In the United States, there are approximately 11.5 million baseball players of all ages. How many can name at least one professional player? 75%? Certainly, at least half, with many citing team rosters, wearing the jerseys of favorite players, collecting memorabilia about the pros, and/or talking about the legends of yesterday.
In the United States, approximately 40 million people played pool at least once in the last 3 years. How many can name a professional billiards player? 1%? Not a chance. The American Poolplayers Association (APA) has about 265,000 members. Can even 10% name one of the sport’s legends besides Willie Mosconi or Minnesota Fats (no, not the Jackie Gleason character from The Hustler)?
If you’re wondering where I’m going with this jeremiad, I’m channeling the very spot-on sentiments of Angel Levine, the director and producer behind the highly anticipated documentary Raising the Hustler. It has already taken Levine 7 years to film, costing her “every dime [she] ever had and maybe some dimes [she] hadn’t” to collect more than 600 hours of footage about the legends of pool so she can help them tell their story in their own words to a generation that is perilously close to forgetting their existence.
“I got tired of watching my legends die broke and penniless. They need to be heralded,” Levine told me in an hour-long interview in late August. “[Pool players] are looked at so poorly in this country. They’re looked at as gamblers, hustlers…Compare this to the Philippines, parts of Asia. Pool players there have a fan base.”
In a 2003 article in the Asia Times Online, Levine’s point jumped off the page: “Mention the sport of pool or billiards [in the Philippines] and you’ve tapped into something much deeper in the Filipino soul, something that is a part of the very fabric of this society…Filipinos of all persuasions will be able to tell everything you need to know about a kick shot, the break, a billiard shot and a safety shot… If a Filipino emerges victorious [at the World Professional Pool Championship], expect a ticker-tape parade in Manila.”
In fact, Levine’s lament goes beyond recognizing just the great old-timers. “Pool is dying in the US. ESPN won’t work with the men anymore…Women have to pay ESPN to be on TV. Nobody watches, nobody cares. The amateurs don’t even know who Johnny Archer is. They only know the Asian Woman [Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee].
So, Levine set out to make her documentary not only to honor her idols, but to honor her sport. And, fortunately, she is the perfect person to do it. “I grew up playing with legends of the sport in Chicago. All of the greatest players have come through or lived here, and I know most of them and could go where most couldn’t with a camera, which is why I have carte blanche access to the industry…Initially I decided to focus my documentary only on the stars around my room at Chris’s Billiards (where The Color of Money was partially filmed). It was on a smaller scale. Only after I started peeling the onion did I realize I had to start traveling. And the more I did, the more I fucking cried.”
The more stories Levine told me about the pool greats, the more self-aware I became of my own pathetic lack of knowledge about them. Leonard “Bugs” Rucker. Santos Sambajon. Riley “Jet” Johnson. Sang Lee. Freddy “the Beard” Bentivegna. The interview became a history lesson and my own personal wake-up call.
“Pittsburgh Billy” Incardona
Unfortunately, we will all have to wait a little longer to view the complete fruits of Levine’s efforts, as she recently announced that she has postponed the release of Raising the Hustler until 2015. On the positive, she just submitted a 10-minute documentary to Sundance entitled Chasing Wincardona, which is all about the great one-pocket player “Pittsburgh Billy” Incardona. (I look forward to reviewing that film in a subsequent post.)
If there is a tragic irony to Levine’s story, it is that since she started filming, 31 of her interview subjects have passed away. When she told me that, I nearly collapsed, incredulous that so many greats could fade from the annals of billiards history. But, then I also smiled, grateful that someone like Angel Levine could be so passionate and committed to make sure their stories were documented and their tales will have the chance to inspire and educate future generations of pool players.
To stay informed about Raising the Hustler, like the movie on Facebook.
