Most Interesting Poolhall

[Ralph Kramden]

I was wondering if people might want to post something about the most interesting poolhall they had played in.

Back in my high school years there was a pool room that I visited almost everyday after school. What made it different was the layout in the building it was in.

The name of the building was called the Nordic Temple. The building had that name on the cornerstone and had previously been the meeting place of a disbanded local Swedish mens club. It was about 5 stories high and had been converted to businesses and upper apartments. The front part of the building had been converted to retail store spaces and the back part into a pool room.

The building was built on the corner of a downtown hillside street. The front of the building was along the bottom of one street and the back was on the upside of the hill. You would have to walk up the hill to get to the door near the back of the building to enter the pool room.

When you opened the steel door to the pool room it would squeek as the pulleys from the weighted cables that closed the door turned. The first time I went inside I thought how really neat this place was. The whole back part of the building had at one time been a small gymnasium with a running track over it that looped all around the top.

By entering through the back door, the only entrance to the pool room, you were actually on the old running track looking down about 20 feet onto 7 Brunswick tables. The lights were hanging from steel cables that were stretched across the running track over the tables. Part of the running track had been cut away and a staircase was built to walk down to the floor where the tables were. You could walk around the running track and look directly down on any table.

It was dimmly lighted as there were only a couple of windows on the upper level. The lights shining on the 7 tables, one light over the stairs and one by the counter were the only ones lit. There were three rows of 2 tables each, end to end. One table by the counter (the big money table) was turned the in opposite direction from the other six.

It was quite an impressive place to my young eyes. I spent many hours playing there. I came home from military service in 1964 and the building was gone. Our city hall stands there now.

 

[branpureza]

I would probably have to say Colonial Billiards in my hometown of Elizabeth City, NC. The room is virtually the same as it was 50 years ago. Luther Lassiter used to play here every night and the house he grew up in (if its still standing) is only a mile down the road. I started playing there around 19 years ago when I was 10 and since then many of the old timers have passed away... those guys could tell you stories about the Wimp all night long. I pretty much grew up in that place...

Wimpy used to sit on the nearest corner of the bench to the right

 

[pwd72s]

Man. That's not a pool hall. It's a shrine!

 

[poohkiller]

Unfortunately my favourite poolhall only exists in my imagination but I truly hope that one day I will find something similar. I must use some else's words to introduce this place to you, I hope you don't mind...

"When I was a teen-ager one of my haunts was Sheridan Recreation. A bowling alley and pool hall in the heart of Uptown - sleazy, down-and-out Uptown. Back in 1920 or so, when the building was new, it had been called Leffingwell's and it had been large and rather grand. In the late 1950's it was still large but time had eroded much of the grandeur. To give you an idea: the billiard rooms were on the third floor and entered by a staircase that came from the street to offices on the second floor, then on to the billiards on the third. In that rough and ready neighborhood it was impossible to leave that downstairs door open after the offices had closed and so, in the evening and on week-ends, the pool and billiard players went through the bowling alley and up an inside staircase to the third floor and from there through the only room that connected that landing with the billiard rooms. That connecting room was one of the foulest smelling men's toilets in God's creation - and it gave you a pretty good idea of what you were getting into.
At least it gave you an idea of what the pool room was like, but beyond that was a seperate room where three-cushion billiards was played. Played by old-timers - men who had been boys when Willie Hoppe, Jake Schaeffer and Welker Cochran were boys. Men who had learned the game when this had been Leffingwell's and the grandeur had been intact. Now the game had been in long decline and there were few such as myself just learning the game new. But I didn't mind.
I was charmed by those old-timers, Runyonesque as they were. Steeped in a lifetime of billiard room etiquette with their ritual phrases, worn and polished banter, sly witticisms - I thought them grand.
My special heroes were the men who played best - performed the sleight-of-hand that makes ivory balls do magic. As the royalty of this ancient kingdom they had special privileges. They could swagger; they could speak small sarcasms; they could carry their own private two-piece cues. Cues with style and elegance; four-prong inlaid cues; cues with mother-of-pearl designs and cues with ivory butt plates. Cues engraved with the owner's name and cues bearing the name of some prior owner, some Johnny Layton or Otto Reisalt, legendary names they were. Cues made of ebony and Brazilian rosewood by the great Herman Rambow. Cues in tooled leather cases with small brass name plates. Magic instruments no less than those created by Stradivarius long ago in Cremona."

