George Balabushka
Encyclopedia
George Balabushka was a Russian-born
billiards (pool) cue
maker, arguably the most prominent member of that profession, and is sometimes referred to as "the Stradivarius
of cuemakers". His full name or last name standing alone is often used to refer to a cue stick
made by him. Arriving in the U.S. in 1942, he worked at various carpentry
and toy and furniture making jobs. He was an avid pool player and purchased a pool room
with a business partner in 1959 and thereafter started making cues as gifts for friends which quickly blossomed into a business when others wanted to purchase them.
Balabushka turned out approximately 1,200 handcrafted
cues during his 16 year cue-making career, spanning from 1959 to his death in 1975. His cues are highly valued collectors items, made more so after being prominently featured in Martin Scorsese's
1986 film, The Color of Money
. Balabushka cues are generally separated into three distinct classes and time periods related to what Balabushka was using in cue construction: The Titlist blank era (1959-1966), the Burton Spain blank era (1966-1971) and the Gus Szamboti blank era (1971-1975). Original Balabushka cues with verified provenance
may realize tens of thousands of dollars at auction
.
to the United States in 1924 at 12 years of age. His family, parents Anton and Natalie and younger sister Mary, settled in New York City
. Although originally named Gregori, according to Balabushka he was given a new first name, George, by immigration officials when he was processed through Ellis Island
.
designer and maker, working for the Educational Equipment Company, then located at 71 West 23rd St., in Manhattan
, which made building blocks
for nurseries and schools. Thereafter he built children's furniture
for the Playtime Woodworking Company located on Greenwich Village
's Jane Street. While on the job, Balabushka lost his middle finger to a band saw
. Using a wooden mold, he made himself a replacement plastic
finger of such craftsmanship that even his friends did not realize his loss until long after the incident. As Balabushka's carpentry skills deepened he began building accordion
s and other detailed carpentry pieces on his own time. In 1949, Balabushka applied for patent on a folding leg bracket mechanism he invented, which was granted in 1951.
several years later. Josephine and George had two sons, Gregory and George, both named after their father.
Josephine was not just a source of love and stability but was the rock that allowed Balabushka the ability to hone his craft. According to the writers of the The Billiard Encyclopedia, "Josephine's limitless patience and strong sense of independence would afford George the time and solitude necessary that a great artist needs in order to perfect his craft."
, taking part in competitions and spending time with well known practitioners of the sport. In 1959 he purchased a Brooklyn-based pool hall
with partner, Frank McGown, which was located at 50th Street and 5th Avenue. While running the room, he began repairing cues as a hobby, and soon the idea was sparked to design and manufacture his own line of pool cues.
By the end of 1959, Balabushka had made a number of cues, most of which were given to friends as Christmas gifts. As this practice went on, he began receiving orders for his cues. His first cues were conversions of the popular Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company
manufactured "Titlist" cues, which were one-piece cues; that is, they had no in the middle that would allow a player to the cue into two sections for ease of transport. At the time he started, there were very few private cuemakers, the industry being dominated by large manufacturers.
between 20 and 30 cues per year on a part-time basis. Because of the relative dearth of private cuemakers and the excellence of his product, Balabushka's name quickly became known amongst professional players. By the end of 1962, Balabushuka was receiving more orders for cues than he could fill given his time constraints. Balabushka accordingly sold his interest in the pool room, converted his garage
into a carpentry
shop, and by 1964 was building cues full time, while continuing to hone his cuemaking abilities.
Unlike many of the large manufacturers
of the day, Balabushka's emphasis was on playing ability and fine craftsmanship, reflecting the values he had held during his years in the woodworking
business. He was an innovator in cue construction, cue finishes
and cue design. Balabushka's cues were not the elaborately decorated attempts at building art that became a mainstay of the cue market starting in the 1980s and onward. Rather, most Balabushka cues are relatively plain and without grand ornamentation flourishes. Many of his trademark construction techniques have become standard in the industry, such as the use of Irish linen
for wrap material and block style checkered-pattern ringwork above a cue's wrap, commonly employing alternating ebony and ivory, pieces which are eponymously named "Bushka rings."
George Balabushka died in 1975 at the age of 62. He was posthumously honored as the first inductee into the American Cuemakers Association Hall of Fame in February, 1993. In 2004, he was inducted into the Meritorious Service category of the Billiard Congress of America
's Hall of Fame.
on a lathe
to produce the final shape, and certain features have not yet been added such as a , , , and any inlay
s.
While blank variety is the defining demarcation between one Balabushka cue and another, there are some shared features spanning Balabushka's fleeting 16-year career. Cue forearms were characteristically made with straight-grained
maple, based on Balabushka's belief that a single-direction maple grain provided superior integrity to that of curly maple
or birdseye maple
. He used stainless steel
joints and delrin butt caps almost exclusively. A small number of his cues feature ivory joints and ivory butt caps, making them highly valued collector's items. Balabushka used a distinguishing reddish-brown bumper, and employed Cortland Irish linen
for many of his wraps, with the highly sought after leather wrap a rare departure for him and a distinct value enhancer. Unless a different length was specified, Balabushka made all his cues to a standard 57½ inches in length.
