Walter Tevis isn't the only renowned billiards hustler from Kentucky; there's also Cornbread Red (1931-2004), born in Mayfield, KY to sharecroppers during the Great Depression.
According to the book Cornbread Red: Pool's Greatest Money Player, "in a fast, thrilling and sometimes dangerous culture, Red learned the "Rules of the Road" from hustlers, gamblers, con-men and champions."
Cornbread, whose real name was Billy Burge, went on to Las Vegas and Detroit and became one of the greatest money-earning players and proposition men of all time. According to Wikipedia, when someone asked Cornbread about the highest-stakes game he ever played in, he replied that it was a Race To Six for $100,000.
Not bad for a Kentucky farmboy.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI just happened to run across your post about my father, Cornbread Red, and wanted to comment.
My fathers book, Pool's Greatest Money Player, isn't entirely accurate. There is a HUGE chunk of his life his 2nd wife (who basically oversaw the entire book project) left out. However, you were correct, my father was a Kentuckian, and was raised in Pudacha, Ky. :)
There is another older book titled: The Lions and the Lambs by Thomas Fensch that is sort of a compilation of different pool player stories which includes a chapter of my father's early life during the 1960's. The book is listed on Amazon.com but I will warn you it's quite pricey.