OMG, I found another article about Ronnie Allen entitled "The Man You Love to Hate: RONNIE ALLEN."
It's written by Bill Pierce, on page 6 of the
National Tavern News, February 1984.
This little diddy will put a smile on your face, remembering Ronnie:
It was eight o'clock in the morning, and the casinos were practically empty. There was no yelling going on at the crap tables. The sound of the slot machine handles being pulled and the screams of delight had disappeared. It was the morning after the finals of the big tournament, an annual affair, and the world's greatest pool players are starting to home to real life after enjoying a week in the fantasy land of Las Vegas.
The bellboys are hurriedly bringing the luggage and gear to the awaiting cars parked in front of the hotel. The checkout counter has a long line of people, most of them with a cue stick case in their hands, waiting to be checked out.
It's been an exciting week, and win or lose, it was still a nice vacation.
Ronnie Allen and his wife Faye have just loaded their luggage, and Ronnie is counting his money. He says, "Faye, I have $700 left, and that's not enough to even get us through the month." Faye, realizing what's coming next, says, "Yes, but it will pay the rent." Ronnie says, "I am a gambler. I'm in a gambling casino, and I'll be damned if I'm going home with a lousy $700."
He walks over to the roulette table, of all things, and asks for some $5 chips and starts spreading them over the numbers. After a few turns of the wheel, he's a few hundred winner, when the croupier starts needling him, "You're Ronnie Allen the high roller, aren't you? Things must be tough for you , playing for such small stakes."
Now Ronnie thinks this guy is a real wise ass and is about to tell him so, but he is right, thinking, "I'll be here all day at this rate." So Ronnie measures his stack and spreads about half of it over the table. He hits! Time to double up. He hits again, cashes his chips in for over $10,000, turns to Faye and says, "Now we can go home and pay the rent -- and the nut."
I love this portion of the article:
Ronnie and a friend from Bakersfield, California, had arrived the early part of the week, confident that they were going to break the bank. Faye had flown in for the finals, but the big gambling had started shortly after the boys arrived.
They had tested their luck at the various games with moderate success, when they decided to try baccarat. Things were giong their way pretty good, but when their luck began to turn gold, they decide to sit it out for a while.
They were $55,000 winner and feeling pretty good. So when they came over to the bar, where Richie Flornece and I were sitting, Ronnie bought everybody a drink. When Ronnie is in a happy mood, especially at a bar, he is immediately surrounded by friends and admirers, so it was like a party withim minutes.
But that could not possibly last very long when Ronnie is flush. This time, it's the crap tables. When Ronnie and George moved to the crap tables, so did his entourage of bosoters. The pied piper was jovila, lucky, and had his fans with him, no way he coudl lose now. His hot streak only lasted about 30 minutes this time, but it was long enough to add another $30,000 to their growing bank roll.
The starts of this show and their admiring fans returned to the bar, and another party is going on, the liquor is flowing freely. When Ronnie parties, everybody parties.
Here's some data about Ronnie Allen from the article, which I will add to Wiki:
You can't help but wonder what makes a person like Ronnie Allen tick. I don't mean that derogatorily, because I admire anyone who is doing what they want to do, as long as it doesn't hurt someone else.
I'm sure a lot of you, as well as myself, have had to work at jobs that we detested, and life is too short for that. Even if you don't agree with his way of life, you have to give him credit, because he has the nerve to buck society and do what he wants to do. Wise men tell us that we are a product of our environment and association. Ronnie's early environment and association was unusual, to say the least, and undoubtedly had an influence on his philosophy of life.
Ronnie was born in Danville, Illinois, but was only there one week, as the family had to move on. His father was part owner of a carnival, and the entire family worked in the carnival, which usually moved every week.
When Ronnie was 11 years old, his father was killed, leaving his mother with the chore of raising Ronnie and his brother and sister. His mother bought a restaurant in Oklahoma City at the corner of 40th and May Avenue.
Up to this time, Ronnie has never stayed in any one school for over a week at a time. He really liked this new way of living, a home in one place, steady friends and one school all year. All the kids helped run the restuarnat, and they got along pretty well.
An old friend of Ronnie's father owned a pool room that Ronnie had to pass every day on his way to and from the restaurant, and by the time he was 14 years old, he was playing a pretty good game of pool. One day, two slickers walked into the pool room and began partying. They were buying drinks and exposing a big bank roll. Ronnie and his best buddy, Danny, had sized them up to be pimps.
Ronnie and Danny enticed them into a session of 9-ball. It turned out that the pimps were bookies, and their ability to make money did not match the boys' ability on a pool table. The final results were they would be hustlers, biggest score in their young lives, $480 to be exact. They were now big-time hustlers.
Does anybody know why Ronnie's father was killed?
