Have Pool Cue, Will Travel—The Story of St. Louie Louie, a Local Legend.

On this episode of Our American Stories, Mark O'Brian, a listener of Our American Stories, shares the story of St. Louie Louie—one of the greatest pool players to ever grace the scene—from his rise to his rather untimely fall.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American stories. Up next a story from
Mark O'Brien who listens to us on KMOXAM in Saint Louis,
and this story is about one of his personal heroes.
Mark is the author of Havepool, Q, We'll Travel, which
outlines this true character. Here's our own Monty Montgomery with

(00:31):
the story.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Whol is a sport with a rich history to it,
and today it's one of the most popular participation sports
in America. And there are countless names which have gone
down as the best players of the game, including Saint
Louis Louis. Here's Mark O'Brien with Moore on this interesting character.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
I met Louis when I was fifteen, and that was
in nineteen It was at a small pool room in
Saint Louis. I had heard some stories about someone named
Saint Louis Louis.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
I heard him over and over again. I never met him.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I thought he would be a guy about fifty or
sixty years old. And one day I'm in the pool
room practicing and a guy about twenty one walked in,
and you would have thought the celebrity walked in. All
the old timers in the pool room right about the
same time they said it's Louie, it's Louis. That everybody

(01:33):
shook his hand, hugged him, blah blah blah, and from
that day on he became my hero. Louis was one
of the most charismatic people I've ever met.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
I didn't have anything to do with pool.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
When Louis was around, anybody, anywhere, at any time, all
the eyes were on Louis. He just had a way
of making you feel good, smile, laugh. He was like
a magnet. His skills were incredible and he has been
called by hundreds of people maybe the greatest shop maker

(02:12):
in pool history. Louis Roberts could cut a pool ball
like nobody else could.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
My gosh.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
His favorite game was nine ball, and that's a rotation
game one through nine. You have to hit the lowest
numbered ball first and if you make that, you go
on to the next ball, and then when you finally
get to the nine and you make it, you win
the game. And Louis, if he had an open shot,

(02:41):
he would just run out. I mean, he was a
stone cold run out artist. He was amazing, an amazing
pool player. He was born Lewis Francis Roberts in nineteen
fifty here in Saint Louis, Missouri. A future two times

(03:02):
US Opened nine ball champion, Louis would actually dominate the
sport for over two decades. Louis's dad purchased a brand
new A E. Schmidt pool table so the six children
could have fun while they were at home. Louis had
five siblings, two sisters and three brothers, but they had

(03:23):
difficulty getting Louis away from the table. As an early teen,
Louis became infatuated with pool and practiced for several hours
every day. By the time he was fifteen or sixteen,
no one in Saint Louis could beat him playing a
ball or nine ball, and Louis made his first road partner,

(03:45):
Paul Bulis, at Cleveland High School when they were sophomores,
and Paul luckily he owned a car and him and
Louis would travel to dozens of area hotspots on the
weekends and they won aisles of money. As Paul tells it,
Louis was a young phenom and rarely, if ever missed

(04:08):
a shot, and Louis always had a ton of energy
and was also an accomplished athlete. In high school, he
was a star gymnast and a cross country runner, and
Louis had only two things on his mind as a
young team sport activities and pool. By the time he
was seventeen, Louis had a reputation of being unbeatable on

(04:31):
a pool table.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Out of town.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Hustlers started showing up in Saint Louis, and when they departed,
their bank robe had shrunk. One thing that separated Louis
from other pool players, gamblers and hustlers, Louis would often
refund a portion of his winnings because he hated to see.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Anyone go broke.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
One other thing, Louis was becoming a dead ringer for
Elvis Presley in the Luks department, and he loved the attention.
On occasion, Louis would walk on his hands around the
pool tables at the sports Center in Saint Louis while
reciting verbatim lines from his favorite movie, Scarface.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Louis's impression of al Pacino was spot on.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
I witnessed feats like those dozens of times as I
was the co owner of the sports center along with
my partner Larry LaBarbara. Larry hired Louis as our house
pro in nineteen eighty eight. Louis left us with dozens
and dozens of great classic memories that will never be forgotten.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Now.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Louis did several trick shot exhibitions at the Sports Center,
and he scared us on more than one occasion. Louis
would set up a series of five difficult shots and
guarantee he would make them in six shots or less.
He then promised everyone in attendance a five dollars bill

(05:59):
if he was unsuccessful. Sometimes fifty people or more were
in the building and we were on the hook for
the payoff, me and my partner. Of course, it made
us very nervous, but we never paid out a dime.
Louis was a sensational trick shot artist. One of his
best shots it was called the Chattanooga Chuchu. He would

(06:23):
lay three queues on the pool table and it would
make like a train track, and he would pocket four balls,
and then the cue ball would go around the table
and it would hop up in the air and come
down on this track, and then it would roll right
toward another pocket. The cueball would to pocket another ball.

(06:48):
That usually got the biggest rise out of the audience.
Whenever he did an exhibition, Louis started winning or placing
very high in major US tournaments at age twenty two,
when he won the nineteen seventy four Orlando, Florida Open
nine Ball tournament. And that was versus a large group

(07:08):
of other seasoned professionals and road tested hustlers.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
And it wasn't just his skill that won him tournament
after tournament, it was also his wit.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
When your opponent approaches the table and gets down to
take a shot, you shouldn't say anything, and Louie never
did say anything.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
But while Louis was shooting, man, he was so talkative.
He just might do things to make you nervous without
you realizing it. One time, some guy came in. Louis
did not know him.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
The guy asks for a large handicap, and the guy
ran the first two racks, and Louis knew he was
in a little bit of trouble, so he asked the guy.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
He goes, hey, do you inhale or exhale? And the
guys what do you mean?

Speaker 3 (08:01):
He goes, well, you play real good. I was just wondering,
before you pull the trigger, do you inhale or exhale? Well,
the guy got so confused. He was struggling to breathe
the rest of the match, and he went on tilt
and couldn't make a ball.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
After that, Louis beat.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Him, and then there was Louie's debut into the film industry.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
Well.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
A blockbuster movie hit the theaters in nineteen eighty six
starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
The film was titled The Color of Money.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
When the producers and the directors were gathering a cast
of pool playing teachers, Louis was a no brainer to
be chosen. Louis was a great teacher of the game
and he used to give private lessons for a hefty fee,
so Louis lasted a few weeks on the payroll. Louis
and a few other great players gave hands on instruction

(09:04):
to Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Louis claimed he would
have been chosen for one of the speaking parts in
the movie, but they told him he looked too much
like Elvis. So he can be seen in the movie
three or four times, and his name is actually announced
at the big tournament, and.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Louis was very proud of that mention.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Louis also mentioned that while Newman had average pool skills,
Tom Cruise had never played pool and was more difficult
to teach, so naturally, Louis became friends with Paul Newman
and Tom Cruise, and Louis had a personal contact phone
number for both of them, which he kept in his

(09:48):
little black book. On December twenty second, nineteen ninety one,
apparently took his own life. His untimely death sent shockwaves
throughout the billiard industry. Back at our pool room, dozens

(10:10):
of farmer and current players stop by to pay homage
and view the many pictures of Louis that were displayed
on the wall right next to his favorite table pit
table number one, Louie's table. Godspeed Louis, and rest in
peace until we meet again in pool heaven.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
And great job on that piece, Monte Montgomery doing the work.
Mark O'Brien, a listener bringing us the story of Saint
Louis Louis here on our American story