Anybody recognize any of these characters?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2...inger_s_pool_hall_in_chicago_illinois_in.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2...inger_s_pool_hall_in_chicago_illinois_in.html
Photos of the Pool Hall That Inspired The Hustler
- Thread starter HawaiianEye
- Start date
Boston Shorty is wearing the hat aka Larry Johnson
Not to be too critical, but I doubt Tevis ever saw Besingers before he wrote The Hustler. He worked at a room in Lexington, KY (U of KY)? perhaps.
Yes, in the book they go to Chicago - but the film was shot in NYC.
Dale
Stairway to heaven? Chris's Billiards.
Any others?
Any others?
It was a different era back then.......
Last edited:
Yeah, that's definitely a dubious claim. Certainly Bensinger's looks little like the chandeliered pool room with huge windows, sky lights, and arched ceilings described in the book.
Lou Figueroa
Last edited:
Even if that hall had any part in the inspiration for the movie, the webpage should be a little more clear about the fact that those pictures were taken 10 years after The Hustler came out. The clothes are a dead giveaway to the 70's.
I don't think the webpage or the OP were deceptive, I just think it should be clear that the claim is that the hall, not the photos, inspired the movie.
I don't think the webpage or the OP were deceptive, I just think it should be clear that the claim is that the hall, not the photos, inspired the movie.
Read the first sentence of the write up.
I went to Google Images... here's some old Pool Halls pics...
https://www.google.com/search?q=old...ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIwpu2s4udxwIVx44NCh0QIANX
There may be more if you follow the links on these pics...
https://www.google.com/search?q=old...ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIwpu2s4udxwIVx44NCh0QIANX
There may be more if you follow the links on these pics...
I think Walter Tevis described the original Bensingers quite well.
The Bensingers that most living players today would recall are the remains of that great
room....when it was reduced to one floor in the basement....that's the only one I saw when
I played there as a kid.
The Bensingers that Tevis described was a multi-floored palace that McGorty talks about
in the book by Robert Byrne.
Tevis was old enough to have seen that room.
Another Chicago walkup, that like Chris's (and several other Chicago locations) was also used as a location in The Color of Money (the place where Eddie ditches Vincent) was the now demolished North Center Bowl, which stood at 4017 North Lincoln Avenue.
pj
chgo
Amazing photos - thanks for the link!
Forth photo down - does that rail have a lean to it? The four balls look like they were placed there for a frozen rail drill.
That stone hard floor looks like it would be killer on the feet after long sessions.
I'm such a light weight with my cushioned foam floor tiles around my home table. :shrug:
25 "Did You Know" Questions...............Re: The Hustler
Here's some interesting stuff about the movie......hope you enjoy.
Matt B,
Here are 25 things you may not have known about the grimy classic, including how Bobby Darin got hustled out of the movie, how the film helped Piper Laurie's love life while sidelining her career, and why it took a quarter-century to make the sequel, 'The Color of Money.'
1. 'The Hustler' was based on a 1959 novel by Walter Tevis. It was the first of six novels he wrote, including 'The Man Who Fell to Earth,' which would eventually become a celebrated 1976 cult sci-fi hit starring David Bowie.
2. Director/co-screenwriter Robert Rossen had been a pool hustler himself in his youth. He'd enjoyed increasing success in Hollywood, culminating with his work on the 1949 Best Picture Oscar Winner 'All the King's Men.' But then he was blacklisted for pleading the Fifth Amendment when asked about his Communist past by the House Un-American Activities Committee. After two years without work, he relented, testified again, acknowledged having been a party member, and named 57 other alleged onetime Communists. He was taken off the blacklist, but his career had failed to reach its earlier heights. Like Fast Eddie Felson, he was in need of redemption when he discovered Tevis' novel and adapted it into a screenplay with TV writer Sidney Carroll.
3. Newman had been having a hit-and-miss career, from his disastrous debut in 'The Silver Chalice' (1954) to his Oscar-nominated turn in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1958). He felt he had yet to find that career-defining role. The 'Hustler' filmmakers had been interested in him for the role of Fast Eddie Felson, but he was supposed to re-team with 'Cat' co-star Elizabeth Taylor in 'Two for the Seesaw.' When her 'Cleopatra' shoot ran long and forced her to drop out of the project, he became available to make 'The Hustler.'
