sun came home right then and there. My Grandmother came unglued when she found out he gave me his cue, for her sake he never told me any more stories or anything about it all the way until he died, even getting a little surly when I tried asking again

Here's what I know: He learned to play billiards shooting at Graneys in California. Welker Cochrane took him under his wing as a lad and showed him the ropes. As a 3 cushion player my grandfather was supposedly outstanding, 27 in a row was his best run ever (he mentioned that it was important to point out that they were gambling & racing to 10, so the balls were re racked at 10&20 pts). He said he squared off with Willie Hoppe several times and learned a few things, but also that Willie was pretty surly most the time and he didn't care for him much.

That's it... pretty lame find out gramps can run the balls and then never get to hear any more about it.

He did tell me one good hustler story, I'll post in another comment below.

That being said, what say you AZ? Anyone ever hear of the guy? Nicknames, random tidbits, maybe he wasn't very good and you beat him!? I don't really know what I'm looking for here bit it has been eating at me, figured I'd give it a shot.

My grandfather said that the cue was a gift from meucci, don't know much about it other than that. Anyone who has any ideas about whether or not it is ivory, or what it may be worth, whatever, love to hear anything you all have to offer about it.
 
pics

Leather wrap, birds eye maple, that's really all I know about it.
 

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Hope somebody knows, I do not.

That cue does not look like a 3c cue, to me...and you didn't talk about pocket billiards.

That cue coul be worth some real money, almost a shame it has deep meaning to you.
 
And I also found out my maternal grandfather like to play billiards. It was in Puerto Rico and my mom said she was sent to the pool room to tell him it was time to go home.

My mom also said there were no pockets on the tables.

I don't believe I ever spoke to him about pool, rip.
 
For really only getting one story out of him, it's a good one.

My grandfather went on the road looking for "pidgeons" as he called them. He traveled to a small mining town in california where there was your classic main bar for the whole town type of thing.

He set up shop and worked his way into a money game with one of the regulars, he mentioned that none of them were very good, so he had softened up his game to maybe a 5 (1-10 scale on his abilities) in an effort to milk the place for what he could. Well he manages to keep winning giving up a game or two here and there to ease the crowd, but this is where he says it all got out of hand. The guy he ends up playing most the night is the best shooter in their town, the more my grandpa wins, the more people keep jumping in to back the other guy. As this went along, the animosity in the room keeps building and my grandfather starts to get the feeling his safety may be in jeopardy. Seeing all of this all working itself together my grandfather decides that he best take what he is up and get the hell out of there.

No such luck.

The patrons at the bar inform him that he is not allowed to leave that night. They let him stay in one of the rooms upstairs (with a person outside his door all night to make sure he didn't split) The thing is, the townfolk were not interested in lynching some guy from out of town just for being better at pool, but they wanted a shot to win their money back too. So while my grandfather was locked upstairs, they sent a man on horseback in the middle of the night to go fetch a better player from another town (Sacramento I think?).

The next evening everyone gathers back at the bar and they let my grandfather out of his room to play.

Problem is, this guy they brought in is much better than the scabs he had been playing... My grandpa was trying to figure out how to get out of there with the cash and his skin both in tact. He said he was still better than the new guy, but that he had to crank up to a 7 or 8 on his abilities to keep "barely" winning. In doing so the peanut gallery started getting very vocal and pissed off about how he wasn't playing as well the day before, and essentially the gig was up. Sandbagger CAUGHT.

So now my grandfather is just terrified, and the only thing he can do to keep all these guys from mauling him is to keep going back and forth with this new guy on the table.. the whole time he is just sitting there trying to figure out how the hell he is going to get out of this mess, cash be damned.

Between games, he walks over to the bar to order a drink. I man sitting at the bar speaks to him under his breath, never even looks up or at him..

"boy, you're in a heap of shit aint ya"

My grandfather obviously drowning in this place looking for a way out of the mess perks his ears right up and he discreetly asks the man what he should do.

Long story (not short) the guy at the bar tells him:

"order two shots of whiskey, drink one, set your hat by the other and head down the hall to the bathroom. Third door on your right get's you outside"


So.. for my one pool story ever from the man, fastest he ever ran in his whole life, and also insists that this random stranger saved his life and that he would have given him his life savings in cash if he ever ran into him again.

*exhales*
 
Hope somebody knows, I do not.

That cue does not look like a 3c cue, to me...and you didn't talk about pocket billiards.

That cue coul be worth some real money, almost a shame it has deep meaning to you.

He said he played 9 ball and 3C, 3C being his main game, but harder to find others that play as time went along etc etc.

Could never sell the cue of course, but definitely curious what it would be worth even if just for insurance purposes.

If anyone has any rec's on who I may be able to go to for restoration that would be great too!
 
And I also found out my maternal grandfather like to play billiards. It was in Puerto Rico and my mom said she was sent to the pool room to tell him it was time to go home.

My mom also said there were no pockets on the tables.

I don't believe I ever spoke to him about pool, rip.

Same situation! Pretty crazy how it can be in the genes like that for similar interests. same as you, just wish timelines would have been different because it would have been amazing to be able to play him a few games.
 
Have you scoured the newspapers.com site? I see that he is mentioned in at least a couple of articles. Used that a while back to search for another player and was surprised at what i could find. Once you find some papers that regularly come up, you can do a few more, less specific, searches through just those. Good luck on your adventure.
 
