The term pool is generally used as the generic name for American pocket billiards. This came from the common practice of players putting a pot or “pool” of money for the winner to take at the end of a game. The game of pool became very popular in America during the 18th century, and was a popular indoor pastime up to and during the Revolutionary War. John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnett, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, Lewis Morris and other members of the Continental Congress spent much of their off time playing pool to relax and recover from the strain of putting together a government for the 13 colonies while the meetings were in recess. In fact, there is a story that Franklin was able to convince fellow Pennsylvania delegate Judge James Wilson into supporting the Declaration of Independence while playing a game of billiards during the debates about adopting the proposal. The sixth President, John Quincy Adams had his own pool table brought down to the White House from his home in Massachusetts during his presidency and was attacked for it by supporters of Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, for promoting gambling in the Executive Mansion. Ironically, Andrew Jackson was a pool player and had the reputation of being something of a pool shark as a young man. President Ulysses S. Grant was an enthusiastic player and had a pool table installed in the White House during his term as President. He often played with his close friend and principle adviser, General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was Secretary of War at the time. Frontier lawman Wyatt Earp was a skilled pool player and it was during a game of pool that he and his brother Morgan were playing that Morgan was assassinated. The incident happened during the Earp-Clanton “war” in Tombstone, Arizona in 1882. Not surprisingly, “Mark Twain” or Samuel Clemens enjoyed playing pool and played with President Grant and Bat Masterson among others during his life. During the Civil War and into the late 19th century professional pool players emerged as recognized sports heros, along with boxers, and baseball players with players like Jacob Schaefer Sr. achieving almost legendary status with their pool playing prowess. Their exploits were covered by the national press and their faces were recognized everywhere they went. They even had their images on collectible tobacco cards.
Billiards seems to have first appeared in France in the 15th century as an outdoor game for the nobility. The game was played outdoors on grassy lawns. Leather bound balls were pushed around a field with long, blunt-ended poles called maces in almost a croquet style. By the 16th century the game had moved indoors and had spread from France to Britain, Spain and Germany and all over Europe. The first billiard tables came into use about this time. The tables were covered with green cloth to simulate grass and simple wood rails were added to contain the balls. Eventually, padding was added to these walls and they became known as banks. The cue stick was adapted in about 1675 along with ivory cue balls and the balls were struck rather than being shoved. The cue ball was introduced in the mid-17th century. The first true book of rules for playing billiards appeared about this time and people from all levels of society were playing it. Women were even permitted to play but had to use the maces. When the British colonized North America they brought the game of billiards with them.
The dominant pool game in the United States in the 17th and most of the 18th century was American 4 pocket billiards. It was played on a twelve foot table with four balls, two red and two white. The term “pool hall” was first used in connection to horse race betting parlors, where bettors anted into a collective pool of money to be shared by those who bet on the winning horse. Many of these betting parlors installed billiard tables so the gamblers could have an activity to pass the time between races. Over the years the term pool hall became synonymous with billiards rather than horse racing and got the reputation as places frequented by criminals and other unsavory characters. Sixteen ball, eight pocket billiards first appeared in 1870 on the Mississippi River and within a few years became the most popular pool game in the United States and remains so to this day.
The Depression in the 1930s saw a sharp decrease in the popularity of pool and it developed a reputation as an activity for idlers, thugs, and gangsters. Willie Mosconi was the country’s top pool player in the middle of the 20th century and had a reputation as an honest and upright sportsman with legendary cue skills. During the 1940s and 50s Mosconi and his playing skills were covered in magazines and newspapers as well as displayed in movie shorts and later on television. Mosconi was a friend of Ed Sullivan and Sullivan featured him performing his trick shots on stage on his Sunday television variety show on a number of occasions. The game of pool enjoyed a surge in popularity after the movie The Hustler came out in 1961 and made a celebrity out of Rudolf “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone. Jackie Gleason portrayed a character based on Wanderone in the film and Wanderone became quite a showman himself. By the 1980s the game of pool had regained its position as one of the country’s most popular and profitable leisure time activities and participant sports.
Jeanette Lee, the “Black Widow” is one of America’s most feared and respected pool players. She was the number one ranked female pool during the 1990s and has maintained her rankings into the 2000s. She gained her nickname from her ability to absolutely devour an opponent in a game of pool. Her list of titles and accomplishments as a professional pool player is almost inexhaustible. She and her husband George Breedlove, who is also professional pool player, are residents of Indianapolis.
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