Index and Links to all the many pages on my Website

To quickly scroll thru to examine and locate the contents of my whole website click on:

http://indexandlinkstobeardstuff.blogspot.com/

16 famous player interviews,
includes 14 on video. Complete pool movie script for "Roxanne's Game."
22 Vintage pool articles from Sports Illustrated.
28 miscellaneous vintage pool videos

Five Pool Blogs:
The Beard's Forum, War Stories, The Last Days of Bugs Rucker, Secrets of a Hard Core Pool Hustler, and Pool Pics and other Memorabilia

Remembering The Fatman by Randi Givens

Surfing Internet pool forums I came across a string of posts saying that Minnesota
Fats (Rudolph Wonderone aka New York Fats) was a "B" player. For many years
stories have gone around claiming that Fatty couldn't beat his way out of a wet paper
bag. However, such fanciful rumors do not conform to my memories of seeing the
Fatman in action in Johnston City in the early 60s.

Three in the side:
I don't know if this was one of Fatty's pet banks, but I saw him make it
six times in a row warming up.

Fats made the bank above to win a $5,000 one pocket match with "Handsome Danny"
Jones who happened to be the US Snooker Champion at the time.
Fatty's next customer was World One Pocket Champion Marshall "Squirrel" Carpenter.
Fatty put Squirrel in the ditch by running three racks of one pocket in a row. Tell
me how a "B" player can run 3 consecutive racks of one pocket? People who demean
Fats never played him and probably never saw him play for big bucks.
Fats had enough speed to finish 4th in the World One Pocket Tournament in 1961.
Considering the field and the fact that Fats was almost 50 years old at the time, this
was quite an accomplishment. Despite an abundance of top players in attendance
in Johnston City, no one treated him like a "B" player. Even the best players were
wary about matching up with the Fatman. Fats was dangerous and everyone there
knew it.
Squirrel told me "Fats was a very streaky player. When Fatty got on a roll he could
beat anyone. His best game was 3 Cushion, then banks and then one pocket." When
Fats went into high gear, he became an unbeatable one-pocket-playing-machine
that made confetti out of everyone who challenged him.
The day after Bill 'Weenie Beanie' Staton won the 1972 Stardust Open, Fats beat
him so badly playing even up that Beanie couldn't breathe. Staton was in dead stroke
when the match started having just defeated the top one pocket players in the world,
but that didn't save him from a brutal beating. Fats ran the last three racks, eight and
out, to finish the session and Beanie could barely stand up. At an age when most
elite players can no longer win in professional competition, Fatty was still depriving
top players of their bankrolls.
Learning that Fats studied under 1928 World Balkline Champion, Eric Hagenlacher,
for a couple of years as a youth, should dispel thoughts that Fats was a "B" player.
Balkline demands very high levels of cue ball and object ball control to play at all
and Fats was a "good" billiard player. There is no better training to produce a
professional pool player than learning to play balkline with some authority. Fats took Hagenlacher's teaching to heart and became a professional level player in his teens.
Unlike Willie Mosconi who apparently thought of pool as a "job," Fats genuinely enjoyed competing against tough players. He loved outplaying and outsmarting elite players. Fats viewed pool as a game of wits and few opponents ever out maneuvered him.
Fatty had a huge round Humpty Dumpty body that looked like a ping–pong ball on toothpicks. According to the freight scales in Johnston City, Fats weighed in at 325 pounds.
One thing no one disputes is Fatty's appetite. He was barred from every smorgasbord and "all you can eat" joint on the planet. The owner of the cafeteria in West Frankfort, stopped Fats before he got a tray saying, "If I let you in, you'll eat me out of business." That was no exaggeration because Fats could eat two complete turkeys with the fixings at one sitting.
Fatty was the most energetic fat man I ever saw. He moved like a ballet dancer pirouetting from shot to shot. He floated around the table like a ballroom dancer light as a feather firing in ball after ball. Onlookers were often deceived by Fats babble, which was designed to lure players who should never play him into big money games. To casual observers, Fats boasting, bragging and tall tale telling were amusing, but more serious analysts recognized a deeper more insidious aspect of his chattering. After convincing victims to get down for some serious cash, Fatty's talk turned to undermining opposition confidence. What seemed entertaining at first took on a sinister tone that eroded self-assurance. On top of the words, Fats dismayed opponents by running rack after rack.
The fact that so many people think that Fats couldn't play may be a tribute to his ability as a con man or maybe the Fatman fooled people because of the erroneous notion that fat people are congenitally incompetent. The Minnesota Fats was one of my heroes and I miss him

My personal pin-up girls

The two great porn stars of the 70s, Seka and Juliet Anderson (Better known in the porn world as Aunt Peg) My old backer used to produce x-rated movies and he took me to a porn star convention and introduced me to my childhood idols, Seka and Juliet.