Burton Spain

P.S.: I am sorry that it got long but I didn't want to take anything away.

 

[pooligan]

My all-time favorite place to play was a hole-in-the-wall called Joe's Place in Walburg, Texas. My Dad took me there in High School and would tell stories of how he played there when he was my age.

Joe was a crotchety old German and had 2 8' tables. I don't remember what they were but they had brown felt and the numbers 1 & 15 etched into the felt by the side pockets.

What made this place interesting was the atmosphere and how it was run. Bear in mind that I was playing there as recent as the late 80s --

You walk in and both tables are already racked. 8-Ball only, no shooting by yourself.
You walk up to the bar and Joe hands you a cue ball to play.
Everyone played slop, with the 1 & 15 going into their respective side pockets.
As soon as you drop the 8, Joe comes from around the bar, racks the balls for you, and picks up 30 cents off the rail for the game.

It wasn't much, and I have certainly been in nicer rooms, but I'll never forget that place. I only wish it were still around so I could take my own kid there.

BTW- Joe loved to watch me beat those farmhands out of their wages. My Dad says I was about the only person that came into that place that Joe actually smiled at.

Also, the only other game in the place was an old pinball machine. For your quarter you got not 1, but 2 games, each with 5 balls. That's something to remember considering most nowadays start at a buck!

 

[crawfish]

I broke my teeth off in Happy's Poolroom in Greenville, NC. A true hall. Something like eight tables starting at the front door. The worse you played, the farther back you went. The first table was near the bar. Man, my goal was to be on that front table. Now, I can go there and give up weight to most on the front table. When I was in college, in the 80's, I would sit and drink for hours and hours watching some of those guys. Nothing but good memories of that place.

 

[9BallPaul]

Cochran's

For me, the old Cochran's pool hall in the San Francisco tenderloin tops the list. You could find action in that room 24/7, because they never closed the doors. Same thing across the street (Market, I believe) at the Palace. I spent about a month between those two places, during the so-called Summer of Love in 1967.

Found that I was drawn more to the pool scene than to what was happening in Haight Ashbury, but that was pretty cool too. And I remember seeing this sign on a shop window: "Janice Joplin got tatooed here."

Anyway, lots of great players in those days, like Paul Silva, whose nickname I've appropriated for my handle here. I've never seen anyone move the cue ball the way that guy did. Seems like he ran racks without his cueball ever touching the rail, yet he played for peanuts.

Bill Stroud was shooting in Cochran's, traveling with his big sheep dog named Josh. I knew Bill from Colorado, and he could see that I was tapped out. I helped him out by walking Josh, and Bill would send me out on other errands and slip a few bucks in my pocket. Good guy.

 

[justnum]

There was this one place that had someone offer after school help.

Most of the kids in the establishment were people who didn't know what to do with their lives. So the owners hired a professional who could work with them and show them how to learn on their own.

It made all the difference.

 

[Fatboy]

there was an old pool room in Lodi called "The Rex" I think was the name it looked alot like the one pictured above, it was about 100 years old in the 80's, the floor around the tables was wore down through tthe layers of flooring to the concrete around the 9' tables(what was left of them, it had one of those metal cielings-the paneles that are fancy with all the flowers etc on them fitted together, not girly at all-that s a poor description, anyways it turned into a twekers joint, last i heard it was gone, Meth took out a 100 year old pool room, I heard, it was bad when I went but you could feel the past, i never went back.


my all time favorite poolroom is the jointed cue in sacramento.

 

[Brian in VA]

The Cue and Chalk poolroom on Washington Boulevard in Arlington VA was about a mile from the house I grew up in. The summer I turned 10, 1967, I would ride my bike about 3 times a week to the place and the manager let me sweep and mop the floor for table time. Place had about 10 Brunswick Anniversary tables, a small counter where you could get a burger and fries and really good milkshakes. There was a group of elderly black men that would be playing one hole and straight pool in there every day and they were always dressed to the nines. Suits and ties with tie bars, lots of gold jewelry. One smoked White Owl cigars with the plastic holder. The night man used to come in about 3 in the afternoon and play kelly pool with a bunch of guys and he'd keep his pea in his ear. (He had ears that were big enough to hold a cue ball.)

It was the first place I played in that had a 9 foot table and when I finally got to put one in my own house last year, it's the reason I had to get an old Anniversary.

