Most of the old timers could not even describe what they did with their cue in terms of mechanics, just that it worked for them.
Exactly right, Mike. And very pertinent to your spot-on comment, there's a now widely-known anecdote relating to the time when Luther had just completed a long, flawless Straight Pool run-out in front of a packed house. He was busy screwing together his cue when a dazzled teenage fan in the front row asked him a clearly heard question:
"Do you ever give lessons Mr. Lassiter?"
Luther politely replied: "No, son -- I can't teach pool, because I don't
know what I'm doing."
Many in the crowd chuckled heartily, but most just smilingly agreed and nodded, knowing full well the subtlety of what Luther meant by the answer. He was often heard to give the same answer during many later years.
True story. I was about 15 feet away, having served for this particular match as one of the many volunteer, rotating scorekeepers at this mid-1960s World Invitational 14.1 Championship -- an event that was one of
many in the exciting series of them founded and managed by Fred Whalen in the huge downtown Elks Club in Los Angeles. Fred held these ambitious 14.1 Round-robin events annually -- from the early 1960s thru the early 1970s. The counterpart, (unrelated) NYC 14.1 Invitationals were held for a number of years by different organizers, in the Hotel Commodore. Mandated tuxedos on both coasts. Lassiter and Cisero Murphy had a memorable Commodore match there one year.
Addicted LA locals like myself and about a dozen other fellows during that decade, loved scorekeeping those matches, because during those 3-week round-robins we got to meet and get to know
every one of the star entries who turned out for the tourneys. There was always plenty of press and TV interview coverage every year, and always in attendance were show biz folks who liked great 14.1 (Fred Astaire, Peter Falk, Johnny Mathis, Paul Sorvino, etc.). I got to know my fellow New Yorker, actor Vic Morrow, very well. He loved watching professional 14.1. I often casually coached him in Red Baker's North Hollywood room half-a-block from the corner of Magnolia & Vineland.
I was working graveyard tool-making shifts at Lockheed (Burbank) and had plenty of convenient time available to Freeway-down for those dream scorekeeping duties at the daily matches.
I've still got a few of the annual event official programs from those years that I'm going to scan and pdf for the AZB pool history project recently announced on this forum. My 1970 program bears the enjoyably-wrought signature of Mizerak and a number of other top invitee players.
Arnaldo