Fast Eddy No. 5 Celebrates 101st

Pool Shark "Fast Eddy" Halliday celebrated his 101st birthday this week. "That's right (I was) a pool shark," Halliday told a newspaper reporter. "(And) I was pretty good. I took on all comers."

Halliday was featured on the occasion of his birthday in a recent article in the Longview (Texas) News-Journal. He has made Longview his home for the last quarter century.

To Halliday's credit, the old hustler never claims to have been THE Fast Eddy -- that is, he never claims that he was the template for the "Fast Eddy" Felson character from The Hustler & The Color of Money. Several others have made that claim or allowed it to be suggested of them.

Over the years I've come across any number of journalistic references to random Fast Eddies. I won't claim that all of these guys proclaimed they were the real Fast Eddy, although some of them did.

*There's Ronnie "Fast Eddy" Allen, the One-Pocket legend from California.

*There's Louisiana's Ed Taylor, the Bank-Pocket genius also known as the Knoxville Bear.

*There was Ed Parker from Texas.

*There's California's Ed Pelkey who died in 1983.

And of course Rudolf Wanderone made quite a career for himself claiming that he was the original Minnesota Fats. Walter Tevis, the author of The Hustler, said there's nothing to any of these claims. Speaking to columnist Ray McHugh of the Pittsburgh Press in 1983, Tevis said: "I'm weary of explaining this. Nobody believes you when you tell them you invent your own characters."


-- R.A. Dyer

Johnston City & The Jansco Brothers

Here's another Johnston City video, this one featuring trick shots by Ronnie Allen, Champagne Eddy Kelly, Weenie Beenie and others. Jim McKay from Wide World of Sports hosts. The Johnston City jamborees began with the release of The Hustler, and lasted until 1972. They were organized by George and Paulie Jansco, who also created the Stardust Events in Las Vegas. The Johnston City events were clearly the most colorful pool tournaments of the 1960s, as they brought road players from all over. The closest thing to Johnston City these days are the annual Derby City events, which features plenty of action -- but on a much grander scale. You can read all about the Johnston City events in Hustler Days.

The 1960s Hustlers' Jamboree and George Jansco's Minor League Baseball Stats

The internet is amazing. Here's a site that references George Jansco's minor league baseball stats back in the 1930s. Notice that the site references George's nickname as "Wimpy" -- which was the same handle used by Luther Lassiter. Odd. Also looks like George had a career batting average of .291. Not too shabby.

For those who don't know, George Jansco was the promoter (along with his brother Paulie) behind the Johnston City hustler jamborees during the 1960s. Lassiter dominated the colorful events, which also featured Jersey Red, Boston Shorty, Ronnie Allen, Harold Worst, Handsome Dan and of course Minnesota Fats. I've attached a YouTube video at the top of this post that features an interview with Fats at one of the southern Illinois tournaments. That's a picture of George Jansco at the upper right. You can find more historic pool videos here. (Freddy "The Beard' Bentivegna also has amassed a cool collection of online videos.) You can read more about George Jansco and his jamborees in Hustler Days.