4. When the filmmakers hired Newman, they unceremoniously dumped their already-cast leading man, Bobby Darin. Darin's agent claimed no one ever bothered to tell the star he'd been replaced; he reportedly found out from a fan while attending a charity horse race.
5. Jackie Gleason was already a successful TV comic (famous for Ralph Kramden of 'The Honeymooners' and other frequent sketch characters), but his movie career had never taken off, and he hadn't proved himself as a serious dramatic actor. The role of the confident, graceful, streetwise Minnesota Fats seemed tailor-made for Gleason, who was an accomplished pool player and is seen in the film making his own pool shots.
6. George C. Scott had earned acclaim and an Oscar nomination as the prosecutor in 1959's 'Anatomy of a Murder,' but he was still better known as a stage actor. 'The Hustler,' in which he was cast as amoral gambler Bert, was only his third movie.
7. Piper Laurie was tired of the ingenue roles she'd been playing for a decade, thanks in part to ridiculous studio publicity that claimed she maintained her luminous skin by bathing in milk and eating rose petals. She was so eager for something meatier that she jumped at the chance to be in the film after having read just 40 pages of the screenplay, before her character (the emotionally and physically crippled Sarah, who becomes Eddie's wary love interest) even shows up.
8. Others reportedly considered for Fast Eddie were Cliff Robertson and Jack Lemmon (who once said he liked to play pool during down time on movie sets to keep his emotional level high). Kim Novak claims she turned down the role of Sarah.
9. The realism of the film came in large measure from technical adviser Willie Mosconi, an established pool champ who became Paul Newman's pool coach and who has a brief cameo as a stakeholder in an early scene. He had suggested Frank Sinatra for the lead.
10. Newman had never picked up a pool cue before taking the role in 'The Hustler,' but his Method approach paid off. From Willie Mosconi, he learned how not just to shoot pool but also how to walk, talk, and circle the table like a shark. He practiced for hours at a table at a New York girls' high school and at a table he installed in his own house. Still, for the trickiest pool shots Fast Eddie had to make, it's Mosconi's hands you see in close-up.
11. The film was shot almost entirely on location in New York City - even the scenes that take place in Louisville, Kentucky. For the sequence at the bus depot, the filmmakers used the real Greyhound bus depot but built their own dining area that was so realistic that Greyhound patrons would sit at tables and linger in vain, expecting to be waited on.
12. In the Kentucky Derby sequence, there's an announcement of a horse named Stroke of Luck. That was a nod to an alternate title for the movie that the studio had considered; apparently, even then, the word "hustler" already had a suggestion of prostitution.
13. Like his character, pool newbie Newman got cocky enough to challenge the more seasoned Gleason to a real game, betting $50 on the outcome. Newman broke, then Gleason took his turn and sank all 15 balls without allowing Newman another shot. Newman paid up the next day with 5,000 pennies.
14. Bleeding money from the ongoing debacle of the production of 'Cleopatra,' 20th Century Fox devoted few resources to marketing 'The Hustler' and dumped the film into wide release without much publicity on Sept. 25, 1961. But the film got some advance buzz from a midnight screening in New York for Broadway actors, arranged by Richard Burton (star of Rossen's 'Alexander the Great'). Critics received the film well (though some were put off by the rank pool hall settings), and audiences made it a hit.
15. 'The Hustler' pocketed nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It would win two, for its art direction (by Harry Horner and Gene Callahan) and its black-and-white cinematography (by Eugen Schüfftan).
16. The film also earned Oscar nominations for all four of its stars. None of them won. Scott became the first actor ever to decline a nomination, saying that he found the notion of competing against fellow actors in the Academy's "meat contest" beneath his dignity. Nine years later, when he won the Best Actor Oscar for 'Patton,' he became the first actor to refuse to accept the prize.
17. While promoting the film, Laurie met and fell in love with entertainment journalist Joe Morgenstern. They married in early 1962, and when new roles failed to come her way after 'The Hustler,' she went into semi-retirement, left Hollywood, and raised a family. She wouldn't make another movie for 15 years, returning memorably to the screen with her Oscar-nominated performance as Sissy Spacek's religious-fanatic mom in 'Carrie.' She and Morgenstern divorced after two decades. She remains an in-demand character actress to this day; Morgenstern is still the long-time film critic at the Wall Street Journal.
