Smithsonian Museum Billiards/Pool Exhibit

CocoboloCowboy said:
Anyone know the list of American 12 Cuemakers who were selected to be part of the Smithsonian Museum Billiards/Pool Exhibit. Understand the cue have been at the Smithsonian Museum almost 10 years.
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CocoboloCowboy, We may never really Know, unless the other Cuemakers submit Their letter and Deed of Gift - as Dieckman did!!! And here Why!!!

Shayt, 56, an associate curator in the museum's work and industries division whose eclectic interests ranged from yo-yos to sundials, from the development of the ivory trade to the work of cymbal-makers, died Nov. 4, 2008 of multiple myeloma at his home in Gaithersburg. Read Obituaries at links below:

Boston Globe wrote this [and I Highlighted the section about cues]___ WASHINGTON - David Shayt summed up his impact on the world in less than 100 words.

"As a museum specialist at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History," he wrote in the Washington Post for a special millennium issue, "I have added to the national collections 91 packs of Crayola crayons, two electric barber poles, 44 shoe store foot-measuring devices, a Playboy bunny outfit, 46 eggs of Silly Putty, two McDonald's french fries scoops (left- and right-handed), 40 packs of cigarettes, nine cue sticks, 135 walking sticks, and a bullwhip used by Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/11/AR2008111102483.html

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/o.../14/david_shayt_eclectic_smithsonian_curator/

In the "Blue Book of Pool Cue" Richard Black stated 10 cuemakers in Smithsonian's Museum in his Bio section.

So the number are 9, 10, 12, and 13 cuemakers???????????? Dieckman is the only, Original 12 Cuemakers, one that have actually shown proof, His cue is actually in Smithsonian Museum.

Maybe the Billiard World or AZ Members should send email to Smithsonian's Museum of American History and ask or flood them with that question!

http://americanhistory.si.edu/about/staffindex.cfm

Bob Watson

Dieckman Proof: [Need to magnified 400 or 800 to read]

!cid_002901c9c463$9d803000$0100007f@cuemaker.jpg

!cid_002a01c9c463$9d8279f0$0100007f@cuemaker.jpg
 
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Am I the only one who thinks Herman Rambow is noticeably absent from the list..

for a national museum the man who invented the modern 2 piece cue should be a shoe in..

maybe it's just me
 
softshot said:
Am I the only one who thinks Herman Rambow is noticeably absent from the list..

for a national museum the man who invented the modern 2 piece cue should be a shoe in..

maybe it's just me
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softshot! Not only Herman Rambow, but H. Martin. And Truly
Bert Schrager- since Dieckman, Paul Drexler, and Mr. Buss mention him on their website
 
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Well I think they should just build a museum for every notible cue maker..that I pick...:wink:

The reason why the guys mentioned don't have a cue in the museum is that the guy in charge of picking the cue's didn't pick their cue.

It is no wonder I shoot with Dieckman cue's look at that work. That guy is crazy good at wood working... Don't tell him I said that either "Mole".

Cues that look like that should be on display in museums...I am floored. You should see the one he just sent me. I'll probably never be able to sell it, but it's so nice, I just keep looking at it...I'll never hit a ball with it.

He only wanted 6000 dollars for it...I hope I can turn it for a profit someday soon. If I sold it for 6,001 dollars I would be happy.lol Then I could talk so much smack to him about how he under sold it to me. lol
 
JamisonNeu said:
Well I think they should just build a museum for every notible cue maker..that I pick..
The reason why the guys mentioned don't have a cue in the museum is that the guy in charge of picking the cue's didn't pick their cue.
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I disagree for the Smithsonian an institution of American history. to have an exhibit on American cue making..

You need a Rambow, and a Balabushka , or you simply don't have a collection..

no disrespect intended to any of the other cuemakers...they should ALSO be included..

but lets get real...

I thought the Smithsonian would do their homework..
 
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CocoboloCowboy said:
Anyone know the list of American 12 Cuemakers who were selected to be part of the Smithsonian Museum Billiards/Pool Exhibit. Understand the cue have been at the Smithsonian Museum almost 10 years.

I know some of the list:

Dennis Black-Texas

Ernie Gutierez-California

Jim Buss-Missouri

Thomas Wayne-Alaska

Mike Bender-Alaska

but who were the other seven?:confused:
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Has there ever been such an exhibit?
 
softshot said:
I disagree for the Smithsonian an institution of American history. to have an exhibit on American cue making..

You need a Rambow, and a Balabushka , or you simply don't have a collection..

no disrespect intended to any of the other cuemakers...they should ALSO be included..

but lets get real...

I thought the Smithsonian would do their homework..
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Softshot, I agree with the above. But at the same time,what we really need is a Cuemaker Apprentice Tree, see sample Below

Dieckman won't Toot his own Horn. But his Accomlishments along, show why he should be in Smithsonian.

cuemakers tree.gif
 
softshot said:
I disagree for the Smithsonian an institution of American history. to have an exhibit on American cue making..

You need a Rambow, and a Balabushka , or you simply don't have a collection......I thought the Smithsonian would do their homework..
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I'm sure the Smithsonian would be glad to take a Rambow and Balabushka. Are you going to donate one of each from your collection?
 
beetle said:
I'm sure the Smithsonian would be glad to take a Rambow and Balabushka. Are you going to donate one of each from your collection?
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For those concerned there is a Balabushka cue in the Smithsonian could be a Rambow as well. Along with these fine cue makers there is plans in that same exhibit to show the greatest american pool player. He used a Rambow sometimes and Balabushka at others. He has his cue in that Museum allready...before this exhibit was thought up.

Mr. Pocket billiards cue would be on display as well. If they were to ever make the exhibit happen.

http://siris-collections.si.edu/search/results.jsp?q=Billiards

This museum does respect pooll they have a ton of artwork on display. In our sports history it has been shunned here and there, but they always come back.

