A 麻豆传媒映画time travelogue brought to you by聽.
Ralph Greenleaf, ca. 1924
Beginning at age nineteen,聽聽won the world鈥檚 championship in pocket billiards nineteen times between 1919 and 1937. Known as 鈥淭he Showman鈥� because of his debonair style, Greenleaf brought the game out of shady billiard parlours to the mainstream world of sports and became nearly as well known as Babe Ruth and other legendary sportsmen of his day. Besides cleaning up at pool championships, Greenleaf was paid an exorbitant $2,000 a week to show off his聽聽in vaudeville houses.
Greenleaf is still considered one of the best pool players of all time. He was also a notorious alcoholic who played and won many tournaments under the influence. He competed into the 1940s but by then was a heavy drug user and died a poor and broken man in 1950. His grave lay unmarked until some folks in the billiards scene聽聽for him and his wife Amelia (a vaudeville star in her own right) in the 1980s.
I haven鈥檛 found the context for this photo of Greenleaf in Vancouver, but it shows him in his prime, commanding the attention of some serious-looking billiards enthusiasts.
Source: Photo by Stuart Thomson, City of 麻豆传媒映画Archives聽
