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Message:: [QUOTE="cpm9ball, post: 2388410, member: 24633"]In case you didn't know, Jackie Gleason played his own trick shots in the movie, but all of Paul Newman's trick shots were performed by Willie Mosconi (who played the racker). A lot of people don't know this but Jackie Gleason was a pretty good amateur player in his own right. In my opinion, he was better than Minnesota Fats. As a matter of fact, Minnesota Fats was a purely fictitious character. Rudolph Wanderone was known as Brooklyn Fats, but when Walter Tevis' book "The Hustler" was released, he changed his name to Minnesoat Fats. When the movie made its debut in the Washington, DC area in 1963 (I think) I had the privilege of playing 4 straight pool exhibition matches with Mosconi. I won one of the matches, but at 16, it was quite an honor just to be in the same pool hall with the 15-time world champion. Chris[/QUOTE]