Postcard History

Billiards, a game that has amused players for centuries is historic in that it began as a primitive lawn game, later refined for indoor sport that reflects very notable changes in social practice and civil behavior.

To discover the ancient beginnings of the game as we know it, you would have to return to fifteenth century Europe. However, with very little effort the researcher can imagine older versions that were played by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans on lawns with sticks-and-balls, games which involved hitting objects with sticks on grassy surfaces.

Medieval and renaissance Europeans took the game indoors in the mid-sixteenth century. They called it “paille-maille” in France – a term meaning “ball and mallet” which is considered a direct ancestor of modern billiards. Since the game was initially played on grass, one early practitioner constructed tables that were often rectangular with green cloth to imitate grass.

As the game grew popular, equipment changed and improved. The introduction of leather cue tips in the seventeenth century allowed for better control and spin and ball control. By the eighteenth century, the game was further refined by standardized rules. Since the English and French have pride in themselves as rule-keepers, fierce clusters of players developed in both countries and in neighboring nations. Foremost among the rule-makers, table design, pocket size, cushions, and precise scoring systems were hot topics.

Contributing to the game’s increasing popularity were the aristocrats across Europe and by the mid-point of the eighteenth century the game crossed the Atlantic to the colonies.

In the nineteenth century new variations emerged, including carom billiards (played on a pocketless table) and pool (played on tables with pockets). These variations reflected regional preferences. In the era of new styles of play came the invention of the cue ball, eliminating the need to reposition the object ball. The cue ball simplified game play, making all competitors focus on the same ball.

The establishment of governing bodies, such as the Billiard Congress of America came in 1948.

After the world wars pool and snooker gained in popularity on both shores of the Atlantic. American pool games like eight-ball and nine-ball became immensely popular in the United States, and snooker became the first major professional table-sport in Europe.

The twentieth century saw billiards develop into a professional sport with televised tournaments and international competitions. And from there, players (both men and women) became heroes with devoted followers. The rise of competitive players like Willie Mosconi, Steve Davis, and Ronnie O’Sullivan (Davis and O’Sullivan are both English) elevated the sport’s profile worldwide. And it is here that the name Rudolph Walter Wanderone, Jr. needs to be mentioned. Wanderone who first went by the name New York Fats, adopted the name Minnesota Fats after the 1961 Jackie Gleason portrayal of a pool player who first appeared in a 1959 novel by Walter Tevis.

Fats was a large, eccentric, animal-loving, fast-talking pool hustler who, without question, lived a colorful life full of events including those real, imagined and exaggerated that left friends, neighbors, and observers wondering how a loud-mouth, obnoxious guy could be so loved and admired.

The film tells the story of a young, ambitious, struggling, self-destructive pool shark named Edward “Fast Eddie” Felson, (played by Paul Newman) who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats (Gleason). The film explores themes of winning and losing, life and love, loyalty, greed, self-respect, selling out and if we stretch the point, possible redemption.

Billiards was never a commoner’s game, notwithstanding the “pool hall” legends in the old west, for throughout the centuries, billiards became a symbol of social status around the world. Wealthy individuals established billiard rooms in their estates, and the game was associated with leisure and refinement.

To make the public think otherwise, Minnesota Fats once said, “A man who plays pool in a tuxedo would put ice cream on a hotdog.”

Today, billiards encompasses other disciplines like pool, snooker, and carom billiards, each with its own set of rules and traditions. The sport even has its own jargon. In a Pool or Billiards Dictionary – (personally, I don’t know if one does or doesn’t exist) you would find more than a thousand definitions of words used in a unique way. Some are: anchor, break, call, cue, dunk, escape, ho, kiss, miscue, nap, pot, rack and run, and hundreds more.

It would be remiss to omit the history of the next three cards:

In 1874 the nine men shown on this card, who were then known as the Billiard Monarchs of America gathered at Tammany Hall in New York City for a ten-day billiard tournament for the Championship of America.

Maurice Vignaux won the
Championship Badge.

**

Vincent van Gogh painted a scene he entitled The Night Café in September 1888. The picture shows a billiard table in the center of a room painted with bold, contrasting reds and greens.

It is sad to say that I found no evidence that Vincent was an advocate of the game.

**

In the two-score years from 1870 to 1910 Carom clubs sprung to life throughout France, some have suggested there were as many carom halls as dance halls.

The game of Carom, everyplace in the world, except France, is known as French Billiards. The game is played on a five- by ten feet table without pockets. Three balls are used: one red, one white with a red dot, and another plain white ball – the cue ball. The red ball and other white ball serve as the object balls. In play, the object is to stroke the cue ball so that it hits the two object balls in succession, scoring a carom. A carom counts one point. Scoring a carom also entitles the player to another shot, and his turn continues until he misses, when it becomes his opponent’s turn.

This card is proof of Carom’s popularity. It shows an interior view of the hall of billiards in the restaurant and café in Paris’s museum of the Middle Ages – the Cluny.

A primary scholarship in American pool should begin with a quote from Willie Mosconi that he made shortly after setting the world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition in Ohio on March 20, 1954. When asked the key to his success, he said, “Luck! The more you practice the luckier you get.”