18. Fast Eddie became the career-defining role Newman had been looking for, the prototype of the cocky, morally compromised, stubborn antihero Newman would play for the next couple of decades in such films as 'Hud,' 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting,' and 'Slap Shot.' It's also the only role that ever won him an Oscar (he was nominated eight times), though he didn't win it until he reprised the role in the sequel, 'The Color of Money,' 25 years later.
19. Former boxing champ Jake LaMotta has a cameo in 'The Hustler' as a bartender. LaMotta, of course, would be immortalized two decades later in Robert De Niro's performance in 'Raging Bull,' directed by future 'Color of Money' director Martin Scorsese.
20. In an interview promoting 'The Hustler,' Mosconi claimed that the character Minnesota Fats was based on real-life pool hustler Rudy Wanderone, who was known as New York Fatty. Wanderone took advantage of the shout-out, renamed himself Minnesota Fats, and became famous in his own right as an exhibition player - his relentless self-promotion and flamboyance soon made him too recognizable to hustle. Tevis always denied that he had based Fats on Wanderone. Several real-life players also claimed to be the inspiration for the character of Fast Eddie Felson, though Tevis denied their claims as well.
21. Pool took off in popularity after the release of 'The Hustler.' Mosconi and Wanderone both served as traveling ambassadors for the game, with Mosconi trying to make the game more genteel and respectable and Wanderone playing up its seamier side, as portrayed in the film. The two faced off a number of times in televised matches.
22. Wanderone starred in his own pool-themed movie, 'The Player,' in 1971. The tagline: "The Love. The Hate. The Raw Emotion... Set in the dingey [sic] grime and stench of the poolroom." It was not a hit.
23. Despite the success of 'The Hustler,' Rossen made only one more film, the psychological drama 'Lilith' (1964), starring Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. Many critics consider it his best, even better than 'The Hustler' or 'All the King's Men.' He died in 1966.
24. Why did it take a quarter-century for a sequel to be filmed? Because that's how much time passed before Tevis wrote one. His book 'The Color of Money,' published in 1984, centered on an older-and-wiser Fast Eddie. The film version came out in 1986, directed by Scorsese (it's the only sequel he's ever made) and starring Newman and Tom Cruise.
25. Newman had won an honorary Oscar that spring after six unsuccessful Oscar nominations. When he was nominated the following spring for 'Color of Money,' he didn't show up to the ceremony, assuming he wouldn't win after having won the career-achievement prize the year before. He was wrong.
p.s. Paul Newman did win an Academy Award in Scorsese's "The Color of Money" released in 1986;
Matt B.
Here's some interesting stuff about the movie......hope you enjoy.
Matt B,
'The Hustler' by Gary Susman 10/1/11
Here are 25 things you may not have known about the grimy classic, including how Bobby Darin got hustled out of the movie, how the film helped Piper Laurie's love life while sidelining her career, and why it took a quarter-century to make the sequel, 'The Color of Money.'
1. 'The Hustler' was based on a 1959 novel by Walter Tevis. It was the first of six novels he wrote, including 'The Man Who Fell to Earth,' which would eventually become a celebrated 1976 cult sci-fi hit starring David Bowie.
2. Director/co-screenwriter Robert Rossen had been a pool hustler himself in his youth. He'd enjoyed increasing success in Hollywood, culminating with his work on the 1949 Best Picture Oscar Winner 'All the King's Men.' But then he was blacklisted for pleading the Fifth Amendment when asked about his Communist past by the House Un-American Activities Committee. After two years without work, he relented, testified again, acknowledged having been a party member, and named 57 other alleged onetime Communists. He was taken off the blacklist, but his career had failed to reach its earlier heights. Like Fast Eddie Felson, he was in need of redemption when he discovered Tevis' novel and adapted it into a screenplay with TV writer Sidney Carroll.
3. Newman had been having a hit-and-miss career, from his disastrous debut in 'The Silver Chalice' (1954) to his Oscar-nominated turn in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1958). He felt he had yet to find that career-defining role. The 'Hustler' filmmakers had been interested in him for the role of Fast Eddie Felson, but he was supposed to re-team with 'Cat' co-star Elizabeth Taylor in 'Two for the Seesaw.' When her 'Cleopatra' shoot ran long and forced her to drop out of the project, he became available to make 'The Hustler.'
4. When the filmmakers hired Newman, they unceremoniously dumped their already-cast leading man, Bobby Darin. Darin's agent claimed no one ever bothered to tell the star he'd been replaced; he reportedly found out from a fan while attending a charity horse race.
