The Return of the Hustlers by Kenny Pearlman

[PoolBum]

Thompson returned to Texas still played pool for a while after Jonston (correct spelling) City. He would of been considered a good short stop at this time. He pretty much gave up regular play after getting embarrased by "The Big Train" Stevens around the early 70's.

I always thought it was "Johnston" City.

 

[ginsu]

Johnston

I always thought it was "Johnston" City.

You are correct somehow I left out the "h".

 

[risky biz]

You ought to get plenty of comments on this.
Pearlman put more bullshit per paragraph than even Fats could deliver.
I give him A+ for imagination!


EW

Many wrong statements in that story, and much of it sounds like . . well, imaginative is a good word. "The first, last, and only" claim about the Johnston (with a T) City tournaments put on by the Jansco (with an N) brothers is wrong. There was more than one. Limousines and fur coats? Ha, ha!

 

[risky biz]

They include a piece of trivia---the earlier name of the poolroom:
"On 43rd was Elkins, later known to movie goers as “Ames,” where the movie The Hustler was filmed."

EW

I read somewhere that the setting was Ames but it was filmed at Bakers Billiards in Tampa, Florida.

 

[Matt90]

great post thanks Freddy

Just a shot in the dark but did you ever know a player from North Carolina named Keesy (maybe spelled different ) I believe his last name was Green and he ran a small room in my home town of Asheboro,NC . I have heard alot of stories about him even from Earl Strickland but he was WAY before my time .

Incredibly incorrect. Dates, places, etc. Fast Eddie Felson? No such human. Its not a bad read but there is very, very little that is factual.
I was gambling on a daily basis with Keith Thompson. Our game was onepocket with him getting 9 to 8. Keith was basically a 9 ball player. He was actually the 7 ball under all the best players there, but somehow he won the 9 ball division, and he won the all-around too, besting Lassiter and Ronnie Allen.
Side note. Keith had no clothes to wear to play in the All around. He played in hippie sandals. He also didnt have a cue stick. The cue Keith won the event in was mine. I loaned it to him, and also talked him into staying and competing. He was not even going to play, he was going to forfeit and go back to Texas, afraid that he would make a fool of himself competing with Ronnie and Wimpy. Incredibly, he wound up winning
To list all, that was brutally, factually incorrect would require pages.

Beard

Just came across flic of the stick I loaned to Keith for the finals. Its an old Joss West. I sold it about 5 years ago. That is me about 70 lbs ago.

 

[JoeyA]

Fats lived in Dowell, a village about 4 miles south of DuQuoin...
...his location wasn't far off, just the name.
I'm cutting him some slack here...he's a college kid with limited experience
soaking up a lot of the stories and fables at a pool hall.
But an interesting read.
The Fast Eddie he saw had to be Ronnie Allen, who was called that after
the Hustler came out in the early 60's.
Little Egypt is a fascinating place for pool players....worth a book.
Not far from Johnston City is Metropolis, childhood home of the great
Buddy Hall.Nick Varner spent some time there when he was young...
..it wasn't all that far from Owensborough.First met Nicky in Mount Vernon
...We used to gamble with a mining engineer called Joe Shields.

In the late 70's I walked into a room in Carbondale...saw a GC billiard table.
Got the billiard balls in a small wooden box and walked to the table....
..took one look and returned to the counter....said "Gimme some pool balls.'The owner said "Anything wrong?"
I said "Putting Mali directional nap cloth on a carom table is like
white-washing your Cadilac."

Thanx for reminding me about all this, Joey...I'm still hot....:angry::angry:

You remind me of how things are remembered and even how things are recorded. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother immigrated from Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia in the late 1800's. They both died in Galveston, TX in the Great Hurricane of 1900 along with thousands of others. Well, we've been told the story of my grandfather who survived the storm by holding onto a tree at 14 years of age and being rescued by a passing merchant marine ship (after the storm passed). You can imagine my surprise when through some genealogy research I discovered a copy of my grandfather's death certificate. It listed the country of origin of my great-grandfather as Austria as well as my great-grandmother. My great-grandfather's name was Poscualle but on the my grandfather's death certificate his name was Pasco. My great grandmother's name was Magdolena but again on the death certificate of my grandfather, it was listed as Mandalina. I found my grandfather's christening record and it listed my great-grandfather's real name and great grandmother's real name so it is not without a little smile that makes me easily imagine Ronnie Allen as a young Fast Eddie.