It hasn't been there for decades but I can close my eyes and picture the place in great detail. Every once in a while, I'll go someplace where the smell will be the same and it always takes me back. Smoke, fry grease, cheap cologne and money. That's the place.

Brian in VA

Great thread BTW!

 

[cuejoey]

Thanks to ole Ralph Kramden for starting this thread. .at least once a year here at AZ a similiar thread is started..The hall that Fatboy mentioned is the one that i liked best..i remember the high ceilings lined with tin..in the coldest of winter it was ice cold inside as the radiators couldn't keep up with the brutal cold..thanks to everyone for contributing your stories...

 

[branpureza]

I broke my teeth off in Happy's Poolroom in Greenville, NC. A true hall. Something like eight tables starting at the front door. The worse you played, the farther back you went. The first table was near the bar. Man, my goal was to be on that front table. Now, I can go there and give up weight to most on the front table. When I was in college, in the 80's, I would sit and drink for hours and hours watching some of those guys. Nothing but good memories of that place.

I used to visit Wimpy's every now and again... haven't been in a while though. Do you still play there?

 

[stick8]

great room

I would probably have to say Colonial Billiards in my hometown of Elizabeth City, NC. The room is virtually the same as it was 50 years ago. Luther Lassiter used to play here every night and the house he grew up in (if its still standing) is only a mile down the road. I started playing there around 19 years ago when I was 10 and since then many of the old timers have passed away... those guys could tell you stories about the Wimp all night long. I pretty much grew up in that place...

Wimpy used to sit on the nearest corner of the bench to the right

That takes me back. as i also started shooting a semilar room. 10 cents a cue and routation and snooker was the only games we played. cokes 5 cents. snooker 20 cents a cue and open tables in front tablr for rotation, low man payes for all. so you had better get your points when it was your turn. snooker the same low man payes fdor all and you can emagine a young kid like me with 2 bucks in my pocket and losing there goes half you money. made you play harder. BLACK CAT KENNEYS ROOM TOCCOA GEORGIA !!! those were the days!!!!

 

[cyrex]

Cochrans

Wish I was around in those days. I grew up in San Fran and hear so many stories about Cochrans and The Palace. As I kid I used to play at Family Billiards which was across the street from where Family is now. They had those old metal time clocks with the big lever handles. When I got out of the military (used to play at another cool pool room 'Pinkes' in Colorado Springs) we would go to the Cue Club in the tenderloin which I believe used to be Cochrans. I think Annigoni owned it at the time. I think a lot of people used to come over to the east bay and play at Carousel Billiards in Castro Valley. Would love to hear some stories attached to these places. I agree.. great thready.

 

[Danny Kuykendal]

I used to play in a room in Douglas, Arizona called the B and P Palace on Main Street. I played there in 1965 or so, and snuck in the back door because you had to be 18 to get in.

It was built in about 1912 or so, and had spitoons on the floor, a shuffleboard table in the corner and cigar smoke everywhere. You NEVER saw a lady in there. They were allowed in, they just preferred to let the men have their room. A bowling alley opened with some Gold Crowns on the other side of town and that's where the girls went.

Willie Hoppe rolled through town in about 1926 and played a baseball player by the name of Charles Chase (according to a story in Inside Pool Magazine) in a game of straight pool. Chase ran 65 and out on him for 2 grand in his baseball outfit and cleats, of all things. A great story. When I saw that this match took place in Douglas I about fell out of my chair.


It happened in the same room 40 years before I played there over 40 years ago.

It closed up in the 90s. Not enough clientele to sustain any consistent business. The atmosphere had been the same for about 80 years.

I don't think you'll ever see anything like it again.

Danny K

 

[jay helfert]

I'll never forget the Central Club in downtown Oklahoma City. They had a great "golf" game going every day, with all manner of hustlers waiting at the ready for any game you cared to play, from checkers to chess to gin rummy. Of course pool was always an option too. I was a college kid at nearby O.U. in Norman, but I would try to get into the "city" every weekend for the action. Great sandwiches (hot beef, turkey etc.) served at a long counter as well.

This is the place that turned out Ronnie Allen, and was a home court for the Eufala Kid. It makes me realize what a rich history pool has in this country. Every city had a "Central Club" back in the 60's, and many a great player (and rounder) came out of these training grounds.

The other room I loved as a kid was Winks (in Dayton), which later became Forest Park Billiards, when Joe Burns took it over. It was located at the back of a shopping center (Forest Park) and in the basement. Kind of hidden away from the more up scale stores up top. You had to drive around the back of the center to find the place, and enter thru a dark hallway. It was fun and exciting to be there, with all types of gambling going on day and night (pool, cards and dice were all played there daily).