5. Jackie Gleason was already a successful TV comic (famous for Ralph Kramden of 'The Honeymooners' and other frequent sketch characters), but his movie career had never taken off, and he hadn't proved himself as a serious dramatic actor. The role of the confident, graceful, streetwise Minnesota Fats seemed tailor-made for Gleason, who was an accomplished pool player and is seen in the film making his own pool shots.
6. George C. Scott had earned acclaim and an Oscar nomination as the prosecutor in 1959's 'Anatomy of a Murder,' but he was still better known as a stage actor. 'The Hustler,' in which he was cast as amoral gambler Bert, was only his third movie.
7. Piper Laurie was tired of the ingenue roles she'd been playing for a decade, thanks in part to ridiculous studio publicity that claimed she maintained her luminous skin by bathing in milk and eating rose petals. She was so eager for something meatier that she jumped at the chance to be in the film after having read just 40 pages of the screenplay, before her character (the emotionally and physically crippled Sarah, who becomes Eddie's wary love interest) even shows up.
8. Others reportedly considered for Fast Eddie were Cliff Robertson and Jack Lemmon (who once said he liked to play pool during down time on movie sets to keep his emotional level high). Kim Novak claims she turned down the role of Sarah.
9. The realism of the film came in large measure from technical adviser Willie Mosconi, an established pool champ who became Paul Newman's pool coach and who has a brief cameo as a stakeholder in an early scene. He had suggested Frank Sinatra for the lead.
10. Newman had never picked up a pool cue before taking the role in 'The Hustler,' but his Method approach paid off. From Willie Mosconi, he learned how not just to shoot pool but also how to walk, talk, and circle the table like a shark. He practiced for hours at a table at a New York girls' high school and at a table he installed in his own house. Still, for the trickiest pool shots Fast Eddie had to make, it's Mosconi's hands you see in close-up.
11. The film was shot almost entirely on location in New York City - even the scenes that take place in Louisville, Kentucky. For the sequence at the bus depot, the filmmakers used the real Greyhound bus depot but built their own dining area that was so realistic that Greyhound patrons would sit at tables and linger in vain, expecting to be waited on.
12. In the Kentucky Derby sequence, there's an announcement of a horse named Stroke of Luck. That was a nod to an alternate title for the movie that the studio had considered; apparently, even then, the word "hustler" already had a suggestion of prostitution.
13. Like his character, pool newbie Newman got cocky enough to challenge the more seasoned Gleason to a real game, betting $50 on the outcome. Newman broke, then Gleason took his turn and sank all 15 balls without allowing Newman another shot. Newman paid up the next day with 5,000 pennies.
14. Bleeding money from the ongoing debacle of the production of 'Cleopatra,' 20th Century Fox devoted few resources to marketing 'The Hustler' and dumped the film into wide release without much publicity on Sept. 25, 1961. But the film got some advance buzz from a midnight screening in New York for Broadway actors, arranged by Richard Burton (star of Rossen's 'Alexander the Great'). Critics received the film well (though some were put off by the rank pool hall settings), and audiences made it a hit.
15. 'The Hustler' pocketed nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It would win two, for its art direction (by Harry Horner and Gene Callahan) and its black-and-white cinematography (by Eugen Schüfftan).
16. The film also earned Oscar nominations for all four of its stars. None of them won. Scott became the first actor ever to decline a nomination, saying that he found the notion of competing against fellow actors in the Academy's "meat contest" beneath his dignity. Nine years later, when he won the Best Actor Oscar for 'Patton,' he became the first actor to refuse to accept the prize.
17. While promoting the film, Laurie met and fell in love with entertainment journalist Joe Morgenstern. They married in early 1962, and when new roles failed to come her way after 'The Hustler,' she went into semi-retirement, left Hollywood, and raised a family. She wouldn't make another movie for 15 years, returning memorably to the screen with her Oscar-nominated performance as Sissy Spacek's religious-fanatic mom in 'Carrie.' She and Morgenstern divorced after two decades. She remains an in-demand character actress to this day; Morgenstern is still the long-time film critic at the Wall Street Journal.
18. Fast Eddie became the career-defining role Newman had been looking for, the prototype of the cocky, morally compromised, stubborn antihero Newman would play for the next couple of decades in such films as 'Hud,' 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting,' and 'Slap Shot.' It's also the only role that ever won him an Oscar (he was nominated eight times), though he didn't win it until he reprised the role in the sequel, 'The Color of Money,' 25 years later.
