Wimpy’s Norfolk Years: America’s Greatest Pool Town?
Norfolk during World War II was a mecca for big-time pool. Greatest pool town ever? Johnston City you say. New York during the 1960s? Ladies and gentlemen I present for your consideration Norfolk, Virginia. During World War II the Navy town was a wonderland of gambling, top-notch pool hustling and just general pandemonium. It also was in Norfolk that Wimpy Lassiter, arguably...
Wimpy Lassiter’s World War II Coast Guard records
Pool legend Wimpy Lassiter spent most of his World War II days on one of three Coast Guard cutters operating from Norfolk, Virginia. By then the Navy had subsumed the Coast Guard for the war effort and Lassiter’s cutters — designated CG 83511, CG 74307, CG 74306 respectively — were charged with rescuing men from the ocean after German u-boat attacks. By all accounts Lassiter made for a...
Favorite Pool Halls: Allinger’s, St. Elmo, Cue & Cushion
Pool halls. Everyone has a favorite. I was partial myself to Houston’s Cue & Cushion and Costa Rica’s Center Pool. Both now are defunct. For this post I’ve reproduced a number of letters I’ve received over the years about our readers’ favorite rooms. Some were stately. Others decrepit. But all, in their way, important. At the end of this post I’ve also...
Don “Cincinnati Kid” Willis and the Big Hoorah Hustle
The two out-of-towners are relatively short men, in their thirties, the unfortunate age when the paunch begins to show. Neither carries a pool cue. They’ve appeared unannounced and unexpected in a back-water pool room, which they immediately size up. Who in here has some gamble to them? They get a table. They rack for nine-ball. They start shooting. “Remember...
Recent Comments