Videos, back up

Memo to those interested: My entire video and audio collection is back up again on my website. I had some brutal tech problems, but all issues have been resolved and all my old stuff is again available for viewing. All my vintage videos had been unaccessable for the last few weeks. But thru the magic of computer science everything is back to hunky-dory. There must be at least 40 videos to look at. Bunny Rogoff's Night Club Act (expurgated, audio only) is a must-listen. http://warstoriesnonebyolivernorth.blogspot.com/2008/05/bunny-rogoffs-nite-club-act-audio-feed.html.

I also have found some fabulous Ronnie Allen audios that I am going to post up in the next few days.

Beard

fred bentivegna said:

I also have found some fabulous Ronnie Allen audios that I am going to post up in the next few days.

Beard

Click to expand...

Beardmonster,

If thats the "Tropicana Bowl" audio he made about 5 years ago, I shall have to take some "skin thickener" medication to get through it,...yet again ! RA has a real gift for telling war stories...However, he NEVER lets facts get in the way of his "total" [sic] recall.

His description of our, and Richie Florence's first meeting, (circa 1961) is certainly a prime example. I think it is on segment 2 or 3, of the audios...theres about ten of them, and they are all very entertaining. When you next see him, you should chastise him, for not being as truthful and factual [sic] as you are. He is your ONLY close competitor, at telling great "War Stories".

The only discrepancies, in his re-telling of this VERY tall tale, are; (1) $$$ amounts. (normal...not a big deal)...(2) the games we played.
(It was 9 ball and Golf, on a snooker table..NOT one pocket)...(3) The spot involved. (I gave him the 2 hole and the break at golf, and he did NOT like it)...(4) He forgot the actual WINNER, in our first two encounters. (a huge deal if a guy is "sensitive".)
He elaborates about being careful not to pull any C-notes out of his pocket, when the cops stopped them on their way home...
This should not have been a problem, as I don't recall giving them ANY C-notes in their "walking stick".
(In those days, $20-30 would get you from SJ to LA, including gas, food, and booze)

Subsequent encounters, were admittedly not always so rosy for "moi",...as my one pocket game was on training wheels at that time.
He was the one, who got me hooked (pun intended) on the game, and I wasn't going to quit til' I could beat him...Finally got there...about 50 years later !

Had he publicly spread such blatent false information, regarding YOUR first encounter with him...as serious as you take your hard earned legacy...There is no doubt in my mind, you would have had him assasinated..

I have to threaten him with bodily harm, to get him to admit the truth, when he's standing right in front of me..

Its all good stuff though,...he still makes me laugh. (when I'm speaking to him ! )

The Harold Worst one

The Harold Worst one

SJDinPHX said:

Beardmonster,

If thats the "Tropicana Bowl" audio he made about 5 years ago, I shall have to take some "skin thickener" medication to get through it,...yet again ! RA has a real gift for telling war stories...However, he NEVER lets facts get in the way of his "total" [sic] recall.

His description of our, and Richie Florence's first meeting, (circa 1961) is certainly a prime example. I think it is on segment 2 or 3, of the audios...theres about ten of them, and they are all very entertaining. When you next see him, you should chastise him, for not being as truthful and factual [sic] as you are. He is your ONLY close competitor, at telling great "War Stories".

The only discrepancies, in his re-telling of this VERY tall tale, are; (1) $$$ amounts. (normal...not a big deal)...(2) the games we played.
(It was 9 ball and Golf, on a snooker table..NOT one pocket)...(3) The spot involved. (I gave him the 2 hole and the break at golf, and he did NOT like it)...(4) He forgot the actual WINNER, in our first two encounters. (a huge deal if a guy is "sensitive".)
He elaborates about being careful not to pull any C-notes out of his pocket, when the cops stopped them on their way home...
This should not have been a problem, as I don't recall giving them ANY C-notes in their "walking stick".
(In those days, $20-30 would get you from SJ to LA, including gas, food, and booze)

Subsequent encounters, were admittedly not always so rosy for "moi",...as my one pocket game was on training wheels at that time.
He was the one, who got me hooked (pun intended) on the game, and I wasn't going to quit til' I could beat him...Finally got there...about 50 years later !

Had he publicly spread such blatent false information, regarding YOUR first encounter with him...as serious as you take your hard earned legacy...There is no doubt in my mind, you would have had him assasinated..

I have to threaten him with bodily harm, to get him to admit the truth, when he's standing right in front of me..

Its all good stuff though,...he still makes me laugh. (when I'm speaking to him ! )

Click to expand...

I just landed on the Ronnie site and so far I have only got to hear the first audio. In that one he agrees with what I, AB, and many others, Eddie Kelly included, thought was the greatest player in pool, Harold Worst. Like you said, his dates are all ajumble, but his context is consistent. His version of Harold's first encounter with the top hustlers in Tampa is the same as mine, except his is a little more detailed. He was there, I wasnt. My hustling pal from Chicago, Tall Al was however, and that's where I accumulated my version. They were both in total agreement about Harold walking in and announcing he was the world's greatest 9 ball player, and would like to play any human. Opening him up with Jimmy Moore, and Harold quickly dispatching him was also what I had heard. I am going to have to peruse my old files for the story I wrote about that tourn a few years ago.
Worst next dispatched Eddie Taylor, Squirrel, and Danny Jones (I am not sure of the order). Ronnie said he also beat Wimpy a set. I had forgotten about that.
Ultimately, with good "steering" from the southern gentleman pool hustler, Weenie Beanie, Worst began to overspot those champions, and they recovered their losses. ...A couple games on the wire, the 8 ball, 2 out of three breaks, the break, etc.
Ronnie failed to mention that they were playing shootout and Worst had never played that in his life. He had always played shoot to hit it.
Ronnie was a little over generous when he said that Worst had never played pool until he was 30 years old. My recollection is that he was a pretty good pool player at 18 when Hoppe discovered him and directed him into 3 cushion.
Kelly admitted to me, at the top of his game, (he had just broken even with Lassiter in Wimpy's home pool room after playing for 5 days when he was on the road with Ronnie) that the only person on earth that he didnt think he could beat playing 9 ball was Harold Worst. He may deny he said that today, but I heard it and will never forget it.
Harold made everybody he played ca ca in their drawers. No player has ever been that frightening. They put a snooker table in Johnston City for one year in order to lure Sammy Blumenthal up from Jacksonville, Fla. to the tourn. Harold played Sammy snooker there, and the next year the snooker table was gone and so was Sammy.

Beard
Sorry to hear that Ronnie "adjusted" his memories of his early encounter with you. Just what did you expect? Me, if I get beat I dont reverse the decision, I just dont tell that story. A good photographer will only show you the pics that came out good. It would be interesting to hear RA's recollection of my bank encounter with him at Big Mama's when he pulled a notrotious claim on me to wiggle out of a $1500 set.