Greetings all, as I was approaching my 1000th post I was contemplating a topic. I knocked around a few things but after the Broncos blew chunks in the Superbowl was feeling a bit low so this is all I could come up with. It's a bit long winded but please indulge me. If you complete the assigned reading let me know what you think.
...and with that, I present post 1000 (for your insomnia...)
I've been reading this stuff for some time now. It can be quite discouraging and you may disagree, but frankly I see pool dying a slow painful death here in the United States, or at least being critically ill. Oh sure, there will always be a core group that will probably always play so long as they can find a pool table, just as there will always be a core group that prefers albums to CD's, or VHS or Beta Tapes to DVD's, land lines to cell phones. In short, there is always a group that prefers the obsolete. I fear that pool, too, will soon become obsolete, then my AZ Brethren, we will be officially dinosaurs if we're not already. Cue makers will be fewer, pool halls will cease to exist. You might find a table in a bar or a bowling alley but it will usually be covered for poker or in use as a buffet table and the cloth will likely be worn through and in rough shape. BCA, APA, Valley, TAP, all local leagues, will be reduced to almost nothing and once a year in Las Vegas the 100 or so of us left on AZ will meet because the only real pool tables left are there in a dusty old bar. But soon that will die off as well and AZ will then be reduced to a series of emails and IM's between several of us looking for a new tip or telling tales about Efren and Earl or South West Cues. Face it, we're doomed....
Pool needs a shot in the arm, some vitamins, an enema, something.
I have considered this and given it some thought, as I'm sure we all have from time to time. Pool has had a couple of really sucessful periods throughout American history. Most recently several years ago pool's popularity grew by leaps when The Color of Money was released. It's been a good ride, but it's pretty much over now. Several other movies have been released, but they were more for us as a billiard crowd. Pool Hall Junkies, 9-Ball, Shooting Gallery, Chalk, just to name a few. I don't mention the Baltimore Bullet because it was prior to The Color of Money and really wasn't all that successful anyways. Of all those, Shooting Gallery had the cast to be successful, but it was a rotton "straight to DVD" movie. Poolhall Junkies had a chance, but no cast to speak of. While you might disagree and say that Chalk or Shooting Gallery were excellent movies, ask yourself honestly, would they, or would any of these appeal to you if you weren't a pool player.
Pool needs something for it's own survival. The idea of a reality show has been floated here several times, but think about it - who would watch it besides us? Sponsors would call that a bad investment. There aren't enough of "us" to generate the profit needed to maintain a reality show, and could you really deal with a lower rating than Honey Boo-Boo? That would certainly spell the end of billiards in America. We'd be too embarrassed to play anymore. However this idea has some merrit, after all, I recently saw an ad for a reality show about an arm wrestler, so who knows? In the end though many things will have contributed to pool's inevitable demise.
In looking over American History it seems to me one of the fastest ways to generate interest in something is to find a way to put it in the mass media or make a movie about it. Well, that's been done. However, every pool movie released recently, in the last 20 or 25 years has had almost no appeal to the non pool playing public. There was no central, well known actor or character to get get behind, no really appealing story that anyone could follow, no cast or big star that was recognizable. They've been mostly low budget 'B' movies with a cast to match and the story has been reasonably the same in everyone of them.
Many people went to see The Hustler because it had an outstanding cast of the period's most recognizable actors even if you weren't a pool fan, but at that time American pool had a decent following. So years ago if you went to that movie because you liked Jackie Gleason, or Paul Newman or George C. Scott, or played pool, you also saw a pretty good movie. Folks that were Tom Cruise or Paul Newman fans went to see them in The Color Of Money and were treated to a pretty good flick, and those that saw The Hustler had to see the sequel then when it was over a good portion of the movie-going-crowd was inspired and picked up a pool cue for the first time and here we are, or here we were.