19. Former boxing champ Jake LaMotta has a cameo in 'The Hustler' as a bartender. LaMotta, of course, would be immortalized two decades later in Robert De Niro's performance in 'Raging Bull,' directed by future 'Color of Money' director Martin Scorsese.
20. In an interview promoting 'The Hustler,' Mosconi claimed that the character Minnesota Fats was based on real-life pool hustler Rudy Wanderone, who was known as New York Fatty. Wanderone took advantage of the shout-out, renamed himself Minnesota Fats, and became famous in his own right as an exhibition player - his relentless self-promotion and flamboyance soon made him too recognizable to hustle. Tevis always denied that he had based Fats on Wanderone. Several real-life players also claimed to be the inspiration for the character of Fast Eddie Felson, though Tevis denied their claims as well.
21. Pool took off in popularity after the release of 'The Hustler.' Mosconi and Wanderone both served as traveling ambassadors for the game, with Mosconi trying to make the game more genteel and respectable and Wanderone playing up its seamier side, as portrayed in the film. The two faced off a number of times in televised matches.
22. Wanderone starred in his own pool-themed movie, 'The Player,' in 1971. The tagline: "The Love. The Hate. The Raw Emotion... Set in the dingey [sic] grime and stench of the poolroom." It was not a hit.
23. Despite the success of 'The Hustler,' Rossen made only one more film, the psychological drama 'Lilith' (1964), starring Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. Many critics consider it his best, even better than 'The Hustler' or 'All the King's Men.' He died in 1966.
24. Why did it take a quarter-century for a sequel to be filmed? Because that's how much time passed before Tevis wrote one. His book 'The Color of Money,' published in 1984, centered on an older-and-wiser Fast Eddie. The film version came out in 1986, directed by Scorsese (it's the only sequel he's ever made) and starring Newman and Tom Cruise.
25. Newman had won an honorary Oscar that spring after six unsuccessful Oscar nominations. When he was nominated the following spring for 'Color of Money,' he didn't show up to the ceremony, assuming he wouldn't win after having won the career-achievement prize the year before. He was wrong.
p.s. Paul Newman did win an Academy Award in Scorsese's "The Color of Money" released in 1986;
Matt B.
Last edited:
The Color of Money (1986) Trivia
Tom Cruise did his own trick shots for the film, except for one in which he had to jump two balls to sink another. Scorsese said he could have let Cruise learn the shot, but it would have taken two extra days of practice, holding up production and costing thousands of dollars. The shot was instead performed by professional players Andrew Ghiatsidis & Michael Sigel.
Paul Newman says the best advice director Martin Scorsese gave him, especially in humorous scenes, was: "Try NOT to be funny."
When Paul Newman won the Best Actor Oscar for this picture, he and wife Joanne Woodward became the first married couple to win his and hers Oscars since Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Newman's win also came after he had already received an Honorary Oscar Statuette the previous year. The win was widely considered based on sentimentality and guilt that one of Hollywood's leading male actors had never won.
In the novel that the film is based on, Fast Eddie plays in a tournament against Minnesota Fats, who was played by Jackie Gleason in The Hustler (1961). But Martin Scorsese wanted to take the film in another direction. Paul Newman and Gleason wanted Fats to return in the sequel so the character was written into a new draft of the script. But Gleason felt that the character did not fit into the new story and declined to reprise the role.
The cue used in the film was not a genuine Balabushka, but a Joss, made to look like a Balabushka.
At the time that this movie was in release, the creators of an up-and-coming software company were looking for a name for their revolutionary new video game. They got it from the scene in which Tom Cruise walks into the pool hall and is asked what's in the case that he's carrying. His answer: Doom.
The voice explaining 9-ball is director Martin Scorsese's.
At one point in the film, Eddie comments that it has been "25 years" since he last played. In real life, it had been 25 years (1961 - 1986) since The Hustler (1961), where Newman had first played Fast Eddie.
Many top pool players of the 80's were part of the cast and/or provided assistance, such as Steve Mizerak ("The Miz") who was the hefty player Eddie beat in Atlantic City; Jimmy Mataya ("Pretty Boy Floyd"), who was accompanying Julian (John Turturro) when he saw Eddie in Atlantic City; Keith McCready, who played Grady Seasons; and others such as Michael Sigel, Ewa Mataya Laurance, (who at the time was Jimmy Mataya's wife) acted as pro shot makers and advisors who set up the shots for the actors, and Howard Vickery, the bearded man who was in the montage of people who Felson hustles.
