Biography of the original "Fast Eddie"
Dhakala
Poolroom skills brought fame to talented Ava boy
Editor's note: Bill Clark's column on the 1923 lynching on the old
Stewart Road bridge will appear in Friday's edition.
By BILL CLARK
Published Monday, April 24, 2006
John and Eddie Parker, the talented sons of Superintendent of Schools
Chester Parker and his wife, Kathleen, grew up in Ava.
Eddie, the older and smaller of the pair at 5 feet 8 inches tall, was a
guard on the basketball team, a football halfback, a sprinter in track
and an infielder on the softball team. He was noted for his speed and
his dogged determination. His nickname was "Fast Eddie."
Born in 1931, Eddie also excelled in art, played the trumpet and was a
talented vocalist. His greatest athletic skills were in sports
requiring great hand-eye coordination, such as pingpong, tennis and
pool.
He never lost a high school tennis match after his freshman year. He
used spins and slices and deadly accuracy, not power. He once hit a
drop shot with such backspin that the ball hopped backward over the
net.
John, 17 months Eddie's junior, at 6-foot-1 was bigger and stronger.
John also excelled in three sports at Ava but played baseball as an
outfielder/pitcher, leaving Eddie to play softball. He was good enough
and big enough to play freshman football at the University of
Missouri-Columbia in the fall of 1950 before transferring to the
University of Tennessee.
Lois, the older sister of the Parker boys, was a horn and piano player
talented enough to gain the attention of the Kansas City Philharmonic
and a natural comedian, the life of the party. Because there were no
sports programs for girls at Ava in the mid-1940s, Lois never had a
chance to match her brothers on the athletic field.
Pool became an all-consuming force in Fast Eddie Parker's life. He
had discovered at 9 that he was blessed with a unique talent, and he
practiced his skills through high school among the poolroom sharks at
Brixey's pool hall in Ava.
After high school, Eddie migrated to Kansas City and found his way to
Kling and Allen's Billiard Parlor at 12th and Main. He honed his rare
ability under the tutelage of Benny Allen, a three-time world pocket
billiard champion. He soon became a money player.
John recalls his brother as a vocalist who often sang with Ava native
Wanda Hunt Bauts, who went on to star with the Denver and Santa Fe
operas; as a magician and a master of card tricks; as a musician
capable of making a career with the trumpet; as the writer of
extraordinary poetry; as a novelist who never took time to publish his
efforts; as an artist whose brush strokes captured the soul as well as
the subject.
He remembers Eddie as much more than a "money player."
John Parker spent a year at MU and a year at Tennessee, then was
drafted into the U.S. Army. He served in Europe, where his commander
once was Anthony "Nuts" McAuliffe of Battle of the Bulge fame.
He eventually finished his bachelor's degree in social sciences at
MU, taught history for a year at Raytown High School, commuted to the
University of Kansas to pick up a second bachelor's degree in
education and added his master's at the University of Denver. He
served as a recruiter and admissions officer at Kansas Wesleyan College
and, in 1972, landed back at MU to work on a doctorate. He's still
here.
Eddie married his high school sweetheart, Peggy Berry, in 1950 and did
a two-year hitch in the Navy. He tried higher education at both MU and
Tennessee as brother John had done, but the billiard table was his
calling and the best means of family support.
By the late 1950s, Fast Eddie was known as one of the best money
players around, pocketing as much as $30,000 for a night's work.
A money player was not to be confused with a "road player" or a
"hustler." Money players shot for a purse put up in advance; hustlers
set up their opponents by baiting them. Money players wore tuxedos;
hustlers wore worn sweaters. Money players shook hands before picking
up the spoils; road players grabbed the money and hit the road before
the locals got their hands on them.
In the late 1950s, Fast Eddie met a young writer in Louisville, Ky.,
named Walter Tevis, who was working in a pool hall. They became
friends.
In 1959, Tevis published a novel, titled "The Hustler," about Fast
Eddie Felson. It was a more than somewhat-biographical tale of Fast
Eddie Parker.
"The Hustler" became a hit movie in 1961, starring Paul Newman and
Jackie Gleason. A sequel, "The Color of Money," won Newman an Academy
Award for his portrayal of an aging Fast Eddie.
Tevis always maintained Parker's life was no more than 30 percent of
the Felson story. Maybe so, but the pair, in life and fiction, would be
forever linked.
Eddie Parker spent his life hovering over a pool table, becoming famous
and in demand for his ability with a pool cue. He toured the world,
giving exhibitions, dazzling generations with his trick shots and
acting as a goodwill ambassador for a sport much maligned for a
century. He performed on television, made commercials and toured with
the USO for the Department of Defense. He brought the pool table from
the shadows into the sunlight.
