Tonite I was watching the film The Hustler. The all-time best film centering around the game of pool ( pocket billiards). The movie puts you in a world of seediness, gambling, hustling, sleeziness, and the psychology involved in this hustling world of a game of skill. Anyway, if you haven't seen this film, see it. Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason amazing.
So this inspired me to add a post to my blog. I haven't written in ages. For all I know I already wrote about this stuff.
When we reached 15 years old we started to go to Murray's pool room. You had to be 16 years old to get in. I am not sure if that was a law or not. We all had phoney proof to get in. Usually a whited out birth certificate copy. Murray's aka Biltmore Billiards was located above the Biltmore movie theatre. That was on New Lots Ave. and Wyona St. in East New York. The proprietor was Murray "Bilty" Finkelstein. His son Moe, was the football coach of Thomas Jefferson High School. Football champs in NYC many times.
My memory fails me as to what the business hours of Murray's were. But if you got there a half hour before the opening, you could carry the big block of ice upstairs. Yes, he had an icebox. That kept sodas cold. Refrigerators were available. Actually right across the street from Bressner's. But Murray was old school, and old, and he had an ice box. If you were lucky enough to carry the ice upstairs, you got a half-hour free time on the pool table. The cost back then was 80 cents an hour.
The tables were all lined up in a row, close to each other. They were also close on one end to the wooden wall. Up front where Murray sat, were two billiard tables. The better players loved billiards. No pockets 3 balls, tough game. I think at this pool room, the best players were Giff who made the most difficult shots imaginable. Dave the Rave who played amazingly good position. So who was the better player? Hard to say. Shotsy was also great, as was Mel the Window-washer, and Manny ( who I still see every once in awhile). Manny collects pool tables and can run 60 balls.
You could hear the sound of balls clacking. It was a sound I loved. That mixed with the scoring beads banging into each other. It was an old style pool room. It had old tables and no score keeping thing on the tables. We used wood beads on a wire, with a big bead indicating every 5th bead. The beads was used to score straight pool. All that background sound was joined in by people shouting out " Time on Bilty" or "Time off Bilty". There were lots of hustlers trying to get you into a game of rotation or 8 balls. We liked to play rotation when there were 4 of us. the person who sunk the 1 ball and the person who sunk the 5 ball were a team. The first team to get 60 points wins ( add up numbers on the balls)... 5.8.10. and 15 balls were money balls. If you sunk those you got paid for those plus if you win the game.
The tables were in good shape, all green felt, none of this crazy colored felt. Playboy Billiards downtown Brooklyn near Nevins St and Flatbush, had modern tables with colored felt and score keepers on the table. They also also allowed women to play. Murray's, didn't allow women in the pool room.They claimed it was because they only had one toilet, a Men's room. Although, I remember at one point two or three women were allowed in. Leona, Susan with the Mustang and one other. Not exactly the girls you would bring home to mama. But I liked them. They didn't play pool they just hung out.
Giff was a Murrays celebrity, not just because he was a great pool player, but he was very wild, and pretty hilarious. Crazy Lazer was another celebrity, a lot older than we were, he was famous because he did 20 years in Dannamura prison for murder or something. He was small and didn't look dangerous but his eyes had a cold, murderous look. Quite often, some New Lots Boys would play pool there. I forget who, but Joey Jet, Arnie Mandel, Sandy "sick"Schmidt, Jimmy BigHead, others played there and fights would happen. One time this glue sniffing Larry aka Dobey Dolan, got in a fight with a guy outside. He had a good move, he threw his jacket over the guys head and started pounding him. While in the pool room, a good weapon, if need be was the butt end of a pool cue. Super hard wood.
Another celeb was Izzy Knish. Izzy was older, and was a bit mentally challenged. He was harmless and a nice guy. He kind of humiliated himself all the time, to be liked by the guys. Out on Wyona Street Izzy would do a soft shoe shuffle and sing Moon Over Miami. And everyone would throw quarters at his feet. And Izzy would say, "how about more quarters for Izzy".
Murrays was where we hangout when we cut out of school. I played pool mostly with Moony, Jackie, Fuzzy, and Fish or Fatsy. But it varied a lot, depending on who was around,,,,I was a mediocre pool player,,, I think the most balls I ever ran was like 8 but I told people 14.
Curly's pool room was closer to Jefferson High School. They had a boxing ring in the back, and amateur boxers would fight and people would bet. Curly's had a mostly Hispanic clientele. But we liked to play there. It was 10 cents cheaper an hour than Murray's, only 70 cents an hour. They had two Snooker tables. These were longer than regular pool tables and the balls were smaller. 9 ball was a popular game at curly's. More room between tables. At Murray;s you had to take one of the short cues if you were on one side of the table because a regular size cue would hit the wall. Curly's also had the beads, and the hanging lights over the tables. When you left Curly's your hands would be filthy, as the felt was rarely cleaned. My friend Fuzzy liked the convenience of Curly's, since he worked at Fortunoff's. Fortunoff became a famous department store in Westbury and on 57th street in Manhattan, but Maxy Fortunoff started with pushcarts on Livonia Ave. Later moved into stores. He had about 7 stores, all next to each other, House wares, Healthcare, Bedding, etc After years a suspicious fire happened and the insurance help build the giant Westbury Dept store. He hired a guy as VP who was in a gang called the Monks and then in New Lots Boys. He saw potential in him.
Curly's was actually in Brownsville as it was on Livonia and Alabama. the far Pennsylvania Ave stop on the New Lots train #2 or 7 or something ,,, we called it the IRT 7th ave. Murray's was closer to the Van Siclen Ave stop, but it wasn't that far from Pennsylvania Ave.
Joe's pool room was on New Lots Ave. and a lot of tough guys , wise guys, hung out there.
Sometimes we would play at Marions on Eastern Parkway near Nostrand, or go into the city and play at Julian's on 14th street, or Ames. We also played near Kings Highway, a pool room with an Italian name ( can't think of it). Later on I knew people from Queens played at Golden Cue. Lots of great pool players there. My friend Tom the Sailor hustled there.
The movie brought back great memories of great times, at the pool room. Over the movie theatre that became a Church. We used to see two movies, and 5 cartoons every Saturday. Walk in to the movie that was halfway over, sit past the end and see it up to the part where we came in. People yelling at the screen. Folding popcorn boxes and throwing them into the projector light at the screen. The theaters were super dark then, so when you opened the door in daytime to let your friends in for free, the light was blinding. The matrons and ushers were mean, and had flashlights, and if you smoked in other than the last 10 rows, they would throw you out. After the movie we would go to Nino's for a great slice of pizza or a veal cutlet sandwich. Nino's was a great place. When we were younger we would stop at Judy's Sweet Shoppe for candy to bring into the theatre, since it was cheaper. Sandy would buy chicken corn aka candy corn, I would get the chocolate babies or jelly beans. The good old days.
