“Girls?,” says Steven Douglas, flabbergasted that his son Robbie lost the $50, which was intended to buy a set of golf clubs, to two female pool hustlers. It’s a bit hard to imagine for the famous father of three sons in the “Charley, the Pigeon” episode of My Three Sons.
Before digging into Mr. Douglas’ disbelief, a little refresher for those not familiar with the long-running sitcom. My Three Sons first aired on ABC in 1960, and then moved to CBS from 1965 to 1970. The wholesome comedy starred Fred MacMurray as widower and aeronautical engineer Steven Douglas who must raise his three sons, Robbie, Chip and Ernie. He is initially helped by the boys’ grandfather, but by the sixth season, which includes “Charley, the Pigeon,” the character has been replaced by Charley (William Demarest), the boys’ great uncle.
In this billiards episode from January 1966, Robbie (Don Grady) gets fleeced by two high school girls who feign ignorance of the game. Asking Robbie to explain it, he replies, “It’s a game of geometric angles, it’s a matter of velocity and angle of carom,” to which one coyly relays to the other, “I told you we could never understand it.” After questioning the use of the cue ball and then suggesting, “The white ball with the lavender stripes is so much cuter…couldn’t we use that one?,” the girls shark Robbie for his $50.
Fortunately, uncle Charley used to shoot stick when he was younger, so he impersonates a tycoon named Tex and goes down to the pool hall to give the girls a dose of their own medicine. Playing for $1 per ball, Charley promptly calls the 3 on the break, banks the 4, then does a nice masse shot that he “learned from Mr. Masse.” He caps off the game with a shot in which he uses the crease of his ten-gallon hat to serve as a bridge and pocket the ball. Beaten and dismayed, the girls fork over the $50 to Charlie, who gives it to Robbie to make things right once more. The full episode is available to watch here.
https://youtu.be/cvRs2hWos9g
Now, back to Mr. Douglas’ exclamation of disbelief: “Girls?” At its core, it’s the standard sexism one was accustomed to on television, even in our most wholesome shows. The idea that a woman could play pool was simply too much to believe.
It shouldn’t have been a total head-scratcher. Enough women were shooting billiards in the 1960s that the first national women’s billiards tournament occurred just one year later in 1967. (Dorothy Wise won it that year, and the next five years, and ultimately became the first woman elected in the Billiards Congress of America Hall of Fame.)
Lori Shampo
But, a female pool hustler? Well, such a woman was considerably more uncommon (or just undiscussed) at that time. In my research, I found scant evidence of women pool hustlers until Lori Shampo started sharking people in the 1970s. (There were other famous pool playing women, such as Jean Balukas, but most experts seem to agree that while Ms. Balukas may have been the better player, Ms. Shampo was the true hustler. As Freddie “The Beard” Bentivegna described her, “[She was the] highest rolling female pool player – probably the best for cash…. Lori was the best big-money playing woman of all time. She could play for $5,000 a set or $1,000 a game of 9-ball on the bar table….She shot good, best high, woofed good, and was fearless with a big heart…For the money and the intimidation, Lori Shampo was a female Cornbread Red, only much better-looking.[1])
Therefore, as predictable and pedestrian as the “Charley, the Pigeon” episode seems today, it was a bit groundbreaking to portray women pool hustlers in 1966.
So, the next time you watch “Pool Sharks Git Bit” (The Steve Harvey Show) or “Archie is Cursed” (All in the Family) or “Double of Nothing” (Red Shoe Diaries) or “Martin in the Corner Pocket” (Martin) or Turn the River or Virgin Pockets or Kiss Shot or a host of other shows with female hustlers, chalk your cue, ignore the cute lavender-striped ball, and tip your hat to the My Three Sons episode “Charley, the Pigeon.”
[1] Bentigvena, Freddie “The Beard.” The “Encyclopedia” of Pool Hustlers. 2013.
