Santos Navarro began working part time for Miller in 1980 and was hired full time in 1989. He retired three years ago and moved to Mexico. After Santos Navarro discovered the pool hall in 1973, his father soon became a regular and by 1977 was working for Miller. His customers included Santos Navarro and his father, Marcelo. Latinos began patronizing the billiards hall in the 1970s, and today most of Miller’s customers are Latino. When Miller bought the business, most of his clientele was white and many were Marines from the El Toro or Tustin bases. His customer profile has changed over the years. That’s what years of smoking and breathing secondhand smoke did to me. “But I can’t work much anymore, because I lost a lung to cancer about 10 years ago. There are worse things that a man can do for a living,” Miller said.
Today, he can work for only a few hours each morning. But the smoky basement has taken a toll on his health. His years as owner of a pool hall, where tables are rented at $6.50 per hour, have been rewarding, Miller said. We don’t get visited by the police, and we like it that way.” “I guess every mother has warned her son at one time or another to stay out of the pool hall. You know, pool halls have always had a bad image,” Miller said. “We used to get a few women in here years ago, but not today. Jan Fullerton, described by Miller as a pretty good pool player, helped Miller run the place until she retired a few years ago. I bought it from him in 1970,” Miller said. I played here for a while before I went to work for the owner. “I’ve played pool all my life, and one day I found this place. But he stumbled into Broadway Billiards and traded his golf clubs for a cue stick. Miller, 68, quit a factory job in Youngstown, Ohio, in the middle of winter 35 years ago to play golf in Southern California year-round. Most of the sports memorabilia was collected by Miller, who is a boxing and baseball fan. 5, 1919, tear sheet from the Atlanta Georgian newspaper features an ad of heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, endorsing “Nuxated Iron,” a nutritional supplement that supposedly helped him become a champion.
#California billiards hours series#
30, 1936, Los Angeles Times sports page announces the beginning of the World Series between cross-town rivals the New York Giants and New York Yankees. Rodriguez was once a regular at Broadway Billiards. There is also a poster promoting a 1985 fight between lightweights Herman Montes and Chuy Rodriguez at the San Bernardino Arena. Miller met the man when the former boxer worked as a dishwasher at a 4th Street restaurant and played pool after work. There is the photo of a Mexican fighter named the “Yucatan Kid,” a 1930s contender who once fought in Madison Square Garden. Yellowed sports pages, some almost a century old, and newspaper headlines of memorable baseball games played long ago hang on the walls behind glass frames. Photographs of boxers and pool players-both obscure and famous-hang on the walls, barely visible in the dim light. Some of the tables are 75 years old and have seen thousands of dollars change hands over the decades despite the prohibition against gambling.
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