Recently I happened to catch one of my favorite old movies on TV — The Hustler, starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason — and it made me reminisce a little about the first time I saw it and how it affected me. The simple fact is that even though Gleason's Minnesota Fats ended up being the most memorable character in the film, for a time in those days I wanted to be Newman's Fast Eddie Felson.
When the movie came out in 1961, it helped fuel a boom in billiards, leading to a higher, more respectable profile for a sport that had previously been found mostly in smoky pool halls. At that time in my life I'd already spent a little time in a few of those places, so when fancy new billiard facilities began showing up everywhere I felt like I already had a leg up.
I practiced all the time, and even bought my own personal two-piece cue stick — which was a risky move because having your own stick could open you up to a lot of teasing if you couldn't back it up. I began playing with friends as often as I could, and found that I was holding my own, so — guys being guys — we began playing for money.
But a funny thing happened on my way to pool shark-hood. I self-destructed whenever money was involved. It wasn't that the other guys were better, but rather that I just kept missing easy shots. After learning the lesson again and again — and tolerating a lot of snickers about my personal cue stick — I retired from playing for money.
So I was no Fast Eddie — or Minnesota Fats for that matter — but as I thought about those days, my mind eventually turned to music, as it usually does. I don't remember any musical Fast Eddies, but there have always been a lot of guys named Fats in the music world, some better known than others. R&B legend Fats Domino is probably the first that comes to mind, with early jazz great Fats Waller a close second. The most unusual might have been Harmonica Fats (Harvey Blackston), a Louisiana native who took up the mouth-harp in the 1950s for therapy after a car wreck and ended up building a nice career, mostly in the Los Angeles area.
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