In 1955, author Walter Tevis, at the age of 28, had his billiards short story, “The Big Hustle,” published in the August 5 issue of Collier’s magazine. That tale about the rivalry between Ned Bales and the Hot Springs Babe was never adapted for the silver screen. However, his short story “The Hustler,” published in Playboy in 1957 and expanded into a novel in 1959, is a pool ball of a different color altogether. That story became the ground-breaking, billiards-blazing 1961 film The Hustler, recipient of nine Oscar nominations and widely credited with sparking a resurgence in the popularity of pool. And, of course, Mr. Tevis’ 1984 novel The Color of Money, which two years later Martin Scorsese adapted into the eponymous film, was equally impactful on the industry and lauded by pool and movie fans everywhere.
Though The Hustler and The Color of Money are the most successful screen adaptations of billiards-themed fictional works, they are not the only examples. Cedric Yamanaka’s short story, “The Lemon Tree Billiards House,” was turned into a short film of the same name in 1996. The director Francis Ford Copolla worked with author S.E. Hinton to adapt his novel Rumble Fish, which includes a decent amount of billiards, into the 1986 movie. Even Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi short story “The Billiard Ball” has been turned into a Claymation film.
All of this got me thinking: if the two most popular billiards movies are both based on adapted screenplays, and if other fictional works have also provided good source material for films, then perhaps there is a whole treasure trove of untapped novels and stories that can be equally mined for billiards gold. Therefore, I present my Top 10 Wish List for Billiards Screenplay Adaptations.[1] (Note: for the purpose of this post, I limited my scope to fiction, but there are some amazing memoirs and biographies of the sport’s most colorful characters, that warrant a separate top 10 wish list in the near future.)
“A Billiard Lesson” by A. A. Milne. Though Mr. Milne is best known as the creator of the world’s favorite anthropomorphic teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, he was a prolific writer of plays, poems, and short stories, including “A Billiard Lesson,” first published in the British literary humor magazine Punch in 1911. The short story focuses on a game of English billiards between an alleged billiards expert and Celia, his friend/student, who unwittingly wins the game without understanding at all how to play or how the game is scored.
- The Cue Ball Mystery (Series) by Cindy Blackburn. South Carolina author Cindy Blackburn does not play pool. But, Jessie Hewitt, the pool shark protagonist of the six books in the Cue Ball Mystery series, certainly does. The novels – Playing With Poison; Double Shot; Three Odd Balls; Four Play; Five Spot; and Six Easy Pockets – all focus on the intersection of Jessie’s former pool-hustling days, her current days penning romance novels and her struggling love life.
One-Pocket Man by Albert Betz. The simple fact that native Philadelphian Albert Betz writes about one-pocket from personal experience earns his debut novel One-Pocket Man a place on my list. Published in 2005, the novel focuses on Danny Bonto, a Chicago mid-level enforcer who is given a new life, identity and job by the Fed in exchange for ratting out his boss. But, in his new hometown of Philadelphia, he runs afoul of the mob while working in a local poolroom, where he also takes a teenager under his wing and teaches him the nuanced game of one-pocket.
- “The Billiard Table” by James Hall. According to Robert Byrne, author of the anthology Byrne’s Book of Great Pool Stories, James Hall’s “The Billiard Table” from 1829 is likely the first short story with a billiards theme ever published. Though the writing is rather stilted, the story is elegant in its simplicity. Mr. St. Clair, an aristocrat gifted at English billiards, loses a match and a large sum of money to a hustler. Terrified how his wife might react, he races home only to find she is no longer there, which he quickly assumes is a result of the attention he gives to the game and his neglect of her.
Do It for the Game by Robert Campbell. Reviewing Robert Campbell’s bio, it’s clear this man loves pool. He owns a pool hall in Bradford, Massachusetts. He published a monthly newspaper, “All About Pool…Everywhere.” He contributed articles to several national billiards publications. He’s been inducted into the New England Pool & Billiards Hall of Fame. And, in 2002, he published Do It for the Game, a novel about Brian Dwyer, a man down-on-his-luck who returns to his hometown and rediscovers his joy for pool and the life lessons of the game. The novel includes the usual cast of colorful hustlers (e.g., Weasel, Snake, Zig Zag), but the storytelling rings true among reviewers who have lived in his shoes.
- Sticks by Joan Bauer. The sole work on this list aimed at the Young Adult crowd, Sticks is a 2005 novel written by the highly acclaimed, Newberry Honor Medal recipient Joan Bauer. The novel’s protagonist, 13-year-old Mickey Vernon, is preparing to compete is the most important pool tournament of his life. But, to win, he must deal with a more experienced and mean rival, his mother’s rules and reservations, and the reappearance of a pool expert and family friend with a troubling past.
Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game by William Kennedy. The middle member of William Kennedy’s much-loved “Albany cycle” trilogy (which includes Legs and Ironweed), Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game centers on Billy Phelan, a small-time, Depression-era pool hustler, poker player, bowler, and bookie. As in the movie Three Card Monte, billiards comprises only a small percent of the dimly-lit, back-alley action, so it’s debatable whether this novel should be eligible for this list. But, as one might expect from a future Pulitzer Prize winner, the writing is so precise and evocative, that it’s hard to argue it’s movie material.
- “A Game of Billiards” by William Sansom. Talk about creepy. First published in 1952 in a collection of William Sansom’s work called A Touch of the Sun, “A Game of Billiards” is a short story about a narrator who is trapped in a room with a large man who imagines they are locked in a close billiards match. His oversized opponent is intense, meticulous in everything from his cue-chalking to his angles, brags about shots that will “please Mother” and yet is quite menacing whenever the narrator tries to cut short the pretend game.
Billiard Blues by Maxence Fermine. Published in 2004, Billiard Blues, by French author Maxence Fermine, is a collection of three stories that each take place in different cities, several decades apart. The first story occurs in 1930s Chicago and focuses on John Lee Hooker, years before he becomes the world-famous blues musician. Hooker attends a billiards match between Willie Hoppe, perhaps the greatest pool player ever, and Al Capone, the notoriously vicious gangster who ruled over Chicago during the Prohibition Era. Bet you’d want to be a fly on the wall for that game.
- “The Hungarian Cinch” by Bill Pronzini. The trope of Aliens on Earth is fertile ground for Hollywood, ranging from films about hostile adversaries (e.g., Invasion of the Body Snatchers; They Live) to misunderstood companions (e.g., E.T.; The Iron Giant). Bill Pronzini’s sci-fi short story, “The Hungarian Cinch” (1976), is somewhere in-between, perhaps closer to Neil Blomkamp’s genre-breaking film District 9, in which aliens co-exist with humans in a tightly regulated environment. In the story, the world’s greatest one-pocket player, Fancy Fontana, is set to play Randolph GQ-XIV, an orange-skinned, hairy-legged, extraterrestrial who has never played the game before, for $50,000. The opportunity seems to good to be a true – a rare ‘Hungarian cinch’ (in the hustler’s parlance). But, of course, competing against aliens never quite goes as planned.
So, there you have it. It’s time to pause on the sequels and punt on the reboots. Hollywood, are you taking notes? And, just in case, these ten titles didn’t stir your creative juices, I’ve included below covers from some of the other novels that I considered in curating this billiards screenplay wish list, not to mention the other 27 short stories sourced by Robert Byrne.
[1] This post would not have been possible without reading, and being inspired by, Byrne’s Book of Great Pool Stories (1995). Thank you Mr. Byrne for your research and curation.
