At the Swanee in February I noticed that the cloth on many of the tables was not in good condition. I distinctly remember Jay working on a few of them practically having to sew holes closed on some of the cloth. I had wondered why such a highly regarded place would fall behind in the cloth department but now I know - this was in the works.
Maybe the place wasn't doing well. Were pool players supporting it? A friend of mine was there last Friday night with his girlfriend around 8:30 - 9 and said they practically had the place to themselves. Huh?
While I liked HB, I considered it a good, but not great, pool hall. Reasons being they do not open until 5PM, the table lighting is not very good, they don't use premium ball sets (I don't think) and the balls are not kept that clean. No snooker and no 3C. And not much action. The tables themselves are excellent (when they have good cloth on them), the rail is very good and they have good food.
Now, the OLD Hollywood Billiards was a great pool hall. In the basement of an office building it reminded me of the legendary Bensinger's in Chicago (in it's later location) in that regard. Open all night on the weekends, excellent equipment, lots of action, snooker and carom tables. The place just had a certain feel to it. We used to close HOB in Sherman Oaks on Friday and Saturday nights and head out to HB to play until 8-9AM.
Those were the days - young, dumb, and full of ....