I think pool needs another movie, but it needs the right movie. There is almost no way any mass media outlet will cover a pool event unless a terrorist bomb explodes at the SBE, then the story would be the bomb, the side note would be that it was a pool event. But if pool needs something like a movie, then where to begin?
Offer anyone on the street, in any office, or a Walmart or Kroger $5 to name any 3 famous pool players and my bet is you'd likely get, Minnesota Fats, Willie Mosconi, and "The Miz" or the "Bud Lite Guy". maybe some would say "that pretty Asian girl in black with the long black hair, what's her name, "The Spider", Janet or Jessica Wang?" or various other Asian names. After saying Minnesota Fats most people would probably struggle for a second or third player anyway.
My thought is that pool needs a compelling feel good story but about a real player, a life story, or a portion of a life story. So to make it compelling and feel good there will have to be a bit of "journalistic license" taken or a certain "spin "with the writing and the production because, well, lets' be frank - most pool stories don't end well, so it will have to be "based on the true story..." or perhaps a single story up to a certain point of a bigger story so it can end with some truth and happily so it feels good. Any of you see Invincible? That was only sort of true.
There are lots of teams with a pretty good story but no one team-wise is recognizable to the public no one the public can identify with. So a movie like that would be, once again, for pool players and generate almost no other interest. So, since the general public knows very little about actual pool and pool players, the script could take many believeable liberties with the actual truth. Ledgendary players could cross generations and time. Imagine a match like this, a Dennis Hatch/Ralph Greenleaf character maybe portrayed by a Tom Cruise or similar actor vs. a Kid Delicious/Minnesota Fats character played by someone like Andrew Dice-Clay (his name could be "Brooklyn" Lou Bannino, nick name "Baluga"), or a Johnny Archer/Irving Crane (Jim Carey?) vs Steve Mizerak/Mike Dachaine (Frank Caliendo?), allowing also for some characters that are legendary road players and hustlers or once again, combined personalities.
So anyway, a movie based on a true story and (now hold on...) Simply called "Ginky"
based on the life of George SanSouci. Perhaps GS is portrayed by someone like
Daniel Radcliff. Now before you roll your eyes into the back of your head remember this, the Harry Potter series had a huge following so Daniel Radcliff brings a natural, automatic fan base and about a bazillion people in at least a couple of countries, that will pay to see him in another movie and if you are able throw additional names in there like Tom Cruise, Josh Hartnet, Tommy Lee Jones with, of course cameos of actual pool players then that's all the better. Hell, there's even a good opportunity to have Miley Cyrus play a trashy New York crack whore, or some pool hall slut that does dirty things with a cue.
Now remember the words "Based on". These words allows us to take certain liberties with the truth, for instance what if he was mentored at a very young age by Willie Mosconi or if he met him in New York or saw a Mosconi exibition at a very young age and that meeting or exibition (or other event?) was a great influance on his life. You don't want to make it ridiculous but you want to include the names that everyone knows. It provides a level of comfort for the movie goer and some familiarity.
This could be somewhat akin to a movie like Brian's Song. That movie has survived time and a rerelease and is considered a classic and it did well before football was ever considered the American Past Time. I don't know if one could ever expect "Ginky" to be as big, but really, neither was The Color of Money, but it gave this industry a kick start and carried it for at least a couple of decades, and with the right cast, who knows...?
The movie 'Ginky' would have competetion, romamce, tradgedy, a come back, and friends and players that carry on his legacy. These are elements that most of the general public can easily identify with.
In the end, imagine a stop action shot of the Ginky actor playing in a match or just having won a match and holding the cue above his head. This shot slowly goes opaque and fades into the clouds as James Earl Jones' voice speaks a short epilog. Something about a champion that passes away but lives on and ends with a dramatic tag line, maybe not this corny, but something like "He loved the game, it was his life, and did he ever live..."
and as he finishes the song Heros (David Bowie or Mark Bonilla) is playing in the background and the volume comes up - "...I, I would be king, and you, you will be queen. Though nothing will drive them away, We can be Heroes, just for one day..."
