Last year Brostoski’s Honda business grossed $2.2 million, and grew so successful that his wife now runs it full time. SLATE FOR BILLIARD TABLE / SHUFFLEBOARD PLAYFIELD / BILLIARD POCKET. If the pool business ever goes completely sour, Brostoski has a cushion: In 1979, to take his mind off pool, he bought Sherman Oaks Honda, which sells Honda motorcycles and scooters. found that 21.5 million people played it at least once that year, 3 million for the first time. A 1984 survey by the National Sporting Goods Assn. Beneath the felt, they have flat, heavy slate slabs.Īlthough the pool table business isn’t what it used to be, millions of Americans still play the game. The regulation-size tables are big, roughly 50 inches by 100 inches, and heavy, about 1,500 pounds.
Regulation-size pool tables have several qualities in common, although not necessarily green felt-the felt can be any color. Gandy’s, like Golden West, is a leader in the market for higher-priced, regulation-size tables, and Gandy’s has a big share of the coin-operated market. There are roughly a dozen companies that lead the pool-table industry, and total sales of tables and supplies are about $100 million a year, according to Kim Gandy, president of Gandy’s Industries in Macon, Ga. But it doesn’t make them anymore, it buys them from Wurlitzer. Brostoski said many of his tables also go into condominium developments and trailer parks.īrunswick Corp., which says it has been in the pool table business since 1845, appears to remain the overall industry leader, selling about $10 million of mostly smaller, less-expensive tables annually. The industry now focuses on sales to facilities such as suburban recreation centers, bowling alleys, bars, colleges and military bases. Jordan Amusement & Billiards was founded in 1952 by Bob Jordan with two goals in mind: curate the best selection of unique game room products and elevate. Pool halls aren’t what they once were, however. “I’ve been playing this game since I was 8 years old,” he said. He also learned to be a pretty fair pool player. Well, your requests have been answeredWatch the video from start to finish. Brostoski spent plenty of time in pool halls as a youth and learned the business from the inside. I've been asked quite a few times to do a review of Golden West Billiards. Pool comes naturally to the portly, cigarette-smoking Brostoski, who took his cue from his father, a former poolroom operator in Long Beach. Golden West, however, is certainly among the largest in the business. “Maybe we can give something of the seventies, which was very positive to nowadays,” laughed 81-year-old Gunter Zamp Kelp, one of the three original members of Haus-Rucker-Co, which formed in 1967.Brostoski asserted that his company is “by far” the nation’s largest maker of antique-style pool tables, a claim that is difficult to verify. Indeed, amongst the whoops, laughs and gasps, visitors inadvertently become part of a game - they fight against or alongside each other depending how the giant inflatable balls fall. Visitors young and old run, jump, pass or stumble in an anarchic explosion of energy rarely seen in hushed museum halls.Īrken Museum of Modern Art, about 15 kilometers southwest of central Copenhagen, has faithfully recreated “Giant Billiard,” an installation first staged in 1970 by rebellious Austrian architect/artist group Haus-Rucker-Co.īack then, the group’s three founders believed times called for radical change - an inflatable oasis, they thought, might help break down existing hierarchies of power and create new utopian urban spaces. Three large, inflatable balls bob across a white, bouncy castle-style mattress. Golden West Billiards is ranked 3,673,219 among websites globally based on its 3,589 monthly web visitors.
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