My grandfather went on the road looking for "pidgeons" as he called them. He traveled to a small mining town in california where there was your classic main bar for the whole town type of thing.

He set up shop and worked his way into a money game with one of the regulars, he mentioned that none of them were very good, so he had softened up his game to maybe a 5 (1-10 scale on his abilities) in an effort to milk the place for what he could. Well he manages to keep winning giving up a game or two here and there to ease the crowd, but this is where he says it all got out of hand. The guy he ends up playing most the night is the best shooter in their town, the more my grandpa wins, the more people keep jumping in to back the other guy. As this went along, the animosity in the room keeps building and my grandfather starts to get the feeling his safety may be in jeopardy. Seeing all of this all working itself together my grandfather decides that he best take what he is up and get the hell out of there.

No such luck.

The patrons at the bar inform him that he is not allowed to leave that night. They let him stay in one of the rooms upstairs (with a person outside his door all night to make sure he didn't split) The thing is, the townfolk were not interested in lynching some guy from out of town just for being better at pool, but they wanted a shot to win their money back too. So while my grandfather was locked upstairs, they sent a man on horseback in the middle of the night to go fetch a better player from another town (Sacramento I think?).

The next evening everyone gathers back at the bar and they let my grandfather out of his room to play.

Problem is, this guy they brought in is much better than the scabs he had been playing... My grandpa was trying to figure out how to get out of there with the cash and his skin both in tact. He said he was still better than the new guy, but that he had to crank up to a 7 or 8 on his abilities to keep "barely" winning. In doing so the peanut gallery started getting very vocal and pissed off about how he wasn't playing as well the day before, and essentially the gig was up. Sandbagger CAUGHT.

So now my grandfather is just terrified, and the only thing he can do to keep all these guys from mauling him is to keep going back and forth with this new guy on the table.. the whole time he is just sitting there trying to figure out how the hell he is going to get out of this mess, cash be damned.

Between games, he walks over to the bar to order a drink. I man sitting at the bar speaks to him under his breath, never even looks up or at him..

"boy, you're in a heap of shit aint ya"

My grandfather obviously drowning in this place looking for a way out of the mess perks his ears right up and he discreetly asks the man what he should do.

Long story (not short) the guy at the bar tells him:

"order two shots of whiskey, drink one, set your hat by the other and head down the hall to the bathroom. Third door on your right get's you outside"


So.. for my one pool story ever from the man, fastest he ever ran in his whole life, and also insists that this random stranger saved his life and that he would have given him his life savings in cash if he ever ran into him again.

*exhales*

You tell a good story, welcome to the forum.:cool:
 
Have you scoured the newspapers.com site? I see that he is mentioned in at least a couple of articles. Used that a while back to search for another player and was surprised at what i could find. Once you find some papers that regularly come up, you can do a few more, less specific, searches through just those. Good luck on your adventure.

Never even knew it existed, thank you!
 
I knew you all would know where to look! I'm ecstatic, the cues and descriptions in that thread are a dead ringer for my cue.

SO COOL. I've had it for almost 20 years, nobody I ever showed it to could really tell me much.

AZB FTW!


You came to the right place!

Store it vertical. In a good case. In a stable climate. If you don't have a good case for it ask, you'll get some good suggestions. I would also print documentation, everything you can find out about it including the stories and everything you learn here. Store a copy with the cue and a copy with your important personal papers. You don't want it to end up in a garage sale for 10 bucks if anything should happen to you.

For insurance I would cover it for a few grand. Maybe three or four? Selling it is another matter. Some more qualified than me may comment on the value. I have zero experience with Zimmerman cue prices.


.
 
You came to the right place!

Store it vertical. In a good case. In a stable climate. If you don't have a good case for it ask, you'll get some good suggestions.

all squared away

For insurance I would cover it for a few grand. Maybe three or four? Selling it is another matter. Some more qualified than me may comment on the value. I have zero experience with Zimmerman cue prices.

Value more of a curiosity than a desire to sell of course


.

I'm having a ball reading through all this stuff, really great. I've been lurking AZB unable to post for some reason for over a year, but finally shot the email out to admin to fix problem.

This part

"I would also print documentation, everything you can find out about it including the stories and everything you learn here. Store a copy with the cue and a copy with your important personal papers. You don't want it to end up in a garage sale for 10 bucks if anything should happen to you."


Ok, so here's the thing... Now that I am putting two and two together with the origin of the stick I believe I have things more figured out, pretty neat.

I'm not kidding you... This whole time I thought this cue was a Meucci, hard to really mentally buy though when it says zimmerman on the handle though, right?. Not being someone who knows all types of things about cue history I got my story all mixed up from when my grandpa gave it to me. Every time I would break it out to show people I would tell them I thought it was an old Meucci. Everyone "in the know" seemed to agree based upon the way the joint is threaded?

The reason I got it all so mixed up?

My grandfather told me that Meucci gave this cue to to him as a birthday present, and that they were friends. He never mentioned that it was probably YEARS before Meucci would even go into business making cues in the first place!! Me.. Knowing Meucci cues, automatically assumed that if Bob Meucci gave you a pool cue it must obviously be made by him. I feel a lot smarter and also a little dumb for the mixup after all these years. LOL.
 
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