Answer: A broomstick and potatoes
Willie's father actually wanted him to join the family vaudeville team, the Dancing Mosconis. They had achieved a large measure of success playing at Ziegfeld's and the Palace Theater.
When Willie was six, his father began setting up appearances with the "Child Prodigy" for twenty-five dollars, a lot of money in 1919-1920. When he was seven, a match was setup with Ralph Greenleaf, then Champion. He lost this first match with Ralph Greenleaf, but they would play hundreds of times in the years to come.
Willie would play a few more matches but would then "retire" from pool at age seven.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: Yellow
The one ball is also yellow in the similar game, snooker, which is another popular cue sport.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: 1
The shade of yellow is virtually the same as the 9 ball, though the 1 ball lacks the same piece of white bordering that the 9 has, making the two clearly distinguishable.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: It gets spotted
Because you made a ball it is still your shot, just that the eight ball is brought back on to the table.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: Blue
The two ball is a solid in the game and is the darkest one except for the Eight ball, which is black. In 1906, Brunswick, one of the world's largest pool ball manufacturers, opened a factory in Muskegon, Michigan.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: White
The cue ball is the ball players will be hitting into other balls all game. To accidentally send it into a pocket would be considered a scratch, penalizing the player that did it.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: 14.1 continuous
Though the game was developed in 1889 and then improved on in 1910, it did not become the official championship game until 1912. For those not familiar, each time a ball is potted the player earns one point. The ball and pocket must be called before the shot. When the first 14 balls of the rack are potted and only one ball remains, it stays in that position and the other fourteen are re-racked and shooting continues. These games generally were played until one player reached 125 points.
One couldn't just enter this tournament, players had to be sponsored. Eddie Brown was sponsored by Fox Billiard Academy for the tournament, but died from peritonitis. The entry fee had already been paid when Izzie Goodman, the owner of Fox Billiard Academy, approached Willie.
Willie did not even have his own cue at this point. It wasn't until he reached Chicago, after several qualifying rounds, that he had a cue made by Herman Rambow.
Willie would come in fifth in his first tournament, but learned a life-long lesson from one missed shot. It was a match against Erwin Rudolf. Willie had the lead 124-83 with one shot to win. He missed the shot when the ball jawed in the pocket, and Rudolf ran the 42 balls need to win the match. Willie said he was a cocky youngster and learned, at a steep price, to not be careless.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: BCA: Ball in hand /straight 8: out of the kitchen
In BCA you have ball in hand except if the scratch happened on the break. Then the shooter comes out of the kitchen.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: Red
The 3 ball is a light reddish color. From 1910 to about 1930, the Ivoryline type of billiard ball was the most popular.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Triangle
Contrary to what may be popular belief, there is no official rule which mandates the balls inside the triangle are to be put in any particular order.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: Brunswick-Balke-Collender
Willie's first assignment for Brunswick-Balke-Collender was a 112-day tour with Ralph Greenleaf. He had now only played Greenleaf twice, as a youngster and then in the 1933 championship. However, he began studying Greenleaf's style and learning more strategy. By the end of the first tour Greenleaf had won 57 of their matches, Willie had won 50.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: You just call the pocket
It doesn't matter what happens as long as the ball you call gets into the pocket. You call and you hit one of your object balls first. The only time you can use a stripe into a solid or vice versa is when the table is still open.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: The casual player can actually rip the cloth of the table by trying this shot
If the cloth is properly stretched, it's unlikely but it can happen, especially when inebriation is involved as it frequently is. Breaking the cue ball with the cue is essentially impossible. The tip of the cue is generally a type of leather (or in cheap bars, plastic), and the ball is much too hard to be damaged by it (pool balls used to be made of ivory, now most are made synthetically). Jumping a ball off the table can happen, and often does, but jumping it high enough and hard enough to injure anyone while trying a masse shot is extremely unlikely. The slate does have some give to it, but denting it permanently with the cue tip isn't possible in the course of normal play.
From Quiz: Puzzling Phenomena and Facts
Answer: Purple
The four ball is a dark purple. One of the first known pool players was actually Mary Queen of Scots.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: 6
Pockets are the holes on the sides of the pool table where the player is meant to get pool balls into. If the player sends the 8 ball into a pocket before they've landed all of their other pool balls, they immediately lose the game. If they land a cue ball into a pocket, they're penalized with a scratch.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: Your opponent has ball in hand
It is considered a scratch because you did not hit your ball first, so your opponent gets ball in hand. In straight 8, your opponent plays it from where it is at.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: When you hit down on the cueball at an extremely steep angle in an attempt to curve it around an obstruction
There is a much easier variation, used by many good players from time to time, called (less obtusely) a "curve" shot. This shot is accomplished by hitting down at just a slight angle on one side or the other of the cue ball, to get it to gently curve in that direction as it rolls. The curving is caused by the spin imparted to the ball as it travels, and grips the cloth and the spin alters its path. A "masse" shot is a much more extreme version of a curve, whereby the player attempts to make the ball bend its path wildly. In most cases, it's much more practical to either just hit the ball off a rail first, or to jump it, rather than try a masse. Even the best players possess too little control over what happens to the ball during a masse shot to use it very often.
From Quiz: Puzzling Phenomena and Facts
Answer: Orange
Dart Balls were introduced in 1930, and they were "torture tested". This involved dropping them onto a steel plate from 3 floors up! At the time, it was considered to be the best ball to play with.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Green
The Ivoryline Dart Balls at the time of the 1920s and 30s, cost 19 dollars, which was quite expensive back then.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: World Pool-Billiard Association
"The association" as it is colloquially referred to, was founded in 1987. Amongst the association's executives are representatives from a wide array of countries- president Ian Anderson is Australian and his secretary Gre Leenders is from the Netherlands, for example.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: His wife disappeared
Willie had married Ann Harrison in 1941 and by now they had two children. After almost five years of marriage she left the children with a foster family and disappeared. It would be years before they would hear from her again, and Willie says he never did learn why. At this time William, Jr. was four, and Candace was two. Willie was discharged, picked up the children and moved into his father's house.
