California One Pocket Story

lll said:

beatle
thanks for opening up some. i (we ) do like to vicariously live by all of you members that share your stories.. adventures.

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Larry here's part of my old days - and I might have crossed paths with beatle....

beatle....Small world - we might have been at Ye Billiard Den on the same day - or else you were there a coupla years after me...

I lived in L.A. and hung around Ye Billiard Den for the the winters of 1969 and 1971 - had a lot of fun hanging around that room - lots of girls and lots of action - and it was real convenient for me in '69 cuz I lived just 1 block away from the poolroom at 915 Kings Road....I'll never forget that address cuz it was a kickass place I had there - I rented/lived in what used to be the gardeners cottage in the back of a huge mansion, right next to the mansions tropical swimming pool....a wealthy Italian race car driver lived in the mansion and it was non-stop girls and cocaine parties going on...between going to his parties, snapping off some of his hotties, and having the poolroom one block away, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...I've got pics from there/then - maybe I'll post some up....


- Ghost

One Pocket Ghost said:

...I've got pics from there/then - maybe I'll post some up....


- Ghost

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Please do Ghostie.... The statute of limitations has well expired by now Some of us very much enjoy the photos from the past.

Ghost, I didn't know you had been a drug-crazed party animal. I didn't go to YBD too often in '69-'70. The action was over my head. I lived way up at the top of Laurel Canyon in those days. My haunts were Chopsticks Billiards and Tiff Payne's in North Hollywood. I frequented Big Momma's for awhile when Coke and Ronnie Allen had it.

In retrospect I wish I'd have gone to YBD more often, but everything was more expensive there, especially the beer. I was around at the same time as you and Beard. I'm sure I saw y'all in there.

Doc

One Pocket Ghost said:

Larry here's part of my old days - and I might have crossed paths with beatle....

beatle....Small world - we might have been at Ye Billiard Den on the same day - or else you were there a coupla years after me...

I lived in L.A. and hung around Ye Billiard Den for the the winters of 1969 and 1971 - had a lot of fun hanging around that room - lots of girls and lots of action - and it was real convenient for me in '69 cuz I lived just 1 block away from the poolroom at 915 Kings Road....I'll never forget that address cuz it was a kickass place I had there - I rented/lived in what used to be the gardeners cottage in the back of a huge mansion, right next to the mansions tropical swimming pool....a wealthy Italian race car driver lived in the mansion and it was non-stop girls and cocaine parties going on...between going to his parties, snapping off some of his hotties, and having the poolroom one block away, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...I've got pics from there/then - maybe I'll post some up....


- Ghost

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Ghrost,

We'd love to some see pic's...but puhleeeeze, make sure you are fully clothed in all of them...even a swim suit shot of you, would be very, very scary...

Papie

gulfportdoc said:

Ghost, I didn't know you had been a drug-crazed party animal. I didn't go to YBD too often in '69-'70. The action was over my head. I lived way up at the top of Laurel Canyon in those days. My haunts were Chopsticks Billiards and Tiff Payne's in North Hollywood. I frequented Big Momma's for awhile when Coke and Ronnie Allen had it.

In retrospect I wish I'd have gone to YBD more often, but everything was more expensive there, especially the beer. I was around at the same time as you and Beard. I'm sure I saw y'all in there.

Doc

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Doc.....Yep, I partied real hard in L.A. for awhile there - I remember some of it, lol...

I mostly just went to YBD...I did go out to Tiff Payne's a coupla times because that was the 3cushion poolroom and I figured I might be able to tempt somebody to get out of line.....cuz I had my real long hippie hair and hippie clothes and they wouldn't believe that a hippie could play good 3cushion - they found out different......needless to say, I wasn't looking to play Alan Gilbert though, lol.

- Ghost

PS, Doc, I looked pretty much just like you back then...

that place had a lot of east coast players that had moved to california. thats why the place was tough to win in as most east coasters didnt go off too bad unless they thought they were stealing or shooting at a big score. although that applies to any place but anyplace else you can win big just from those players that cant quit a loser.
i got lucky as one day cuban joey came in and he knew me well and ignored me and didnt knock me to anybody, as well as didnt try to cut in or strong arm me for a gapper. at the time he wasnt all that flush and i always respected him for that. and of course his raw nerve in the things he did, like bank robbery.

