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A Shot in the Dark: 1909

Submitted by Dave on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 1:45pm.
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January 1909. Billiard champion Calvin Demarest in New York, seven years before his prematurely reported death. From his 1916 obituary, headlined "Calvin Demarest Dead -- Noted Billard Player Expires in Illinois Insane Asylum": CHICAGO, Feb. 22. Calvin S. Demarest, former amateur champion billiard player and later a professional, died at the Elgin Asylum for the Insane last night. Demarest suffered a nervous breakdown last June and attacked his wife with a knife. She was saved from serious injury by Demarest's mother. The billiardist was taken for treatment to a rest cure, but failed to improve and was removed to the asylum. As it turned out, Calvin was very much alive. In 1925, though, he died before his time. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

January 1909. Billiard champion Calvin Demarest in New York, seven years before his prematurely reported death. From his 1916 obituary, headlined "Calvin Demarest Dead -- Noted Billard Player Expires in Illinois Insane Asylum": CHICAGO, Feb. 22. Calvin S. Demarest, former amateur champion billiard player and later a professional, died at the Elgin Asylum for the Insane last night. Demarest suffered a nervous breakdown last June and attacked his wife with a knife. She was saved from serious injury by Demarest's mother. The billiardist was taken for treatment to a rest cure, but failed to improve and was removed to the asylum. As it turned out, Calvin was very much alive. In 1925, though, he died before his time. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

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Billiards

Submitted by mechmike on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 4:21pm.

Wealthy Kentuckian James Findley, to "Fast Eddie" Felson in The Hustler:

"I don't play pool, Mr. Felson. I play billiards."

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Calvin D.

Submitted by Deschanel on Sun, 04/20/2008 - 3:43pm.

He got da crazy eyes!

Lovely picture- the light streaming in, the man in the top hat, the graphic angular shape of the lamps make it for me.

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Pool Table

Submitted by Foy Blackmon on Sat, 04/19/2008 - 2:06pm.

I have to confess to suddenly knowing less about pool than I thought . . . what kind of pool table is that? Is it wider, are there pockets we cannot see?

[No pockets in carom billiards. - Dave]

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Eyefreak

Submitted by sjmills on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 11:33pm.

He probably fooled them into thinking he was dead the first time by using his patented eyefreak trick, as demonstrated above.

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Calvin Lives!

Submitted by Dave on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 2:00pm.

Another news item from the day of Cal's 1916 obituary:

DEMAREST, EX-CUE CHAMP, NOT DEAD

ELGIN, Illinois, Feb. 23, 1916. -- Dr. M.C. Hawley, assistant superintendent of the Elgin State Hospital, stated today that he was unable to explain reports that Calvin Demarest, onetime holder of the world's amateur billiard championship, had died. "Demarest is in practically the same condition as when he was committed here several months ago," said Dr. Hawley. "He is in bad mental condition and his case is of the type which deteriorates gradually, but we do not look for death for a long time, unless ho should have a sick spell or an accident."

[Calvin actually died in June 1925 although the news item on his funeral doesn't say what the circumstances were. - Dave]

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