Evening star., 1963-05-29
SEGH ATHR0E
A New Imuqe
For Billiards
By MORRIS sIEGEL

THE FACTORY REPRESENTATIVE ADMITTED he
wasn't as familiar with the history Of billiards man
who makes his living out Of the ancient pasme should be-
but he did have the hazy notion that the game was
vented by the Chinese pre- Chou En- Lai, Of course.
And somewhere read that CONTIGUOUS used to play
pool" he sad ndorsng the notion he right when he
credited the Chinese with being the first people ever
'maSse a shot,
Even If the Chinese did invent it, and even If Con-
fucius did hang around poolrooms this certain They
wouldn't recognize the modern joints For that matter
neither would anybody else who revereny looks back
poolroom as prep school for juvenile delinquency.
Years ago the status symbol used to be TV sets"
Herman schaff the man from Brunswick explained Then
came house with a swimming pool Now it's billiard
table table in the rec that determines class"
**%%
sCHAFF PREFERRED to continue his chic approach to
the question Of why pool all of sudden enjoying big
BOOM but he reluctantly dragged into conversation
about the oldfashioned poolroom with the musty
tuary Of Minnesota Fats in THE Hustler" used as an
Illustration.
Those joints" he said obviously speaking from ex-
perience and also with newly acquired commercial
of dstaste Were trying to see those joints go out Of
business"
The Brunswick man, Indifferent to his nterviewers
resentment at his derogaoy regard for those venerable
teenage Institutions returned to his posh presentation Of
the new image
"Poolrooms no more" this fugitive from the back
room haughtly continued. To-day they regarded
clubs billiard clubs business has been written up in
Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal"
This indeed is radical departure. In the old days
the poolhalls made only the police botter or at
best, in the Hobo News.
TODAY'S POOLHALLS-pardon, cubs-are different
There's wal-to-wa carpetng drapes air conditioning
and table coverings Of purple orange beige and even
tangerne Only the old tables covered in the trad
tional green cloth.
It's practically do-t-yourseI operation too Shout
rack" and nobody knows what you're talking about You
rack the balls yourself disServce which hardly seems
in vie nf he
shmens in the order get 81 an hour and 40 cents
for each additional is minutes.
No more Of that business of nickel or dime cue
to get hustled into ball game Some country places
still charge stupid prices like so cents hour" Scha
said Indignantly ony because they can't figure any better
All they know is to base it on a penny a minute They
couldn't charge IS cents an hour because the
mathematics would kill them"
Today with the industrys new prosperity there are
10000 pool tables manufactured year. Maybe so per cent
go into homes the others into the commercial VEN
lures, usually located in bowling alleys
WHERE FOOTBALLS we're once arbitrarily placed Off
limits by themselves mlady today leads the pack
trying to bank the eight ball in the side pocket again
it's the image we're trying to convey the cue-stick
reformer said
"The billiard clubs are located on the first floor.
Nobody feels ashamed Of being there. In bowling alleys
you'll find the tables in the center Of the building where
everybody can be SEEN"
Female pool sharks it seems aren't as revolutionary
supposed "of not" schaff said, shocked.
They learned the game in World War II. Every WAVE
WAC and woman Marine barracks had pool table in the
recreation room"
And all the time thought our lady warriors did
nothing except write VMail letters in their off hours
The new layouts sound plush, especially with names
like "The Billiard Club" and Cushions and Cues" but
I've still got a hankering for the old joints.
Where else could you bet a ball game, horse even
learn how to the ignition wires automobile II
you were prepping for a career as car theft