Cali, papie, Doc, guys, I don't have my old pics in my computer files - I gotta dig em' up and scan a few...but here's one I do have in the computer...it's a pic of a rare old favorite t-shirt of mine from my t-shirt collection...check it out Doc, I bet I might be the only person to have one of these - it's been in my closet for 40 years...I showed it to Jay Helfert once and he got a kick out of seeing it...here ya go >>>


- Ghost

One Pocket Ghost said:

Cali, papie, Doc, guys, I don't have my old pics in my computer files - I gotta dig em' up and scan a few...but here's one I do have in the computer...it's a pic of a rare old favorite t-shirt of mine from my t-shirt collection...check it out Doc, I bet I might be the only person to have one of these - it's been in my closet for 40 years...I showed it to Jay Helfert once and he got a kick out of seeing it...here ya go >>>


- Ghost

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ghost looks brand new and size small/medium. does it still fit???

One Pocket Ghost said:

Doc.....Yep, I partied real hard in L.A. for awhile there - I remember some of it, lol...

I mostly just went to YBD...I did go out to Tiff Payne's a coupla times because that was the 3cushion poolroom and I figured I might be able to tempt somebody to get out of line.....cuz I had my real long hippie hair and hippie clothes and they wouldn't believe that a hippie could play good 3cushion - they found out different......needless to say, I wasn't looking to play Alan Gilbert though, lol.

- Ghost

PS, Doc, I looked pretty much just like you back then...

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Ghost, here's a picture of me taken at a concert in Chicago in 1968. A portrait of the young artist... ~Doc

gulfportdoc said:

Ghost, here's a picture of me taken at a concert in Chicago in 1968. A portrait of the young artist... ~Doc
View attachment 854

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you look very focused on your task

gulfportdoc said:

Ghost, here's a picture of me taken at a concert in Chicago in 1968. A portrait of the young artist... ~Doc
View attachment 854

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I LOVE it, Doc. Thanks so much for sharing.

gulfportdoc said:

Ghost, here's a picture of me taken at a concert in Chicago in 1968. A portrait of the young artist... ~Doc
View attachment 854

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SJDinPHX said:

Ghrost,

We'd love to some see pic's

Papie

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CaliRed said:

Please do Ghostie....Some of us very much enjoy the photos from the past.

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Well, I went through all of my old pics and I'm mad because I can't find one of my favorite pics...it's the only one I have that was taken inside Ye Billiard Den, and it was of me playing 'Brooklyn Butch' 9ball - in the pic, I'm shooting and because I'm not missing often enough to suit Butch, he's giving me his famous tush-hog glare - I didn't really have to worry though, because luckily, Butch liked me......

Anyway, here's a couple of pics for now...one pic is of me standing inside my 'pad' behind the mansion, just around the corner from the Billiard Den....the other pic is taken at the one and only Irv's burgers, straight across the street from the Billiard Den - Irv's is an L.A. landmark - best burgers in L.A. and it's still there....sitting on the stools are three regulars from the Billiard Den...

The brother on the left with the afro played and hustled pretty good - his name was Winston...I forget the guy in the middle's name...and the girl was the daughter of an L.A. movie producer and her name was Amy.


- Ghost

hey ghost i think i remember you. you played good then. no i didnt play you but i did take off winston real good some time later on. he seemed to have plenty of dough then. and lost more than once.
how could you play butch as he was ready for a fight all the time over the smallest issue.

beatle said:

hey ghost i think i remember you. you played good then. no i didnt play you but i did take off winston real good some time later on. he seemed to have plenty of dough then. and lost more than once.
how could you play butch as he was ready for a fight all the time over the smallest issue.