In 1983, Eddie proved his ability as a writer with "What You Always
Wanted to Know About Pocket Billiards, but Were Afraid to Ask 'Fast
Eddie.' " It is a spellbinding history of the sport, a collection of
biographical sketches of the game's Hall of Famers and how to make
every shot imaginable, including his world record of pocketing 22 balls
with one legal stroke. His section of trick shots, complete with
diagrams, is priceless.
Fast Eddie Parker died Feb. 2, 2001, while attending an eight ball
tournament on South Padre Island, Texas. He was buried in San Antonio,
his adopted hometown. Peggy and two children survive. Fast Eddie has
become a sports legend in our country. He was truly one of a kind.
What of John and Lois?
Lois married after high school and raised three children. She lives in
Springfield and, at 77, is still the life the party.
John married Marilyn Gideon in 1961 and spent 24 years with MU
Extension, 15 of them as regional director of outreach and extension in
southwest Missouri. He retired in 1996. He and Marilyn, who retired in
1998 as the consumer and family economics teacher at Hickman High
School, have remained active in community life.
In 2002, John was the leader in establishing MU's Lifespan Learning
program for the 50-and-older crowd. He remains the MU campus liaison
for Extension employees and is a volunteer with the Daniel Boone
Regional Library Foundation.
Marilyn is a volunteer with the Boone County Electric Community Youth
Trust, King's Daughters Support Home for Women, the Assistance League
for Mid-Missouri Women and First Presbyterian Church. The Parkers have
three children, who all live in the Columbia area.
Ol' Clark graduated from Clinton High School in 1949, the same year
Fast Eddie left Ava. It seems we both spent time in Kling and Allen's
in the years that followed. I went for two reasons. First, a kid could
watch Willie Hoppe, Willie Mosconi, Welker Cochran, Ralph Greenleaf,
Jimmy Caras and Irving Crane do unbelievable things with a pool cue.
And if you were lucky, you got to visit with Johnny Kling, the catcher
for the 1908 Chicago Cubs, the last Cubs team to win the World Series.
Little did we suspect then that we would be visiting with the last
Cubbie to raise a World Series banner, and little did we suspect that
among the youngsters that idolized Mosconi and Hoppe was a teenage
hotshot from Ava who was already known as "Fast Eddie."
We never met, but I'm happy to say that Fast Eddie's brother, John,
is a dear friend.
David The Hamster Malone
Dhakala wrote:
> http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Apr/20060424Feat001.asp
Yes, I read it a few days ago... never thought to put it on RSB. It's
an interesting story - pity he didn't flesh it out a little more.
David "The slow Hamster" Malone
alcar...@hotmail.com
life...particularly where he became best friends with Fast Larry. They
were inseparable you know.
Dhakala
That was probably the cause of Eddie's heart attack.
David The Hamster Malone
Dhakala wrote:
> In 1959, Tevis published a novel, titled "The Hustler," about Fast
> Eddie Felson. It was a more than somewhat-biographical tale of Fast
> Eddie Parker.
The biography I'm waiting for is the Keith McCready story by JAM. Her
writing skills are impressive and if she can put aside her personal
involvement with him and try not to sugar-coat the real truth, it will
be one heck of a story.
David "The can't-wait Hamster" Malone
Ed McCune
book? If so maybe Lou will too.
Ed "Curious" McCune
Bob Johnson
color to the story. Then again, Lou might want a royalty of some kind.
(Perhaps if it becomes a movie, Brad Pitt could play Lou. After all,
they're both from MO).
--
Bob Johnson, Denver/Thornton, Co.
bo...@cris.com
"Ed McCune" <mcc...@telusplanetnospam.net> wrote in message
news:TPs3g.287$nq3.34@clgrps12...
Dhakala
Bob Johnson wrote:
> If they don't, wouldn't that be blatant censorship?
Only governments can commit censorship, Bob. "Editorial discretion" is
another matter entirely.
> Hell, that ads a lot of color to the story.
Purple? :-)
> Then again, Lou might want a royalty of some kind.
Yep, they wear purple.
SteveE
> ...and if she can put aside her personal
> involvement with him and try not to sugar-coat the real truth, it will
> be one heck of a story.
>
> David "The can't-wait Hamster" Malone
Therein lies the rub.
____________________________________________________
Better to wear out than to rust out.
------
: the next generation of web-newsreaders : http://www.recgroups.com
lfigueroa
I'd be happy to tell her :-)
Lou Figueroa
lfigueroa
Lou Figueroa
with apologies to
Woody Allen
Samiel
wrote:
>
>http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Apr/20060424Feat001.asp
>
I'm surprised no one mentioned this...
I think Ronnie Allen claims that the character "Fast Eddie" was based
on him... or something of that nature...
- Samiel