In 1953, Willie would marry Flora Marchini. Their daughter, Gloria, was born in 1954. They would stay married until Willie's death.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: Maroon
This ball is a more of a burnt sienna color. It is a decorative brown, like many woods. The Ivoryline balls set the standards for pool balls of today.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: 0
In straight 8, you can just tap the rack and it would be legal. However, in BCA you have to have three balls hit the rail or else it is a re-rack with your opponent breaking.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: Black
The 8 ball is the second most important ball in the game, besides the white ball. It is solid black with white number, and the first person to sink the black ball without scratching wins the game. If both players have sank all their balls, then they shoot to sink the eight ball.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Cue stick
Cue sticks tend to be just a bit short of 60 inches tall. Their size for competitive play is dependent a little bit on the exact game being played, but for casual play, a fairly universal height of 58.5 inches is sufficient.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: The table size was diminished
Until 1950, championship tournaments had been on ten foot tables. This meant the table was ten feet long and five feet wide. The new format tables were nine feet long and four-and-half feet wide. The size of the pockets was also increased. To compensate, matches were now 150 points instead of 125.
Willie also had to cope when both Ralph Greenleaf and Andrew Ponzi would die in early 1950.
Willie was scheduled to play against Ralph Greenleaf on March 20, but Greenleaf died of cerebral hemorrhage on March 15. He would mourn Greenleaf and said "I had learned more about pocket billiards from him than anyone else".
Andrew Ponzi died on April 11. Ponzi was about ten years older than Willie, and won the world championship title three times. He was a contender when Willie started playing pool at age seven, and over time they became both competitors and friends.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: Something has to hit a rail after you make contact with your object balls
In straight 8, there is no such thing as a safe shot but in BCA, something has to touch the rail after you make contact with one of your object balls. It doesn't matter what, it can be the cue, one of your opponents balls, or anything. This is particularly handy when you don't have a shot or a difficult shot and you try to leave your opponent rough.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: Yellow
This ball is yellow, but it isn't solid, it is striped. The balls 1-8 are solid, and 9-15 are striped. In 1940, the Ivoryline balls changed their name to Centennial balls, and those are still made today. Ivoryline balls had a reputation for being the older kind of ball. The new name meant new technology.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Pocketing a cue ball
Doing this, even if your shot was legally sound otherwise, will immediately end your turn. Your opponent will gain the opportunity to position the cue ball wherever they want on their turn.
From Quiz: The Game of Pool
Answer: 526
Willie only gives this awesome, astonishing feat one paragraph in the book, but the record has stood for over fifty years. This took two hours and ten minutes, an average of four balls per minute.
I've heard the tale of this story many times, so I'm going to veer from the book and share just a bit. Willie was at this time working for Brunswick and traveling the country providing exhibitions. When he got to the exhibition site in Springfield, the Brunswick table was an eight foot by four foot table, so, though the room had a nine foot by four-and-a-half foot table it was made by another manufacturer and the exhibition was performed on the Brunswick table. Apparently, he didn't start out to make a record. He was playing a 200 point exhibition and when he had run the 200 balls, he just kept going until he missed.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: To cut down on the arguments and make the game faster
When you play some people, the shot could be obvious but they still have to take their sweet natured time thinking it through, taking your mind off your game. I've seen a lot of pro players on Television play BCA, but my choice is still straight 8 or as some call it Bar Rules.
From Quiz: Pool: Straight 8 vs BCA
Answer: Over 500 pounds
In some cases, a pool table can weigh a LOT more than 500 pounds. There are many cheap, home-oriented models that weigh much less, but they aren't true pool tables and aren't suited to high-level play. Much of the weight of a good table comes from the slate which makes up the surface beneath the cloth, which is usually 3/4 of an inch or 1 full inch thick. The wood of the frame, which can be extremely heavy and elaborate (not to mention expensive . . . top end custom tables can cost up to $5,000 American or more, mostly for the wood-carving), can add a lot of mass as well. Never try to move a pool table, you could seriously injure yourself, not to mention the probability of ruining the difficult job someone performed of leveling it. It generally takes 2-3 experienced workmen, lifting pieces individually (the slate often comes in several pieces for ease of construction), to erect and properly level a table.
From Quiz: Puzzling Phenomena and Facts
Answer: Blue
In 1950, Centennial Balls finally had their own trademark.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Red
This ball is the same color as the three ball. In 1966, the last Ivoryline ball came off the production line. A new set replaced it, namely the Centennial balls. These balls were shinier and more glossy, and were one of the best sellers in pool balls.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Purple
In present times, the Centennial Pocket Ball is the standard of excellence in the Billiard Ball industry.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Orange
Regular pool balls of today are made of phenolic resin.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: I've Got a Secret
When Willie appeared on the show the panel had to guess his secret, which was that he had never owned a pool table. He had always played in public rooms. A few days after the show Brunswick had a table delivered which was set up in his basement.
From Quiz: Willie's Game
Answer: Green
Some upscale balls today are still made of glass, but they can chip easily unless they have a special coating.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors
Answer: Maroon
Two Canadian ice sculptors once decided to make a pool table out of ice. This set included the table, pockets, sticks, balls and a bridge. The boys did not sell that particular table, but they would make another one and sell it for four thousand dollars, if anyone was interested.
From Quiz: Pool Ball Colors