Thanks for the story.

JoeyA

 

[freddy the beard]

How true...

Freddy, I noticed that he wrote of Felsen that, "Felson never did much; he was a drinker and couldn't keep his game up, the last I heard he owned a pool hall in Oakland."

At least he didn't say that Felsen quit pool to work for UPS, later finding solace in getting drunk and ragging on pool legends at onepocket.org.:thumbup:

...how true! He also changed his name to McMoron to keep the hustlers from tracking him down and breaking him

Beard

For those who these last two posts dont make sense to, forget it, it aint that important.

 

[freddy the beard]

Sorry, no

Just a shot in the dark but did you ever know a player from North Carolina named Keesy (maybe spelled different ) I believe his last name was Green and he ran a small room in my home town of Asheboro,NC . I have heard alot of stories about him even from Earl Strickland but he was WAY before my time .

Would need more info. Maybe a nickname.
Beard

 

[JoeyA]

Just a shot in the dark but did you ever know a player from North Carolina named Keesy (maybe spelled different ) I believe his last name was Green and he ran a small room in my home town of Asheboro,NC . I have heard alot of stories about him even from Earl Strickland but he was WAY before my time .

Keesy could easily have been Casey.... just sayin'.

 

[Kensei]

Thompson returned to Texas still played pool for a while after Johnston (correct spelling) City. He would of been considered a good short stop at this time. He pretty much gave up regular play after getting embarrased by "The Big Train" Stevens around the early 70's. Also as Freddy pointed out this story is so wrong it would have to be completely re-written, very little truth in it at all.

I know I'm roughly a year late to the conversation, but I grew up around Keith Thompson. My mother and his wife were best friends, I say were because my mom passed away in 93. I've seen Keith's pictures from when he was younger and he looked nothing like that as far as I could remember (I'm was born in 76). Keith got pretty stacked compared to his old pics. Keith used to have this huge trophy in his kitchen that was roughly 4 foot tall, it said "The Texas Kid" on it (or something like that), obviously his pool trophy. It's really cool to look up his name and see people still remember him.

 

[JoeyA]

I know I'm roughly a year late to the conversation, but I grew up around Keith Thompson. My mother and his wife were best friends, I say were because my mom passed away in 93. I've seen Keith's pictures from when he was younger and he looked nothing like that as far as I could remember (I'm was born in 76). Keith got pretty stacked compared to his old pics. Keith used to have this huge trophy in his kitchen that was roughly 4 foot tall, it said "The Texas Kid" on it (or something like that), obviously his pool trophy. It's really cool to look up his name and see people still remember him.

Nice 2nd post.

 

[Kensei]

Nice 2nd post.

Thanks, I knew I could do it.

 

[Chip Roberson]

The Gent in NC was Keesy Clark and could and did run hundreds in his day Allen Hopkins did not like it when he tried to take him down and Mosiconni lost in an exibition to him back in the early 60's--and all he played was straight pool when he went fo a big bet---Keesy is still living, must be near 80 now--haven't seen him for almost 20 years--had ral bad phoriasis on his hands that was cured a few years ago and he got a great thrill of getting to play well again--was pretty damn good on the golf course also

 

[book collector]

Everything I have read or heard in my 45 years of playing pool has made me believe like most people , that the character Fast Eddie Felsen was based on Ronnie Allen.
Just as a side note though, I do remember a guy in the late 70s or early 80s who billed himself as Fast Eddie Felsen and did exhibitions. I am positive he ran ads in some of the billiard magazines, although I don't have mine with me at this time, to search.

 

[decent dennis]

Kinda hard to picture Omaha Fats in a tux from the pictures I've seen of him.