And one more of my favorite rooms from my youth was Guys and Dolls in New York. Located in the heart of Manhattan on the second floor, I couldn't wait to get there after work evey day. Full of great and not so great players, I saw many big money match ups here. Richie from the Bronx would come by and play anyone 9-Ball, and when Ervolino showed up he was The Man. Jersey Red stopped in once or twice to rob someone playing One Pocket. He was nearly unbeatable back then. It was also home court for the legendary Country, a handsome black man who never seemed to book a loser. I used to play Jerry "The Actor' in there before he became plain Jerry Orbach.

My last pick is Merguards in Cincy. It was a classic pool room full of players from Central Casting. The Hustlers, the Players, the Scufflers, the Sweators, the Poolroom Detectives, the Steer Men and the Backers. They were all there in force. Everybody had their role and they all stayed in character the whole year I hung around there.

I almost left out Ye Billiard Den, the all time Hollywood (CA) hangout in the late 60's and early 70's. The famous and infamous passed thru these doors and there was never a dull day in this joint. I was now a "player" and got into many action games, giving up weight right and left to those less gifted then me. It was lucrative surroundings for me playing entertainers, actors, wanna bees and pool imposters. I actually had a healthy bank account at the time and stayed "pumped up". My all time favorite joint for obvious reasons.

These were the rooms that shaped me a youngster in the 60's.

 

[Fatboy]

The Cue and Chalk poolroom on Washington Boulevard in Arlington VA was about a mile from the house I grew up in. The summer I turned 10, 1967, I would ride my bike about 3 times a week to the place and the manager let me sweep and mop the floor for table time. Place had about 10 Brunswick Anniversary tables, a small counter where you could get a burger and fries and really good milkshakes. There was a group of elderly black men that would be playing one hole and straight pool in there every day and they were always dressed to the nines. Suits and ties with tie bars, lots of gold jewelry. One smoked White Owl cigars with the plastic holder. The night man used to come in about 3 in the afternoon and play kelly pool with a bunch of guys and he'd keep his pea in his ear. (He had ears that were big enough to hold a cue ball.)

It was the first place I played in that had a 9 foot table and when I finally got to put one in my own house last year, it's the reason I had to get an old Anniversary.

It hasn't been there for decades but I can close my eyes and picture the place in great detail. Every once in a while, I'll go someplace where the smell will be the same and it always takes me back. Smoke, fry grease, cheap cologne and money. That's the place.

Brian in VA

Great thread BTW!

in a year or 2 i'm gonna stop working in my current gig, the stresss isnt worth the $$$ and I have a few good sources of income, i might open a joint like that, i dunno if it would work or not, honestly i wouldnt care, as long as there were players there it would be cool, i would be doing it to build a hang-out, not for the $$$.

 

[Brian in VA]

in a year or 2 i'm gonna stop working in my current gig, the stresss isnt worth the $$$ and I have a few good sources of income, i might open a joint like that, i dunno if it would work or not, honestly i wouldnt care, as long as there were players there it would be cool, i would be doing it to build a hang-out, not for the $$$.

Please let me know when you do, Fatboy. I'll come be the night man.

Brian in VA

 

[CreeDo]

I think my favorite place in maine is pretty interesting.
It's in a former church, with massive 20 foot molded tin ceilings and a small upper level where the minister used to preach. Now the upper level has a big TV and a couple of couches and some unused dartboards. Several small TVs around too

The owner had that part of the ceiling painted blue with sparkles, gives it a cool effect to sit back on the couch and stare up... like the night sky.
Tables are all gandys with a mix of green and brass lights. Walls are blue up to neck level then white the rest of the way. Really BIG tall windows with black curtains, during the daytime huge swathes of sunlight cross the tables and you can't shoot at all.

Wish I had some wide-angle lens shots to give you a sense of how open the place feels with those giant ceilings. I'll be visiting there soon so maybe I can get some pix.

 

[jrhendy]

I was wondering if people might want to post something about the most interesting poolhall they had played in.

Back in my high school years there was a poolhall that I visited almost everyday after school. What made it different was the layout in the building it was in.

The name of the building was called the Nordic Temple. The building had that name on the cornerstone and had previously been the meeting place of a disbanded local Swedish mens club. It was about 5 stories high and had been converted to businesses and upper apartments. The front part of the building had been converted to retail store spaces and the back part into a pool room.

