What Wer The 'Gimmick" Products in The Old Days?

Kickin' Chicken

Kickin' Chicken

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I see the sport of golf and am amazed at the speed with which newer, supposedly better, products are being marketed at Joe Golfer. After all, with a Big Bertha you were supposed to drive 'em like John Daly, right?

So, as it relates to pool, would Willie have made 530 if he had an LD shaft?

We have chalk with version numbers like when more updated software becomes available, there's layered tips, clear tips, ld this and finger slide that. There are banking aps, kicking aps and on and on. Would any of these kinds of things mattered to Irving or Luther?

Well, I really don't know that answer but I do wonder about the following:

Aside from tip choices and cue brands that were available back then, were there other items being marketed that seemed 'gimmicky' like what we see nowadays?

best,
brian kc
 
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My friend was going on about his app for bank shots when we were playing. I came across a bank shot in the middle of my run and asked him for his phone, with the bank shot app open so I could try it out. I put my cue down on the table and his phone down next to the cue and just stood there. He asked me what I was doing and I told him his app obviously didn't work, it didn't make the bank shot at all.
 
We had lots of them, all crap. I have seen spring-loaded cues, 5-piece cues, rubber tips that supposedly require no chalk, and so many Aiming Devices that I cannot count them all.

We have also had round tables with a hole in the middle and L-Shaped tables.

There are a lot of what I would consider 'gimmicks' out there at the moment, but I do not want to start a war so I will let you folks list those.
 
Aluminum cues, 1960s. I still have my father's.
A mace without the club end was probably a gimmick when it first came out too.
 
In golf and in pool I think a lot of the training devices can be gimmicky or derivative of stuff that came before. The swing jacket in golf comes to mind. Peter Jacobson used to endorse it. It was supposed to keep your swing more compact. I tried it out when someone brought one in to the driving range once. Absolutely ridiculous. Nobody would want to try to hit a golfball that way. As far as pool is concerned I remember seeing something called a masse tip. Now this wasn't a tip you would have someone glue on to your cue. It was an attachment that went over the tip of your cue and it looked like it was made out of rubber and it was supposed to help you do crazy masse shots. It wasn't really a training aid, and the blurb that went along with it let you know it wasn't for use in games but I still thought it was ridiculous.
 
Sometimes the "gimmicks" stick....

Remember that at one time, all of the following mainstays of the game were "new gimmicks":

Leather tips
Ferrules
Two piece cues
Rubber butt cushions
Rubber cushion rails
Slate table beds
Ball returns
Resin balls (consistent density and shape!)
High speed cloth
Gloves
Tip shapers
Laminated shafts (some say still a gimmick, but I'm not in that camp)

So I say, let the gimmicks keep coming. You never know what the next must-have thing will be.
 
Shaft said:
Remember that at one time, all of the following mainstays of the game were "new gimmicks":

Leather tips
Ferrules
Two piece cues
Rubber butt cushions
Rubber cushion rails
Slate table beds
Ball returns
Resin balls (consistent density and shape!)
High speed cloth
Gloves
Tip shapers
Laminated shafts (some say still a gimmick, but I'm not in that camp)

So I say, let the gimmicks keep coming. You never know what the next must-have thing will be.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point. A lot of people mocked the big drivers in golf too, but really that's just one of many advancing technologies that changed the game particularly for average (read bad) golfers.
 
back in the day

salesman was trying to sell me the next hot thing, a water proof pool table that floated in my swimming pool, so i could cool off and play pool at the same time.
 
I remember the Dr. Popper (think that's the one) which was like a cross between a jump cue
and a rubber baton. Had a really thin flexible shaft that easily bent away from the cue ball.
I think they rushed to ban it because if you think today's jump cues make jumping too easy,
this thing would give you conniptions.

I think gloves for the grip hand will be relegated to the dustpile, whereas gloves for the front hand
are undeniably useful.

I predict finger bridges that let you easily bridge over a ball may catch on.
Though there will be much crying if a guy uses them in conjunction
with a jump cue to hop a ball an inch away in the middle of the table.

At one point the slug doctor seemed like a gimmick to me, but the basic idea was sound
and it just needed the right implementation to catch on hugely.

It seems to me that a good fold-up portable rack like the old dead "Wing Rack" concept
may also be waiting for its time to shine. Purists who won't use a magic rack
(understandable in the case of 1 pocket) need something they can bring in to replace
the cheap pool hall triangles, something that's not as bulky as a full delta-13 for example.
A delta-13 that folded/collapsed into a single bar that fits inside your case pouch would be perfect.
 
If someone has this stated this idea before, I apologize...but what about a device that cuts off the sides of chalk? So like when you start getting a hole in your chalk and when you chalk you end up getting your ferrule messy.
 
Old day gimmicks I remember are rubber cue tips, cues made of fiberglass (barf!), a repair machine called "The Callabrese" and an outdoor billiard table.
 
One of the worst ideas I saw was a GC-1 and Anniversary corner pieces that were
also ashtrays.
The Brunswick designer who thought that was a good idea......
....needs the rainbow crush fron an APA three.
 
Jerry Forsyth said:
We had lots of them, all crap. I have seen spring-loaded cues, 5-piece cues, rubber tips that supposedly require no chalk, and so many Aiming Devices that I cannot count them all.

We have also had round tables with a hole in the middle and L-Shaped tables.

There are a lot of what I would consider 'gimmicks' out there at the moment, but I do not want to start a war so I will let you folks list those.
Click to expand...

i remember the rubber tips, wow they were horrible.

the 5 piece cues were just the best, LOL
 
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