Ma Barker
Ma Barker
androd said:
I've told these stories before. Camp told me pool was a nice little game to make enough money to try to do something with. He told me he and fats beat each other, but he was loser to Fats overall. He also told me a couple of Great stories about Fats. He told about going on the " Queen Elizibeth" to England to play Joe Davis. Eddie Taylor said Camp'd play one game for all he had and always played his very top speed. I personally saw him beat Weenie Beanie 9 in a row for $200 a game. Camp had gained a lot of weight and had to stand sideways to shoot, so Beanie offered him 9/8 and went to get his cue. Camp had $60 dollars and borrowed $140 on his watch from Tex. Fitzgerald. Beanie came back and said $100 or $200. Camp said $200 would be good.
Rod.
Good that you knew Marcel Camp too. Camp is long dead, but he was an all-time great. He knew Onepocket as good as anybody alive. A great character and a great money player. He bet his own money and always carried his total bankroll on his person. If he had 20k, it would be in one big lump in his pocket. When he got lucky at the track, he might have from 10k to 25k in his pocket.
At the Congress Bowl in Miami, where he finished his career, Camp had gotten old and plump, and Fats would call him Ma Barker because of his resemblance to the 30s female desperado. He had 1 suit and 1 pair of shoes and I'm guessing 2 shirts and 2 pair of socks.
He, unlike Fats, was not a very snappy dresser. He wore a suit all the time, but it was made by Dunlap. "Done all it could, but now its lapping over." You could clock his bankroll by his dress habits. A new shirt meant 5k. New shoes was 10k plus.
He could also eat Fats' speed. Camp got gotten himself barred from every pitch-till-you-win, all-you-can-eat joint in South Florida. Once him and Fat Wes (450lbs) walked into one of those buffet joints and didn't get past the front door. The owner told Camp, "You've got to be kidding." Bottom line, is he deserves HOF, but it probably won't ever happen. That's why I was so insistent about Fats, because his peers, Gene Skinner and Camp have little chance of making it.
Beard