An earlier screenplay was written by Walter Tevis, author of the novels "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money". But Martin Scorsese was not interested in doing a literal sequel to The Hustler (1961) and worked out a new story with Newman and Richard Price.
When The Hustler (1961) first came out, there was an increase in the sales of pool tables around 1961, the film apparently causing a popularizing of the pastimes of pool playing and billiards. When this sequel was first released, a similar phenomenon occurred, trade paper 'Variety' reporting, "...sales of pool tables and billiards-related supplies have leaped dramatically since the October release of The Color of Money (1986)."
While filming The Color of Money in Chicago Martin Scorsese read a review of Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy, which was the basis for the movie Goodfellas.
Bruce A. Young, who plays Moselle, the man who Challenges Vince to play when Eddie is at the motel, also plays the transvestite prostitute who arrives to Joel's house in Risky Business (1983), another Tom Cruise movie.
Legendary game developers John Carmack and John Romero revealed that this film especially the exchange between Vincent and Moselle was the main reason behind the title of the hit video game Doom and its sequels.
At one point, Eddie tells Vincent he hasn't played serious pool since before Vincent was born. In real life, Tom Cruise wasn't born until the year after "The Hustler" was released.
Martin Scorsese has said that The Color of Money is the only film he has directed that came in under schedule and under budget.
The only collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Paul Newman.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and director Martin Scorsese both share the same birthday (November 17th).
Paul Newman felt that Martin Scorsese was the right person to direct The Color of Money because he liked the way Scorsese directed Raging Bull (1980), which was based on the life of boxer Jake LaMotta, who appeared as a bartender in The Hustler (1961)
When Vincent comes to Eddie's room near the end of the movie to tell him that he let Eddie beat him, the music playing in Eddie's room is jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker performing "I'll Remember April." Two years after TCOM was made, Forest Whitaker, who also hustled Eddie in this movie, portrayed Parker in Clint Eastwood's film Bird (1988).
The first pool hall that Eddie, Vincent and Carmen go - which is out of business - was above the Lincoln Tap Room bar on the North side of Chicago. As of February 2015 the bar is still open and directly across from a Church of Scientology. They park and walk past where the church is now located. It's a strange coincidence since Cruise is very big into Scientology.
Paul Newman setup a rehearsal period before filming began.
The casino in Atlantic City was also used as a location in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, which was also released the same year as The Color of Money, which was 1986.
The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Paul Newman, Forest Whitaker and Martin Scorsese - who has a cameo in the film; and three Oscar nominees: Tom Cruise, Richard Price and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
The Color of Money was released exactly one month before Martin Scorsese's 44th birthday.
Paul Newman sent Martin Scorsese the book The Color of Money by Walter Tevis.
Director Cameo by Martin Scorsese: ala Alfred Hitchcock....... In the Atlantic City casino, the man walking a dog on a leash. The dog is Scorsese's dog Zoe. Zoe is credited in the closing credits as "Dog Walkby."
Hope you haven't been bored by this post or my last one (25 Things) ...... the Hustler is the movie that baptized me into the artful game of pool n' billiards.
Matt B.
Tom Cruise did his own trick shots for the film, except for one in which he had to jump two balls to sink another. Scorsese said he could have let Cruise learn the shot, but it would have taken two extra days of practice, holding up production and costing thousands of dollars. The shot was instead performed by professional players Andrew Ghiatsidis & Michael Sigel.
Paul Newman says the best advice director Martin Scorsese gave him, especially in humorous scenes, was: "Try NOT to be funny."
When Paul Newman won the Best Actor Oscar for this picture, he and wife Joanne Woodward became the first married couple to win his and hers Oscars since Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Newman's win also came after he had already received an Honorary Oscar Statuette the previous year. The win was widely considered based on sentimentality and guilt that one of Hollywood's leading male actors had never won.
In the novel that the film is based on, Fast Eddie plays in a tournament against Minnesota Fats, who was played by Jackie Gleason in The Hustler (1961). But Martin Scorsese wanted to take the film in another direction. Paul Newman and Gleason wanted Fats to return in the sequel so the character was written into a new draft of the script. But Gleason felt that the character did not fit into the new story and declined to reprise the role.
