50s Cent Gets New Owner

Feb 23, 2011

This was my own personal 1950s Brunswick Centennial nine-foot pool table that I had set up in my home. I acquired five of these pool tables, two 5 x 10 Centennial carom tables, and two Valley coin-op pool tables about 20 years ago. My former client, a pool hall owner from Santa Ana, CA was closing his doors for good. Right Road Billiards was located on Fourth Street near the railroad tracks. It had been in operation for about forty years, these tables were original to the pool hall. Except for the two Valley coin-op pool tables which were from the late ’70s.

In the late ’90s my mentor, John Campbell, and I completely restored two of the Centennial pool tables and sold one of them to an Orange, CA tractor salesman. I delivered and installed it in his upstairs game room in Baldwin Park, CA. The other three nine-foot Centennials and one of the 5 x1 0 Centennial carom tables were sold to a custom cue builder named Guido Orlandi and an associate of his named George Michaels.

The second Centennial pool table that John and I had restored, I thoroughly wrapped up in plastic shrink wrap and stored in my garage attic until I had the space to set it up years later in one of our homes. During the late ’90s John and I were partners in DK Billiards manufacturing, we were located on Main Street in Orange, CA. We custom-made slate pool tables from our shop, this lasted about a year until we found it to be cost-prohibitive to stay in the manufacturing business. We closed our doors, until 2005 when I opened my new shop on the other side of Main Street, across from Danny K’s billiards and sports bar. Now my wife and I sell new pool tables by Connelly Billiards, Fischer, C.L. Bailey, and Aramith.

Two kids and a lot of toys later, my wife and I needed some extra space. I decided to post the fully restored Centennial for sale. The first person to answer the ad was a soft-spoken gentleman that made arrangements to come and check the pool table out. From his first shot on the table, it was apparent that he knew the game very well. After chatting a bit, I came to find out that he had played many games at Right Road Billiards. What a funny thing; he had played on this pool table before. I felt great about the classic pool table finding the right owner. The table stayed in Orange County and has a new owner that understands the table’s true history. I couldn’t be more thrilled and it makes getting rid of my awesome table hurt a little less.

I still have one of the 5 x 10 Brunswick Centennial carom tables, but it needs a full restoration in order to get it to look like my former nine-footer. That is a project that will be on the back burner for a while.