Where's the money coming from? I haven't worked that part out and I don't see much chance of that ever happening, but it's just a thought...
...and with that, I present post 1000 (for your insomnia...)
I've been reading this stuff for some time now. It can be quite discouraging and you may disagree, but frankly I see pool dying a slow painful death here in the United States, or at least being critically ill. Oh sure, there will always be a core group that will probably always play so long as they can find a pool table, just as there will always be a core group that prefers albums to CD's, or VHS or Beta Tapes to DVD's, land lines to cell phones. In short, there is always a group that prefers the obsolete. I fear that pool, too, will soon become obsolete, then my AZ Brethren, we will be officially dinosaurs if we're not already. Cue makers will be fewer, pool halls will cease to exist. You might find a table in a bar or a bowling alley but it will usually be covered for poker or in use as a buffet table and the cloth will likely be worn through and in rough shape. BCA, APA, Valley, TAP, all local leagues, will be reduced to almost nothing and once a year in Las Vegas the 100 or so of us left on AZ will meet because the only real pool tables left are there in a dusty old bar. But soon that will die off as well and AZ will then be reduced to a series of emails and IM's between several of us looking for a new tip or telling tales about Efren and Earl or South West Cues. Face it, we're doomed....
Pool needs a shot in the arm, some vitamins, an enema, something.
I have considered this and given it some thought, as I'm sure we all have from time to time. Pool has had a couple of really sucessful periods throughout American history. Most recently several years ago pool's popularity grew by leaps when The Color of Money was released. It's been a good ride, but it's pretty much over now. Several other movies have been released, but they were more for us as a billiard crowd. Pool Hall Junkies, 9-Ball, Shooting Gallery, Chalk, just to name a few. I don't mention the Baltimore Bullet because it was prior to The Color of Money and really wasn't all that successful anyways. Of all those, Shooting Gallery had the cast to be successful, but it was a rotton "straight to DVD" movie. Poolhall Junkies had a chance, but no cast to speak of. While you might disagree and say that Chalk or Shooting Gallery were excellent movies, ask yourself honestly, would they, or would any of these appeal to you if you weren't a pool player.
Pool needs something for it's own survival. The idea of a reality show has been floated here several times, but think about it - who would watch it besides us? Sponsors would call that a bad investment. There aren't enough of "us" to generate the profit needed to maintain a reality show, and could you really deal with a lower rating than Honey Boo-Boo? That would certainly spell the end of billiards in America. We'd be too embarrassed to play anymore. However this idea has some merrit, after all, I recently saw an ad for a reality show about an arm wrestler, so who knows? In the end though many things will have contributed to pool's inevitable demise.
In looking over American History it seems to me one of the fastest ways to generate interest in something is to find a way to put it in the mass media or make a movie about it. Well, that's been done. However, every pool movie released recently, in the last 20 or 25 years has had almost no appeal to the non pool playing public. There was no central, well known actor or character to get get behind, no really appealing story that anyone could follow, no cast or big star that was recognizable. They've been mostly low budget 'B' movies with a cast to match and the story has been reasonably the same in everyone of them.
Many people went to see The Hustler because it had an outstanding cast of the period's most recognizable actors even if you weren't a pool fan, but at that time American pool had a decent following. So years ago if you went to that movie because you liked Jackie Gleason, or Paul Newman or George C. Scott, or played pool, you also saw a pretty good movie. Folks that were Tom Cruise or Paul Newman fans went to see them in The Color Of Money and were treated to a pretty good flick, and those that saw The Hustler had to see the sequel then when it was over a good portion of the movie-going-crowd was inspired and picked up a pool cue for the first time and here we are, or here we were.
I think pool needs another movie, but it needs the right movie. There is almost no way any mass media outlet will cover a pool event unless a terrorist bomb explodes at the SBE, then the story would be the bomb, the side note would be that it was a pool event. But if pool needs something like a movie, then where to begin?