At one time in history, this game was completly ilegal. Now the only part that is ilegal is gambling. Imagine that the only thing that ever get's people hurt around a pool table being ilegal...lol

Jamison Neu
 
softshot said:
I disagree for the Smithsonian an institution of American history. to have an exhibit on American cue making..

You need a Rambow, and a Balabushka , or you simply don't have a collection..

no disrespect intended to any of the other cuemakers...they should ALSO be included..

but lets get real...

I thought the Smithsonian would do their homework..
Click to expand...


How do you know they do not have one or more of each, Rambow and Bushka. Notice that this cue thing started to fill in a cue case they alreeady had on hand. The cue case was one of many multiple pool and billiard items that had been left to the Smithsonian.

I am potentially heading out to DC in the next week and I intend to visit the Smithsonian. While visiting I will try to get a gander of the billiard collection talk to a curator or whoever??? If successful I will post pictures of the Smithsonian cues and other items.
 
Back from DC, I see this thread is frozen waiting for my report on the state of the Smithsonian cues and its other billiard treasures. Here is the news and it is mostly good with no bad news other than I did not see the cues.

I got in town and told the wife I wanted to check out the American History museum while we were in DC. I initially called the museum on Friday but it was closed due to the 4th so I could not speak to anyone. I decided to visit on Monday when the museum would be open and curators would be available.

On Monday I went to the Museum first thing with my son Cash. We went and check at the reception area. They put me in touch with a number for the sports area and all I got was a recorded message. I asked the receptionist if I could see there telephone directory, I found a central number which I called and spoke to an internal operator. She knew of the cues collected by David Shayt for the museum, which were donated by various makers. I thought this was positive that an internal operator was aware of this collection. I asked her who had taken over these items since Mr. Shayt had passed away. She initially stated Stacey Kluck was now in charge of the items and she gave a number.

I called that number and got voice mail for Dwight Bowers who was on vacation till later in the week. I tried the number again to make sure I had not misdialed. I did not leave a message, rather I called the operator back. She told me she had given me the wrong number and she then gave me Staceys correct number but while she was giving me that Stacey walked in to here area and she asked him about the cues. He said they were passed on to another curator at the museum. The operator gave me the current curators name, which is Jane Rodgers. Jane is a curator with the Smithsonian in the musical and sports area. I left a message with Jane's voicemail. Jane did not return my call and we came back to Indy on Tuesday. I tried her number a couple of other times but have not caught her in the office.

It seems a lot of people at the museum are on vacation this time of the year. I will try to talk to Jane, see if they have other older cues as well as the cues made for the exhibit. Perhaps get some pictures. I will see if there is a sheduled display date. Post anything else you are interested in and I will try to get the info.

PS The Smithsonian is cool, I recommend it to anyone going to DC. BTW There are lots of Smithsonian museums, the cues are held by the American history museum.
 
I recieved a call today from Jane Rodger who is in charge of the pool sticks at the Smithsonian. We had a quick back and forth on the cues while I was driving so I did not take any notes. The following is what I understand to be the status of the cues.

There is not a current planned date to show all of the cues. She would like to get them out there and this interest in them is positive. Some of the cues have been on display in the past but never all of them together. When they were displayed it was in support of other exhibits and they were used to show the fine/high quality workmanship. I could not tell you which cues were shown or when but some have been displayed in the past.

She said they did not have any Rambow's or Balabushkas or Szamboti cues that she knew of but there were other materials. There are no pool tables but they have multiple smaller items beyond these cues.

These items in the collection of the Smithsonian include multiple Mosconi items including a cue, set of balls, his personal cue ball, and some of his trophys. It seemed all of these items came together but I do not kow if Mosconi directly donated them or how it came about. After she told me what they had I told her Mosconi's cue was most likely either a Rambow or a Balabushka and some of the cuemakers such as Bill Schick could inspect the cue and tell her for sure. She knew right away that Bill was one of the custom cue makers in the collection.

They also have a vaiety of items from Billie Billing the great lady player. Their other items include racks, ivory snooker balls and other misc items are in their collection.

Back to the custom cues I asked about the possibility of getting some pictures and gave her my E-mail and she sounded like I might get something from her in the next couple of weeks.

I will continue to follow up in this thread.
 
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I remember this and had talked to 4 of the Masters Mentioned shortly after it was done. My 2 cents is that they were the orginal 12 and they donated there cues and deserve the right to have them there. Yes if some wants to donate a Gus, Buska, Rambow, Spain, Paridise,Palmer they all have a place in history as well. You could argue for James, Scruggs etc but you have 12 that are a good representation of the craftsman ship. In my humble opinion I believe that some of the 12 that are the orginals should be more highly respected. They all turn out craftsmanship that can stand and play with anybody and since it has allready been 7 yrs or longer since they donated the cues you know they have been crafting cues for better than a decade. I am surprised that more of you were not aware of this.
 
I just got this Email from Jane at the Smithsonian

I am so sorry I haven’t gotten back to you sooner. I know you called a few months ago and your note has been sitting on my desk but we have been really busy and I haven’t been able to get to your request yet. We have been moving our storage area all summer so the cues have been off limits for awhile. We are finally settling in and I will try and get those photos to you in the next few weeks. It’s been so long I just want to make sure I remember what I
M supposed to be photographing. Can you remind me what it is you want pictures of? Was it all the cues we have or just certain ones made by certain people?


I told her I would like picture of all cues especially forearms and butt sleeves. Who on here has any good advice on taking some pictures of cues and how to get best results without too much work.

Please post up any and all advice, i will forward the info to Jane and we should have pictres of the cues available pretty soon. Thanks in advance Dana in Indy.
 
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