Weenie Beenie: A Filet in a Hot Dog World

A talk-show regular, Staton coached Van Doren (center) to stroke, to Carson's delight.

For many of the true greats - players like Steve Mizerak or Jean Balukas, for instance - pocket billiards takes hold very early on. This was not the case for Weenie Beenie, who was raised in Concord, N.C., the youngest of nine children. Concord wasn't exactly a den of vice; the town allowed neither whisky, wine nor poolrooms. So, instead of partaking in the late-night forays so common to his pool-playing contemporaries, Staton got a high school diploma, did his stint in the Air Force, and studied business at the University of North Carolina. In 1950, he migrated to Arlington, Va., where he teamed up with his oldest brother, Carl, to open a 12-by-20 foot hot-dog stand, named "Weenie Beenie."

At the time, the area's main poolroom was Michaelson's, on Ninth Street NW. There was also Brunswick's on Irving Street, or the second-floor joint over at H Street and 13th NE. Weenie Beenie eventually matched up with men like Earl Schriver and one-pocket legend John "Rags" Fitzpatrick at those rooms. He played Wimpy Lassiter and Marshall "Tuscaloosa Squirrel" Carpenter and "Big Nose" Roberts.

But that would come later, much later, because first Staton would have to play another role - and one that few national-class road players would ever admit.

First, Bill "Weenie Beenie" Staton had to play the role of sucker.

This is what happened: Staton, then 23 years old, got an 11 p.m. call at his home. It seemed that Buddy, the cook, had failed to show up for his regular shift. Keeping the hot-dog stand running was Staton's responsibility - he was, after all, a businessman - and so he went out to Buddy's favorite haunt, a nearby poolroom named Lyle's. There he found the fry-cook deep into a 50-point game of straights.

Now Staton knew nothing about pool, straight or otherwise, and so was unprepared when a man named "Woodbridge" approached him. Buddy said he needed another 15 or 20 minutes to finish up, and Woodbridge quite kindly offered to help him pass the time. Maybe $2 a game?

It all seemed so innocent.

"I lost the $55 I had with me," Staton told me back in 1998, during an interview for "Hustler Days." "I knew how to chalk up - that was about it - and he just whipped me. So I went out and bought myself a pool table, a Brunswick Anniversary table, and I practiced up. And then he whipped me again. I practiced some more, and he whipped me some more."

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