What Killed Straight Pool?
 |
| According to Hall-of-Famer Eddie Kelly (center), the Johnston City meets, staged by George and Paulie Jansco (left and right), deemphasized straight pool in favor of 9-ball and one-pocket. |
George and Paulie Jansco
Georgie and Paulie Jansco, the famous Johnston City money men who would usher in the modern age of 9-ball, were also among the first important promoters to heretically condemn straight pool. "A straight-pool tournament is absolutely the dullest thing known to man," Georgie once said. The brothers loved hustlers, celebrated hustling and so happily featured the hustlers' games of 9-ball and one-pocket at their famous tournaments in Southern Illinois and Las Vegas in the 1960s.
For the purposes of our discussion, I think it's important to note that the first of the Jansco tournaments came just as the sport was emerging from a prolonged slumber. When they held their first in 1961, there were no other national-class tournaments - straight pool or otherwise. Mosconi was in retirement. Faye Procita, wife of billiards legend Joe Procita, said that it would take a miracle or a patron saint to resurrect the game. Pool had been in a bad way for a long time.
But Fay Procita's miracle did come along, and it was called "The Hustler," the 20th Century Fox film that featured Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman. Ultimately, it was the Hollywood movie that magically turned Johnston City into a circus. ABC and CBS came to town, they televised the tournaments for the entire nation - but when they did, it might not have seemed the least bit odd that the so-called pool championship of the world did not exclusively feature straight pool. After all, the networks wanted to capture the rough-and-rowdy world of hustlers, not the dignified sanctum of tuxedoed champions. The networks wanted color, not elegance.
The Janscos featured 9-ball and one-pocket in addition to straight pool, because what they had to sell was gamblers - and the gamblers preferred 9-ball and one-pocket. "The Janscos didn't do anything unless it was based on money … and they favored whatever was going to be popular," says Eddie Kelly. Danny DiLiberto said Paulie Jansco eventually gave up on straight pool altogether: "It was the Janscos who were the ones to really throw out straight pool," he says.
Also consider this: It's unlikely that 9-ball ever got much air time prior to the Jansco tournaments; nowadays it's about the only pool that gets on TV, besides trick shots. The Janscos, it can fairly be said, presided over the migration from straight pool to 9-ball. They even changed the 9-ball rules to better comport with the needs of TV. The one foul ball-in-hand rule? That's all George and Paulie Jansco.
In a February 1972 edition of The National Bowlers Journal and Billiard Revue, Paulie ranted extensively against the champion's game. I've reproduced his comments below. Notice what he says about the number of entrants in straight-pool competitions and the crowd sizes relative to those of 9-ball events. Notice too that Paulie Jansco provides clear, first-hand evidence that 14.1 was on its last legs during the 1970s:
"But yet it seems that so many major tournaments played in the United States are all straight pool, where 9-ball is played all over the country. I'll bet you that, throughout the world, for every game of straight pool played, there are many 20 - or 50 - games of 9-ball. And there must be 10 games of one-pocket for every game of straight pool.
"So, straight pool is about as modern as a Model A Ford. An example is our tournament last fall - we had 46 entries in one-pocket, we had 57 entries in 9-ball, and I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel and almost muscle a few guys to get 32 in straight pool.
"And spectator-wise, 9-ball will draw three times the crowds that straight pool will, because everybody understands 9-ball - they know that if you make ol' yeller, you win. But straight pool is strictly an exhibition game.
"Of course, a lot of people think straight pool is the only pocket billiards game, but in reality, if you go west of Ohio, you'll hardly ever see a game of straight pool played. The only places people play a lot of straight pool in this country are north of Virginia, and east of Ohio."
Previous Page Page 4 Next Page
>
Top
Subscribe to Billiards
Digest Magazine and get full featured stories like
this every month
Top
|
