National Billiard News -- help needed with old issues

[Bob Jewett]

For anyone interested in the history of pool, snooker and carom in the US, AZB hosts a nearly complete run of copies of The National Billiard News. It's available in the Goldmine that you can get to from the AZB home page or here:

Goldmine - AZBILLIARDS.COM

The A to Z of Pool and Billiards Online

www.azbilliards.com

The NBN published from 1963 or so until the May, 2007 issue. I have been scanning the issues I have that were not yet in the Goldmine -- about 70 missing issues. The Goldmine will soon have all the issues from 1966 through 2007.

If you have copies of the magazine from the first three years of publication, 1963? to 1965, there are about 20 issues that we would really like to get. If you have early issues or know someone who might, please let me know.

Here are a couple of clips showing the period this pool newspaper spanned:

 

[Bob Jewett]

About 70 issues were added recently. About 30 more will go up soon.

We still need help with 1963-1965. If you know of a likely source for those, please speak up. I think the best chance is with really old pool halls or really old pool players. Please ask around if you see any possibilities.

 

[Bob Jewett]

As soon as the March, 1988 issue is uploaded, the collection of National Billiard News in the Goldmine is complete from November 1965 through the final issue in May 2007. At this point, the only four missing issues are:

October 1965

Jan or Feb 1964

Two in Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct 1964

The uncertainty in the dates is because printing in the early years was irregular and the issue numbering was screwy. I'm pretty sure only four issues were printed in those seven months.

If you know where those last four issues might be found, please speak up.

From March, 1988:

 

[JAM]

I purchased NBN papers from the old owners for dates of 1980 to 1990 and paid $300 to them for the hardcopies. They are a goldmine of information about pocket billiards.

Of course, this is back in the day before digital news. Some of the articles in NBN were published a month or two after the event and many times did not provide the actual dates of the event in the article.

Grady and Jay Helfert wrote for this publication, and the articles were a fun read for sure. I still reference them today when I am work on a pool-related project.

Thanks for sharing these articles. Next time I pull mine out, I'll see if I can find a cool article to share. I wish I had the missing ones you are looking for, but I did not purchase any from the '60s.

 

[azhousepro]

I purchased NBN papers from the old owners for dates of 1980 to 1990 and paid $300 to them for the hardcopies. They are a goldmine of information about pocket billiards.

Of course, this is back in the day before digital news. Some of the articles in NBN were published a month or two after the event and many times did not provide the actual dates of the event in the article.

Grady and Jay Helfert wrote for this publication, and the articles were a fun read for sure. I still reference them today when I am work on a pool-related project.

Thanks for sharing these articles. Next time I pull mine out, I'll see if I can find a cool article to share. I wish I had the missing ones you are looking for, but I did not purchase any from the '60s.

They have been invaluable when I am looking for information on events that were held before the site was online. I hope to one day have articles from all of the back issues entered in the site. It's something else on my "want to do" list.

Mike