The cue used in the film was not a genuine Balabushka, but a Joss, made to look like a Balabushka.
At the time that this movie was in release, the creators of an up-and-coming software company were looking for a name for their revolutionary new video game. They got it from the scene in which Tom Cruise walks into the pool hall and is asked what's in the case that he's carrying. His answer: Doom.
The voice explaining 9-ball is director Martin Scorsese's.
At one point in the film, Eddie comments that it has been "25 years" since he last played. In real life, it had been 25 years (1961 - 1986) since The Hustler (1961), where Newman had first played Fast Eddie.
Many top pool players of the 80's were part of the cast and/or provided assistance, such as Steve Mizerak ("The Miz") who was the hefty player Eddie beat in Atlantic City; Jimmy Mataya ("Pretty Boy Floyd"), who was accompanying Julian (John Turturro) when he saw Eddie in Atlantic City; Keith McCready, who played Grady Seasons; and others such as Michael Sigel, Ewa Mataya Laurance, (who at the time was Jimmy Mataya's wife) acted as pro shot makers and advisors who set up the shots for the actors, and Howard Vickery, the bearded man who was in the montage of people who Felson hustles.
An earlier screenplay was written by Walter Tevis, author of the novels "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money". But Martin Scorsese was not interested in doing a literal sequel to The Hustler (1961) and worked out a new story with Newman and Richard Price.
When The Hustler (1961) first came out, there was an increase in the sales of pool tables around 1961, the film apparently causing a popularizing of the pastimes of pool playing and billiards. When this sequel was first released, a similar phenomenon occurred, trade paper 'Variety' reporting, "...sales of pool tables and billiards-related supplies have leaped dramatically since the October release of The Color of Money (1986)."
While filming The Color of Money in Chicago Martin Scorsese read a review of Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy, which was the basis for the movie Goodfellas.
Bruce A. Young, who plays Moselle, the man who Challenges Vince to play when Eddie is at the motel, also plays the transvestite prostitute who arrives to Joel's house in Risky Business (1983), another Tom Cruise movie.
Legendary game developers John Carmack and John Romero revealed that this film especially the exchange between Vincent and Moselle was the main reason behind the title of the hit video game Doom and its sequels.
At one point, Eddie tells Vincent he hasn't played serious pool since before Vincent was born. In real life, Tom Cruise wasn't born until the year after "The Hustler" was released.
Martin Scorsese has said that The Color of Money is the only film he has directed that came in under schedule and under budget.
The only collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Paul Newman.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and director Martin Scorsese both share the same birthday (November 17th).
Paul Newman felt that Martin Scorsese was the right person to direct The Color of Money because he liked the way Scorsese directed Raging Bull (1980), which was based on the life of boxer Jake LaMotta, who appeared as a bartender in The Hustler (1961)
When Vincent comes to Eddie's room near the end of the movie to tell him that he let Eddie beat him, the music playing in Eddie's room is jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker performing "I'll Remember April." Two years after TCOM was made, Forest Whitaker, who also hustled Eddie in this movie, portrayed Parker in Clint Eastwood's film Bird (1988).
The first pool hall that Eddie, Vincent and Carmen go - which is out of business - was above the Lincoln Tap Room bar on the North side of Chicago. As of February 2015 the bar is still open and directly across from a Church of Scientology. They park and walk past where the church is now located. It's a strange coincidence since Cruise is very big into Scientology.
Paul Newman setup a rehearsal period before filming began.
The casino in Atlantic City was also used as a location in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, which was also released the same year as The Color of Money, which was 1986.
The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Paul Newman, Forest Whitaker and Martin Scorsese - who has a cameo in the film; and three Oscar nominees: Tom Cruise, Richard Price and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
The Color of Money was released exactly one month before Martin Scorsese's 44th birthday.
Paul Newman sent Martin Scorsese the book The Color of Money by Walter Tevis.
Director Cameo by Martin Scorsese: ala Alfred Hitchcock....... In the Atlantic City casino, the man walking a dog on a leash. The dog is Scorsese's dog Zoe. Zoe is credited in the closing credits as "Dog Walkby."
Hope you haven't been bored by this post or my last one (25 Things) ...... the Hustler is the movie that baptized me into the artful game of pool n' billiards.
Matt B.