Hustler Days: Minnesota Fats, Wimpy Lassiter, Jersey Red, And America's Great Age Of Pool
Dyer, R. A.
ISBN 10: 1592286461 ISBN 13: 9781592286461
Published by Lyons Pr, 2005
Used
Soft cover
From
Bay State Book Company, North Smithfield, RI, U.S.A.
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About this Item
Description:
The book is in good condition with all pages and cover intact, including the dust jacket if originally issued. The spine may show light wear. Pages may contain some notes or highlighting, and there might be a "From the library of" label. Boxed set packaging, shrink wrap, or included media like CDs may be missing. Seller Inventory # BSM.1ATJV
Synopsis:
Minnesota Fats was a brilliant pool player, but he was even better at lying about his past. Wimpy Lassiter, the gentleman hustler, started playing at age seven, and for the rest of his life lived for therush of victory and high stakes. Violent and determined, Jersey Red made and lost a fortune at the table.
With a passion for the game evident on every page, R. A. Dyer takes us through the smoky bars and late nights where a win was just as dangerous as a loss. He captures the game’s popularity in the thirties, its dark days in the fifties, and its renaissance and apex in the sixties, fueled by the smashing success of Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason going toe-to-toe in The Hustler. It was an era that culminated in the legendary nationally televised tournaments in Little Egypt, Illinois, where Jersey Red and Wimpy Lassiter went at it for hours. And it was an
era that ended in perhaps the most dramatic scene in all of pool. Just as Jersey Red beat Wimpy Lassiter in 1969, after a decade of bitter rivalry, the police shut down the tournament. Cameras in tow, they arrested eighty hustlers—including the new champion!
From Fats’s first showdown—in Brooklyn, with a Texas-style gunslinger in cowboy boots and revolvers--to world championship clashes,Hustler Days is a rollicking portrait of one of our national treasures.
With a passion for the game evident on every page, R. A. Dyer takes us through the smoky bars and late nights where a win was just as dangerous as a loss. He captures the game’s popularity in the thirties, its dark days in the fifties, and its renaissance and apex in the sixties, fueled by the smashing success of Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason going toe-to-toe in The Hustler. It was an era that culminated in the legendary nationally televised tournaments in Little Egypt, Illinois, where Jersey Red and Wimpy Lassiter went at it for hours. And it was an
era that ended in perhaps the most dramatic scene in all of pool. Just as Jersey Red beat Wimpy Lassiter in 1969, after a decade of bitter rivalry, the police shut down the tournament. Cameras in tow, they arrested eighty hustlers—including the new champion!
From Fats’s first showdown—in Brooklyn, with a Texas-style gunslinger in cowboy boots and revolvers--to world championship clashes,Hustler Days is a rollicking portrait of one of our national treasures.
About the Author:
R. A. Dyer is a regular contributor to the nation's premier pool magazine, Billiards Digest. He spent over four years researching this book, and conducted more than one hundred interviews. He is currently statehouse reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and before that, was a reporter for The Houston Chronicle, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas.
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Hustler Days: Minnesota Fats, Wimpy Lassiter...
Publisher: Lyons Pr
Publication Date: 2005
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: good