Ernie Presto's Rambow cue on Ebay

mr3cushion

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I can't tell you how much I appreciate this info! He was the closest person in my life other than my parents.

I'm not going to go into details, I'm not a whiner or knocker! But, this and the MOST elaborate Rambow I'd ever seen was were left to me, when He passed. I was denied them by the family, I can only assume from the Ebay ad, the family member passed and here it is!

I thought I was just about getting over Freddy, and this is another reminder to me of a day I'd wished would never come.

I'll try and see if I can get more details than what are posted.

Thank you VERY much, Pal!
 

mr3cushion

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Bruce; I'm not too well versed on Ebay, How can I contact the seller, by, Email, phone whatever. If you can help, I would appreciate it!

Thanks;
 

NH Steve

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Bruce; I'm not too well versed on Ebay, How can I contact the seller, by, Email, phone whatever. If you can help, I would appreciate it!

Thanks;

If you go to the item page on eBay you can click on the seller's name, and one of the options that comes up is "Contact" . It is not really direct contact because eBay is trying to discourage sellers and buyers connecting directly in case eBay gets cut out of the transaction, so you have to use a form and have to join eBay I think. Sometimes a seller will include some contact info in their listing somewhere, or at least their own website link, and you can sometimes find a contact that way. Good luck!

PS did you notice I stumbled on a small Ernie Presto cue image in the thread on here about the Willie Hoppe cue?
 

mr3cushion

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Shortstop; This was the cue I was referring to RE: Most fancy Rambow! Too bad they don't show the rest of the cue, had more rings and bulls eyes below the wrap.

View attachment 10423

Breaks my heart just to se it now! Also joyful too, haven't thought about Ernie in awhile, it made me think a little of our wonderful times together! I joined Ebay, but, could not get any info on how to contact the seller or buyer!

That cue was made in 1947, it was a gift from ALL of Ernie's employees for his 40th birthday. He was the head engineer for Cook County, He built ALL the expressways in the Chicago area. Also during WWII, He was once again the head engineer and took his entire crew with him to Alaska. They built the "Alcan Highway" Ninety percent of his crew were Danes or Swedes, Ernie was Swedish. He told me a story about how cold it was up there. They had a HUGE 30 foot thermometer in the camp, it got SO cold for a few days up there, that this thermometer got stuck at 65 BELOW ZERO and stayed there for a week! Everyone that worked up there used to drink a Quart of booze a day, just to stay warm!
 
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mr3cushion

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They show about 10 pictures, just click on "see original listing".

Don; When I first saw, (1972) this cue it was still in the "Brown paper" wrapping that it came from Rambow. Ernie NEVER used this cue! THIS IS A FACT! The family members must of abused this cue, NOT knowing what they had. It's a total shame the condition the cue is in NOW. Makes my stomach turn!
 

Jimmy B

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That guy seems to sell a little bit of everything. I followed several links from different places and came upon a great story called 'The Boys At The Billiard Cafe' that takes place there when Presto was 81, by a Kitry Krause. It was a fantastic read to me. It's sort of long but I couldn't think of stopping until I had read it all. Ernie and Marvin and a fellow Gilbert, with his book, are the main players. Tony Amendola and Milt Shaw, a player who had glaucoma-also featured. In comes a player Jerry, who wins a couple of games, and they quit him because he wouldn't lag at exactly the same time. I burst out laughing at that one. Pancho is in the story along with a Bob Nelson a magician's magician, who invents tricks. While the story is taking place in the cafe, they get word that one of their confederates, Paul, had passed away. Worth a read for sure...

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-boys-at-the-billiard-cafe/Content?oid=872167
 

mr3cushion

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Messages
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From
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That guy seems to sell a little bit of everything. I followed several links from different places and came upon a great story called 'The Boys At The Billiard Cafe' that takes place there when Presto was 81, by a Kitry Krause. It was a fantastic read to me. It's sort of long but I couldn't think of stopping until I had read it all. Ernie and Marvin and a fellow Gilbert, with his book, are the main players. Tony Amendola and Milt Shaw, a player who had glaucoma-also featured. In comes a player Jerry, who wins a couple of games, and they quit him because he wouldn't lag at exactly the same time. I burst out laughing at that one. Pancho is in the story along with a Bob Nelson a magician's magician, who invents tricks. While the story is taking place in the cafe, they get word that one of their confederates, Paul, had passed away. Worth a read for sure...

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-boys-at-the-billiard-cafe/Content?oid=872167


I started to read it, it's just too emotional for me, right now. I will say one thing about it, the girl that did the interviews seemed to portray the "Old" billiard players in a NOT so flattering way. Ernie and most of the others didn't care much for it.

About the sentence of me being barred, Frank's Mother, (Anita) was an REAL "Old School" German woman. If she cracked a smile her face would fall off. I hate to say this, but, she didn't get along with many people at all, and I was definitely NO exception!

One of the "Patriarchs" of " Bensingers" was Lee "Reno" Keplacki. He took guys like me, Artie and even Freddy under his wing. Well, by the time the Billiard Café was up and running, Reno was in pretty bad health and didn't play too much, he would just sit around and "BS" and drink coffee. And most of the time added a little libation to the caffeine mixture!

Well, this didn't set well with Frank's Mom, and she was always giving Reno a hard time, "If you're not going to play and just sit around and drink and cough, just go home!" After a few weeks of this treatment of Reno, she barred him from the room. That was ALL Reno had left was to go to the Billiard Café everyday. It seemed like only a couple of weeks later and Reno died, and I know he just gave up because he had nowhere to go any more to be with friends.

I got REAL pissed and read her the riot act about barring Reno and such, Frank didn't like the way I spoke to his mother, (I don't blame him) but, I did and I was barred for awhile. Actually, until they had a 3C tourney there. I didn't win that tournament, maybe the 1 or 2 I didn't in Chicago. I was going thru and extensive court case at that time, so my mind wasn't really on the game. But, I did come in third and had high run of "16" against George Ashby ! I think I still have a photo of Frank handing me the checks, BTW, He wasn't happy about it either! And that's the facts!

Here's a photo of me and George and Frank behind the counter!

View attachment 10424
 
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