The building was built on the corner of a downtown hillside street. The front of the building was along the bottom of one street and the back was on the upside of the hill. You would have to walk up the hill to get to the door near the back of the building to enter the poolhall.

When you opened the steel door of the pool room it would squeek as the pulleys from the weighted cables that closed the door turned. The first time I went inside I thought how really neat this place was. The whole back part of the building had at one time been a small gymnasium with a running track over it that looped all around the top.

By entering through the back door, the only entrance to the poolhall, you were actually on the old running track looking down about 35 feet onto 7 Brunswick tables. The lights were hanging from small cables stretched over the tables. Part of the running track had been cut away and a staircase had been built to walk down to the floor where the tables were.

It was dimmly lighted as there were only a couple of windows on the upper level. The lights shining on the tables, one over the stairs and one by the counter were the only ones lit. There were two rows of 3 tables each, end to end. One table by the counter was turned the in opposite direction from the other six.

It was quite an impressive place to my young eyes. I spent many hours playing there. I came home from military service in 1964 and the building was gone. Our city hall stands there now.

I grew up in a little town (Monterey park) just a few mile from Downtown Los Angeles. There was a little pool room called Steve's, with four 5 x 10 snooker tables and two pool tables in the back. Steve and his wife Mom couldn't keep me out of there so they made me get a note from my mom to show I had her permission to be in there because they served beer. Steve would set on a little chair by the beer tap and had a glass of beer in front of him at all times, with a snort of Four Roses whiskey from time to time from a bottle hidden in the cabinet. Steve and Mom were from England and Steve said he was instrumental in bringing over the 5 x 10 tables and introducing American Snooker to the USA. The tables were originally used for "101" which was played with 15 red balls. Jerry Henry, who ended up in Colorado, cut his teeth in Steve's before he started hanging around Hollywood Billiards and became a top player. We only played snooker in those days and most of the rooms had 5 x 10 snooker tables in them. Around 56/57 I was starting to rob the locals and started my real pool education in LA. I would go to 4th & Main (Romy's), a place we called The Hole at 5th & Spring and Hollywood Billiards at Hollywood & Western. Hollywood Billiards was magic, with road players coming through and plenty of locals ready to educate (rob) a young wannabee pool hustler. They had a chalkboard for snooker tournaments there with all the players nicknames, Hollywood Jack, Fat Bill, Fitz, George The Drummer, Feathers, Legs, Okie Sam, Sleepy Bob and later on Junior (Ronnie Allen), to name a few. I played Ronnie $5 snooker when I was a teenager and when he stuck a $5 bill in the side pocket when we were starting the game, I stood there and looked at it. "How long you been on the road kid" he said, "That's the up money". I usually came home broke, but what an education I got from those guys.

In the 60's/ 70's, there was Verne Peterson's Billiard Palace in Bellflower. Every champion in the country stopped in there. You might see a $20/$40 pay ball game on the 5 x 10 with Ronnie Allen, Richie Florence, Wade Crane, New York Blackie and just about any other top player you could think of taking a shot at this game. They often played double on runout. Cole Dickson and Keith McCready were there when they were straight shooting kids.

Another favorite, which is still going strong, but not much action anymore, is the Jointed Cue Billiards in Sacramento. I used to drive up from LA almost 30 years ago to play in their annual 9 ball tournament. I still go & play every March and hope to make it again next time. It usually gets 100+ players and is a madhouse. It has become more of a reunion any more for me, but it is one of a kind.

And finally, my most recent favorite which gets plenty of comments on this board, Hard Times in Bellflower, CA. I actually resigned from a good job managing a Mortgage Co. in San Diego to move back up so I could start playing golf & snooker again on Bertha in 90/91. I held my own playing $50 a point Liability Snooker with some of the best players in the country for a year or so before I came to No. Calif. The newer generation of golf players ruined a game there that had been going on for almost 30 years by doing too much business and the big ring games went away and they started playing partner games (where everyone knew who your partner was). All good things come to an end, and Bertha, the 6 x 12 tight snooker table that was originally rebuilt by Verne Peterson at the Billiard Palace, is still there and probably still getting action.

I play at Chuck & Mike's Hard Times in Sacramento now. A beautiful players room with a little action, but it is mostly tournaments for me now. Thanks for the thread and the memories. John