Vintage nostalgic Slide Shows from Bill Porter

1982 Forest Park Billiards Dayton OH. Nostalgic Slide Show set to a moving musical backdrop. 3.26 min from the famous photographer/archivist Bill Porter
One the great tourneys ran by Joe Burns and Joe Kerr. This is the tourney that
Denny Searcy broke everybody playing payball.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r9hIhAuk7Qw&feature=related


1986 Clyde Childress Memorial Tournament, Lexington KY. Slide Show with music . Efrens second tournament appearance. 2:31 min. Another significant piece from Bill Porter
Http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ryb8AJ4M-0c

The Glove's fabulous Domino shot

Gene "the Glove" Catron and his fabled Domino shot

Danny DiLiberto's Book Road player

ROAD PLAYER: The Danny DiLiberto Story
By Jerry Forsyth

A lifetime of stories from the vibrant memory of Danny DiLiberto, one of Accu-Stats Video’s most popular commentators. DiLiberto was one of the fabled road players, beginning with the Johnston City Hustler’s Tournaments. He excelled in four sports: baseball, bowling, boxing, and pool. Boxing was his first love, but his own hands could not stand the power of his blows. He was forced to quit because he punched so hard that he kept breaking the bones in his hands. Pool gave him the greatest fame and that’s what this book is about. From Las Vegas to Hollywood to the smallest towns on the most distant highways, this is the life of the roadman. A gambler’s tale in his own words. $19.95
http://www.bankingwiththebeard.com/books.html#dandbk1

Excerpt from my book, The GosPool According To The Beard:
"Most Talented Pool Player"
Probably Danny Diliberto from Buffalo, NY. Danny could run over 200 balls and was undefeated in 14 pro fights (12-0-2). Diliberto was an AA minor-league baseball player and a 200 average bowler who once bowled a perfect 300 game. Danny had a phenomenal throwing arm. He could throw a golf ball farther than anybody in the world. Danny could make a field goal on a football field with a golf ball by throwing it 100 yards through the goal-post uprights. He won the money doing that at Johnston City, IL. in the '60s. Later, he trapped the late Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle at a Fort Lauderdale bar during Yankee spring training. Danny bet Maris he could throw a golf ball farther than Roger could.
Diliberto won the bet from an amazed Maris by throwing the ball all the way across the waters of the Fort Lauderdale Causeway on Highway A1A. Roger didn't even take his turn and tried to renege and call off the bet. Danny, who had a punch that could down an elephant, stood his ground and finally got paid.
http://www.bankingwiththebeard.com/ for more outstanding pool products

Pool's Greatest Money Player - Cornbread Red

CORNBREAD RED:
POOL’s GREATEST MONEY PLAYER
by Bob Henning
This book takes the reader into the life of pool’s legendary money player. It’s action-packed, entertaining, and easy to read. An inside look at the Johnston City tournaments and the world famous big-money poolroom -- The Rack, in Detroit MI. It has received rave reviews from pool publications and other reviewers. $16.95

Excerpt from my book, The GosPool According To The Beard:
Cornbread Red liked to bet so high it put a "tremble" in his opponents stroke. Red was one of my heroes. Whenever I ran into him, I followed and hung onto him the whole time. He had me totally fascinated. Red was the master at shooting off the game ball. When confronted with a big-cheese-money-ball, Red would derisively snort, "Haw, haw," in his inimitable style, then he would increase his normally long back-stroke about another foot, and slip-stroke the shot in, with dust flying out of the back of the pocket.

http://www.bankingwiththebeard.com/books.html#cornbread1

Order from: Fred Bentivegna
445 W 27th St
Chicago, IL 60616 312 225 5514 fbentivegna@sbcglobal.net
www.bankingwiththebeard.com
for more outstanding pool products