Offer anyone on the street, in any office, or a Walmart or Kroger $5 to name any 3 famous pool players and my bet is you'd likely get, Minnesota Fats, Willie Mosconi, and "The Miz" or the "Bud Lite Guy". maybe some would say "that pretty Asian girl in black with the long black hair, what's her name, "The Spider", Janet or Jessica Wang?" or various other Asian names. After saying Minnesota Fats most people would probably struggle for a second or third player anyway.
My thought is that pool needs a compelling feel good story but about a real player, a life story, or a portion of a life story. So to make it compelling and feel good there will have to be a bit of "journalistic license" taken or a certain "spin "with the writing and the production because, well, lets' be frank - most pool stories don't end well, so it will have to be "based on the true story..." or perhaps a single story up to a certain point of a bigger story so it can end with some truth and happily so it feels good. Any of you see Invincible? That was only sort of true.
There are lots of teams with a pretty good story but no one team-wise is recognizable to the public no one the public can identify with. So a movie like that would be, once again, for pool players and generate almost no other interest. So, since the general public knows very little about actual pool and pool players, the script could take many believeable liberties with the actual truth. Ledgendary players could cross generations and time. Imagine a match like this, a Dennis Hatch/Ralph Greenleaf character maybe portrayed by a Tom Cruise or similar actor vs. a Kid Delicious/Minnesota Fats character played by someone like Andrew Dice-Clay (his name could be "Brooklyn" Lou Bannino, nick name "Baluga"), or a Johnny Archer/Irving Crane (Jim Carey?) vs Steve Mizerak/Mike Dachaine (Frank Caliendo?), allowing also for some characters that are legendary road players and hustlers or once again, combined personalities.
So anyway, a movie based on a true story and (now hold on...) Simply called "Ginky"
based on the life of George SanSouci. Perhaps GS is portrayed by someone like
Daniel Radcliff. Now before you roll your eyes into the back of your head remember this, the Harry Potter series had a huge following so Daniel Radcliff brings a natural, automatic fan base and about a bazillion people in at least a couple of countries, that will pay to see him in another movie and if you are able throw additional names in there like Tom Cruise, Josh Hartnet, Tommy Lee Jones with, of course cameos of actual pool players then that's all the better. Hell, there's even a good opportunity to have Miley Cyrus play a trashy New York crack whore, or some pool hall slut that does dirty things with a cue.
Now remember the words "Based on". These words allows us to take certain liberties with the truth, for instance what if he was mentored at a very young age by Willie Mosconi or if he met him in New York or saw a Mosconi exibition at a very young age and that meeting or exibition (or other event?) was a great influance on his life. You don't want to make it ridiculous but you want to include the names that everyone knows. It provides a level of comfort for the movie goer and some familiarity.
This could be somewhat akin to a movie like Brian's Song. That movie has survived time and a rerelease and is considered a classic and it did well before football was ever considered the American Past Time. I don't know if one could ever expect "Ginky" to be as big, but really, neither was The Color of Money, but it gave this industry a kick start and carried it for at least a couple of decades, and with the right cast, who knows...?
The movie 'Ginky' would have competetion, romamce, tradgedy, a come back, and friends and players that carry on his legacy. These are elements that most of the general public can easily identify with.
In the end, imagine a stop action shot of the Ginky actor playing in a match or just having won a match and holding the cue above his head. This shot slowly goes opaque and fades into the clouds as James Earl Jones' voice speaks a short epilog. Something about a champion that passes away but lives on and ends with a dramatic tag line, maybe not this corny, but something like "He loved the game, it was his life, and did he ever live..."
and as he finishes the song Heros (David Bowie or Mark Bonilla) is playing in the background and the volume comes up - "...I, I would be king, and you, you will be queen. Though nothing will drive them away, We can be Heroes, just for one day..."
Where's the money coming from? I haven't worked that part out and I don't see much chance of that ever happening, but it's just a thought...
Color film was around when they made The Hustler, yet they shot it in B&W..
