Which spoon would you like to be used ? We have stainless, sterling and plastic.
http://www.billiardsdigest.com/showblogentry.php?id=211
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This story came from the,
http://www.onepocket.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4551
Authored by Fred Bentivegna, aka Freddy the Beard.
The secrets died with him
Rambow made cues well into his 90's. I had many of them. I also spent a lot of time talking to the old man.
He had a million stories of all the old great players like, Hoppe, Jake Schaefer, Cochran, Layton, and others.
He had made cues for all of them. I, like Artie Bodendorfer was introduced to Rambow by his fellow German, Al Fuss.
Even though I was just a ham n' egger speed, pool player at the time, Fuss told Herman that I was a top player and
needed a cue stick for an upcoming big tournament. That was the only way you could get Rambow to rush out a cue for you.
He could knock one out in a week if he wanted to. The usual waiting time for a cue for an ordinary customer was from
four to six months.
The price for a Rambow then, was $39.95 for a cue with two shafts. He eventually kicked it up to $49.95.
The thing was, once you had a new Rambow you could immediately turn it over for a quick profit, to a variety of afficianado's
for a minimum of $100. Keep in mind, there were only 2 or 3 other cuemakers in the country at that time.
Rambow was very paranoid about his helpers ever discovering his secrets, and then taking them, and going out on their own.
He only allowed his help to work on certain projects. When it came to balancing a cue, he would go in the back, lock the door,
and do the balancing in secrecy. All I could ever get out of him was that he never used any metal to balance a cue,
only different weight woods. There are no lead weights in the butt of an original Rambow cue.
Rambow only made one type joint, and it was brass.
The billiard champions that played with Rambow cues all had to use a brass joint.
His cues all played pretty much the same, since he used the old Brunswick, Willie Hoppe house cue for his butts.
About the only input you could put into your order was the millimeter of the shaft size, and cue weight.
I haven't had a Rambow in my hand for over 30 years, so I can no longer venture an objective opinion on playability.
However, he died never revealing his secret of cue balancing. He may have had an edge there.
Another little bit of trivia: Rambow would engrave his name into your cue if you requested it,
and the ones he signed are worth a little more today. However, the most valuable cues that show his signature were
those actually done by Charles Kimmel. The difference is obvious. Charlie Kimmel was for years the official scorekeeper
for the PGA tour. He kept up the official tournament scoreboards by printing the scores in his own hand. His handwriting
was world famous, and he got big money to personally write and print things.
Rambow died in the shop. He had no brethren, and most of the stuff in the shop got thrown into the garbage.
A Chicago cop I met later who had had a downtown beat (where the shop was located on Wabash ave.), said he was called to
the death scene. The building manager told him everything but the heavy equipment was headed to the dumpster.
Mounted on the wall behind the counter were about seven old monogramed cues. They had belonged to Hoppe, Mosconi,
Johnny Layton, Schaefer, etc. The manager told the cop if he wanted them he could have them.
However, all the priceless memorabilia that filled the glass case at the counter got heaved out.
About 20 years later I met the cop at the Billiard Cafe in Chicago, and he told me the story and said he was going to try
and sell the collection, and how much did I think it was worth. I think he wanted about seven thousand dollars,
and that's as far as I go with this story. I don't know what happened to the cues after that.
Today I would have to think those cues would be worth from 50 to 100k.
Beard