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This isn't Dale (the Beatle) from Baltimore is it? He was a good player who hung around Ye Billiard Den for a year or two. I found out later he was AWOL from the Army. We just called him The Beatle and he played pretty salty 9-Ball, until Jimmy Marino showed up and busted him.

That is Winston in the photo above, a pretty sharp hustler. The guy in the middle looks a lot like Jimmy Marino. That is exactly how he looked back then - long stringy black hair and blue denim all the way. He snuck around L.A. real good back in the 60's. Jimmy would lay low in Venice Beach for months (getting high naturally), and then show up somewhere and bust someone. The only guy who ever got the best of Jimmy was Richie Florence, but he beat everyone back then for the cash.

The girl looks familiar, one of the Den's regulars. A lot of young hippy chicks hung out in there. I was too into pool to have time for them though (with a couple of exceptions of course). The Ghost and I must have met in there, because I was there so much. We might have played back then. I played anyone and everyone who wasn't an established champion. I know it's bragging, but I beat a million guys who came into the place. The Ghost might have been one of them.

P.S. I ate at Irv's at least 3-4 times a week.

Ghost, I seem to vaguely remember you from that photo. Where's your glasses??? Didn't need 'em then?

Doc

One Pocket Ghost said:

Well, I went through all of my old pics

Anyway, here's a couple of pics for now...one pic is of me standing inside my 'pad' behind the mansion, just around the corner from the Billiard Den...


- Ghost

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ghost the pic of you i saw before but now has vanished like a ghost

beatle said:

hey ghost i think i remember you. you played good then. no i didnt play you but i did take off winston real good some time later on. he seemed to have plenty of dough then. and lost more than once.
how could you play butch as he was ready for a fight all the time over the smallest issue.

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beatle....three reasons I could play Butch...

1. We would just play cheap and pretty much break even.

2. I was just a young skinny hippie kid - so I was so far below him on a fighting level, that it would have been too much of a joke for him to fight me.

3. But most of all, it was because Butch liked me - I was his 'token' hippie friend, and mainly he liked me because we had an ethnic bond - I was a fellow Italian....but Butch used to like to get on my case: Butch of course was Old School style = back then, while everybody else in the L.A. summertime was wearing bluejean cutoff shorts, tie-dye t-shirt and sandals, and had long hair...Butch had short slicked back hair, and would only be wearing black dress pants, a short sleeve dress shirt and black dress shoes - mafioso style, lol....so Butch would always be saying to me - "C'mon, what the fuk kind of Italian are you with that fag hair and clown clothes - you're embarassing me, I oughta slap you - get a fukkin haircut and dress right wouldya please"...and I would try and mollify him by telling him that my look was good for the hustle and also how it was getting me more cute hippie chicks than I could handle...


- Ghost

I'm picking up a strong SVB-vibe off this pic? Is it a fluke or did the hippie-ghost kinda resemble him?

mosconiac said:

I'm picking up a strong SVB-vibe off this pic? Is it a fluke or did the hippie-ghost kinda resemble him?

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You never hustled through So. Dakota did you Ghost?

I never made it to Ye Billiard Den much, although I was in action quite a bit in those days. I only lived about 15/20 miles away but the players came to me over in Rosemead/El Monte. I did play Butch some snooker there once. I had him 3 games stuck for $5 a game & when I found out what could happen if he found out I was hustling him, he won three in a row and we quit friends.

I did spend some time at Hollywood Billiards, The House of Billiards at 6th/Western and Romy's at 4th/Main from the late 50's to the 80's, before I moved to No. Calif.

jay helfert said:

I know it's bragging, but I beat a million guys who came into the place. The Ghost might have been one of them.

P.S. I ate at Irv's at least 3-4 times a week.

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More likely, I was one of the ones you didn't beat......


- Ghost

mosconiac said:

I'm picking up a strong SVB-vibe off this pic? Is it a fluke or did the hippie-ghost kinda resemble him?

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Fuggedabout it mocconiac....back in the day, I was way better looking than SVB...he could give me the orange crush playing 9ball, but trust me, back then I coulda gave him at least the 5 and the breaks when it came to scoring with the ladies......


- Ghost