It was much more refined than were Ames' or Paddy's. Many of the men were executives, who wore suits and ties. Their tables were in pretty fine condition back then.Īfrican-American women would bring the balls to your table, uncover it, turn on the lights, serve coffee, etc. The bathroom was OK and nobody spit on the floor. I never saw him without a cigar between his teeth. Cigar John was the houseman during the day. McGirr's had beautiful wooden individual cue lockers lined up along the walls and big wire clothing baskets on rollers under the tables. One time, Eddie Taylor stopped by and fooled around, showing some bank trick shots. I think that several years later he was accused of inappropriate behavior with children. He usually wore a fancy ascot under his collar.
#BILLIARDS HALL 7TH STREET TV#
There was another actor, African-American, who starred on a children's TV show, who name I can't remember. I saw Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, and Jerry Orbach play there. Johnny Irish was there, half-sleeping on a wooden chair. Abe Rosen was a fixture on the front billiards table. McGirr's moved there around 1956 and I began visiting around 1960. Jack Dempsey's Bar was upstairs, on the street level. I was approached several times to buy gold bracelets, rings and watches.Īcross town, on the West Side, was McGirr's, which was downstairs at 45th Street and Eighth Avenue. It was also a hotbed for swag jewelry and watches. Very few road players left Paddy's without having their bankrolls lightened. I remember that I tried not use the bathroom at Paddy's. There was a horrible brass spittoon near the houseman's desk. Wooden floors, worn out and covered with cigar and cigarette butts. They served coffee and some snacks, but had no tables where you could sit down, so everybody had to juggle their food, coffee, cigarettes, cues, and clothing. A lot of guys played with their winter coats on because they were afraid of somebody stealing them from under the table.
There was no place to hang up your coat, so players rolled them up and stuck them under the pool table when they were in action. Tommy the Hat was also the part-time houseman here during the graveyard shift. Sometimes women would be present for these sessions. When the uptown NYC pimps found their way upstairs to Paddy's it became a feeding frenzy. It was 24-7 at Paddy's in the '60's.the room where real action usually began after midnight. They had 6x12 snooker, 5x10 pocket and 3-cushion, and 9 foot tables. The regulars there were the stuff of pool legends: Jersey Red, Johnny Ervolino, Brooklyn Jimmy, Deano, Boston Shorty, Slim, Richie From The Bronx, Snag, Blood, Country, Staten Island, Rockaway Abe, Flaco, Miami, Agusatate, etc. But, I used to catch a glance of the topless dancers before I walked upstairs to Paddy's. I couldn't get in because I was under aged (18), and looked like I was about 12 years old. The Metropole featured topless dancers on top of the bar, wearing nipple pasties, and some pretty fair jazz players. Ames provided no powder because of the cleanup.Īmes raised their hourly rate after "The Hustler" from about $1/hr to 1.50/hr.īy that time, most of the action had moved over to Paddy's 7-11 Club, which was above the Metropole Cafe on Seventh Avenue and 48th Street. The lights on the tables were all dark until you got to the table and then he turned them on. He time-stamped a card, wrote down the table #, and gave it to you. Tommy the Hat, who appeared in "The Hustler", was the daytime houseman, and sat inside a wire cage. The nicer front tables were covered with a black cloth when not in use. It was usually very dark back there because those tables were rarely in use. I remember they had toward the back of the room a lonely red Coca-Cola machine, dispensing those very small glass bottles of Coke. They had nothing but pool and billiards tables. One flight upstairs at 160 West 44th Street near 7th Avenue.
#BILLIARDS HALL 7TH STREET MOVIE#
I went there a few times right after the movie came out in the Fall of '61. Ames Billiard Academy in NYC, the poolroom featured in "The Hustler".
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