Billiards Legend Frank Taberski
Frank Taberski was born March 15, 1889 in Poland. He immigrated to the United States as a child and grew up primarily in Amsterdam, New York, before moving to Schenectady as an adult. In 1915, at the age of twenty-six, Taberski began to make a name for himself in billiards. At that young age, he became a professional billiards player and, after attending the New York City pocket billiards championship, knew that he could become a champion.…
The Cue Collection of Denny Glenn
In 1969, Denny Glenn was 18 and made a trip to New York City to ask George Balabushka to make a cue for him, the cue cost him $125.00.
Today, Glenn owns over near 800 cues, some of them the most famous cues in the world. He even owns owns the Herman Rambow cue that Willie Mosconi ran the 526 balls with back in 1954 and the Balabushka St Louie Louie played with back in the day.…
Images of the American Pool Hall Show a Man’s World of Escape and Vice
From Timeline.com – January 31, 2017
In one way or another, shooting pool has always been a leisure activity. And whether you know it as billiards or snooker, carom or pocket, the basic principles of concentration and strategy apply.
But in this country, the reputation of pool halls as shadowy dens of vice and corruption is a relatively recent development.…
The Life and Death of the American Pool Hall
From Punchdrink.com – January 23, 2015
In the 21st century, the game’s havens are once again experiencing the kind of identity crisis that often comes with age. Like the former bad boy who succumbs to a bad back and trades in his motorcycle for a Subaru, pool halls are just not as wild as they used to be.…
Scratch Those Seedy Pool Halls; Upscale Parlors Are Running the Table
From the Los Angeles Times – MARCH 14, 1993
TURTLE CREEK, Pa. —
Pool shark Denny Ayers longs for the good ol’ days when players threw punches and swung cue sticks like Louisville Sluggers, when hustlers cleaned out the wallets of suckers and toughs broke fingers of losers who didn’t pay.
“I used to stamp out my cigarette butts on the floor,” Ayers was saying the other day at Pinky’s, a venerable pool hall in this gritty mill town just outside Pittsburgh.…
Belmont Billiards: The history of a Dayton pool hall since 1925
From Dayton.com – Oct 26, 2022
Belmont Billiards was started by Pete Smith in 1925. According to his 1972 obituary, before starting the bar, Smith was one of the pioneer engineers at Frigidaire and was instrumental in setting up the Engineering Department at Moraine. He then went on to work for Crosley Radio in Cincinnati and then Gibson Ice Box in Michigan, where he helped in the development of the first electric refrigerator.…
Erasing 97 Years of Billiard History
From Michigandaily.com – January 1, 2018
Few people know that when the Michigan Union was erected in 1919, it boasted a bowling alley, bar, swimming pool, barber shop, hotel rooms and much more. Over the century since, these amenities have slowly been replaced by a computer lab, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, fast food chains and other facilities that fill today’s Union.…