when did tables go from 10 to 9 ft.? what were the circumstances?

Point being, what does
Bavafongoul said:
Not sure what your point is.…Ames closed more than a decade later….. in the late 60’s.
If they ever got one, the regulars at Ames would use a 7’ table for laying their jackets on.

It was pool in its glory…..right there at Times Square……W. 144th St…….it was intoxicating.
NYC never sleeps...24 hrs a day…non-stop & Ames Billiard Academy was dead center Times Square..
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Point is, what does Ames have to do with the billiards industries merger of 10' and 8' tables into the 9' tables as the officially accepted regulation size pool table? The change had nothing to do with coin operated pool tables that were not even on the market place at the time.
 
Nostroke said:
That would be west 44th St
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Yup…..Times Square encompasses W. 42nd Street to W. 47th Street…..,Broadway & 7th Avenue.
When I was in college, I worked at the New York Times helping to set type for printing the paper.

The 42nd street subway station became even a crazier place after the sun set. Nothing is quite like NY.
Ames Billiard Academy is the epitome of folklore in all 5 boroughs that likely extends across the nation.
 
garczar said:
A friend of a friend has a mint one of these: https://irvingkaye.com/spotlight/billiards/eldorado/
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They didn't get into the bar box manufacturering business until later in the 60's but was in fact vending Valley coin operated pool tables in bars long before that. The mofia used the coin drop to laundry illegal money as no one could prove how much the vending tables actually brought in, and bar owners never had a clue, they were simply given a cut of the coin count and never asked questions. Up until 1974 it was illegal for bar owners in the state of Washington to own their own coin operated pool tables, they, by law, had to be vendor owned and operated. When the laws were changed in 1974, most all bar owners purchased their own coin operated pool tables, which is why we ended up with over 23 different coin manufacturering companies selling their tables here, whereas they couldn't get sales for shit throughout the rest of the United States for the most part. USB, United, American, ATI, Murray, Irvine K, Valley, Dynamo, Eagle, Quality, Brunswick, Lola, Delta, Global, Delmo, Great American, were just some of the manufacturers that showed up in the state after the laws were changed. And yet today, they've almost all gone bankrupt but just a few, Valley/Dynamo, Global and maybe 1 or 2 others are still manufacturering today. Keep in mind, I'm not forgetting about Diamond or King Cobra coin operated pool tables, I'm referring to more than 40 years ago, and the landscape back then in the coin operated market place.
 
realkingcobra said:
They didn't get into the bar box manufacturering business until later in the 60's but was in fact vending Valley coin operated pool tables in bars long before that. The mofia used the coin drop to laundry illegal money as no one could prove how much the vending tables actually brought in, and bar owners never had a clue, they were simply given a cut of the coin count and never asked questions. Up until 1974 it was illegal for bar owners in the state of Washington to own their own coin operated pool tables, they, by law, had to be vendor owned and operated. When the laws were changed in 1974, most all bar owners purchased their own coin operated pool tables, which is why we ended up with over 23 different coin manufacturering companies selling their tables here, whereas they couldn't get sales for shit throughout the rest of the United States for the most part. USB, United, American, ATI, Murray, Irvine K, Valley, Dynamo, Eagle, Quality, Brunswick, Lola, Delta, Global, Delmo, Great American, were just some of the manufacturers that showed up in the state after the laws were changed. And yet today, they've almost all gone bankrupt but just a few, Valley/Dynamo, Global and maybe 1 or 2 others are still manufacturering today. Keep in mind, I'm not forgetting about Diamond or King Cobra coin operated pool tables, I'm referring to more than 40 years ago, and the landscape back then in the coin operated market place.
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Glenn,Can I bear my ignorance with a question I am guessing everybody here already knows? You made reference to King Cobra coin operated tables in the post above.Do you manufacture or offer modified tables? If so is there a website to check them out. I am in Tn. so logistically it may be an irrelevant question.
 
whiteoak said:
Glenn,Can I bear my ignorance with a question I am guessing everybody here already knows? You made reference to King Cobra coin operated tables in the post above.Do you manufacture or offer modified tables? If so is there a website to check them out. I am in Tn. so logistically it may be an irrelevant question.
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I use to, from 1995-2000 but switched to working with Diamond in March 2000. I merged my design into the Diamond coin operated design back in July 2000. Diamond and I working together is what brought the Diamond Smart Tables into the market.
 
whiteoak said:
Thanks.Sorry that I wasn't better informed.
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That's ok. Here are 4 8fts I built in 1997
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whiteoak said:
COOL!! Thanks,I had no idea.
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I might be the only pool table mechanic that played pool at a high level, that also manufactured a line of home style pool tables, invented my own line of coin operated pool tables, and then owned 3 different pool rooms at one time or another, before ever knowing who Diamond Billiards was.

On a side note, put me down for the Diamond ball polisher RKC 250 adhesive, Blue label rail design, the co-author of the Simonis cloth instalation DVD's with Jay Spielberg, A1-Billiards, designer of the Ridgebackrails with Kerry Rhoads, as well as a few other involvements no one is aware of.

But this is my 40th year in this line of work, and I plan on retirement sometime this year, I've done this long enough.
 
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