In addition to Bushka rings, various other decorative rings were commonly incorporated, including various colored plastics (often marbleized), and silver and contrasting wooden rings. For decoration, Balabushka often inlaid small mother-of-pearl
dots and notched diamonds. Series of window-shaped maple pieces commonly adorned Balabushka butt sleeves, with each window usually featuring one burl
for its aesthetic effect. Some other features common to many other cuemakers' lines from the same era are notably absent or mostly absent from Balabushka's, including ivory inlays and the signing of his cues. A long-standing controversy exists over what finish
Balabushka used. One side argues that he used an oil finish on all his cues, while the other insists that his later cues were coated with a spray lacquer
.
) and Ernie Gutierrez (Ginacue), all following in the footsteps of earlier master cuemaker, Herman Rambow.
Building a full spliced blank from scratch was an expensive and painstaking process, and the large manufacturing facilities of Brunswick turned out good quality blanks, with beautiful points, veneers and sound construction. In Balabushka's case, his entire workshop consisted of a single lathe and other woodworking equipment in the confines of his modest garage, and building his own full-splice butts would have been prohibitively difficult and expensive for him.
Balabushka took Spain up on his offer after seeing the quality of his splices. Buying from Spain also had the advantage that he was able to have Spain customize the blanks to his specifications. During this period Balabushka began incorporating more elaborate details into his cues, including the eponymous Bushka rings innovation. Many later cuemakers would install Bushka rings both above the wrap and on the butt sleeve below the wrap. Balabushka used them only above the wrap, which is believed to have aided him in keeping the higher on the cue. In 1970, Spain sold his cue business to tool and die maker
, John Davis, who had been assisting Spain for a number of years. Balabushka continued buying blanks from Davis until 1971.
native Gus Szamboti at a tournament. Szamboti had been working for RCA
as a draftsman and designer, but RCA layoffs were common at the time, and he had started designing and selling pool cues as a more stable job path. Though he too started production with Titlist blanks as well as blanks manufactured by WICO of Chicago, Szamboti later began making his own. Balabushka was very impressed with Szamboti's blanks and, in addition to the two men becoming fast friends, he became Szamboti's first customer, buying blanks from him for $18 apiece.
Balabushka cues from the Gus Szamboti era are typified by straight grained maple forearms bearing four ebony points, with four veneers included, normally colored black, green, white and mahogany, or sometimes with an orange veneer in place of mahogany. Balabushka cues from this era, spanning the last five years of his life, are considered the finest of his career as a class. There have been unconfirmed rumors that some few cues made during this period included splices made by Balabushka himself.
Balabushka cues started circulating in the market, as he was already recognized as the premier cue maker of the era, referred to as "the Stradivarius
of cuemakers". Balabushka and his cues achieved much wider recognition after being prominently featured in Martin Scorsese’s
1986 film, The Color of Money
(the sequel to the classic 1961 film The Hustler
).
In the film, Tom Cruise
’s character, Vincent Lauria, is presented with a beautiful cue by Paul Newman
's character, Fast Eddie Felson. Vincent takes the cue, his reverence obvious, and is told by Eddie "it's a Balabushka." After this, Balabushka's name became associated by the general public with highly-valued and rare cues. The cue actually used in the film was, however, not a genuine Balabushka, but a model 18, Joss brand cue, custom-made to look like a Balabushka. The filmmakers feared that any cue used might get damaged during filming; especially in light of a scene set in a pool room where Cruise's character rapidly whirls the cue around in time to the song Werewolves of London
. An original Balabushka was thus considered too valuable to be risked in the production.
Original Balabushka cues with verified provenance
may realize tens of thousands of dollars at auction
. In 1994, for example, a Balabushka was purchased by a collector for $45,000. In a 1998 Syracuse Herald-Journal
article a collection of 30 original Balabushkas cues and 6 Gus Szamboti cues was estimated to be worth 2 million dollars, the cues said to be the equivalent in the cue collecting world of Rembrandts and van Gogh
s respectively. There are, however, many fake Balabushka cues in existence. Complicating matters, in the 1980s with the permission and license
of his surviving family, a line of Balabushka replicas began to be manufactured in large quantities by the Adam Custom Cue Company.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
billiards (pool) cue
Cue stick
A cue stick , is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the...
maker, arguably the most prominent member of that profession, and is sometimes referred to as "the Stradivarius
Stradivarius
The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...
of cuemakers". His full name or last name standing alone is often used to refer to a cue stick
Cue stick
A cue stick , is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the...
made by him. Arriving in the U.S. in 1942, he worked at various carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
and toy and furniture making jobs. He was an avid pool player and purchased a pool room
Billiard room
A billiard room is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table...
with a business partner in 1959 and thereafter started making cues as gifts for friends which quickly blossomed into a business when others wanted to purchase them.
Balabushka turned out approximately 1,200 handcrafted
Handmade
Handmade may refer to:* Handmade , 2003* Handmade , 2010* HandMade Films, George Harrison's production company* Rhino Handmade, a record label-See also:...
cues during his 16 year cue-making career, spanning from 1959 to his death in 1975. His cues are highly valued collectors items, made more so after being prominently featured in Martin Scorsese's
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
1986 film, The Color of Money
The Color of Money
The Color of Money is a 1986 film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Richard Price, based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis....
. Balabushka cues are generally separated into three distinct classes and time periods related to what Balabushka was using in cue construction: The Titlist blank era (1959-1966), the Burton Spain blank era (1966-1971) and the Gus Szamboti blank era (1971-1975). Original Balabushka cues with verified provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
may realize tens of thousands of dollars at auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
.
Early life
George Balabushka was born in Russia on December 9, 1912 and immigratedImmigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
to the United States in 1924 at 12 years of age. His family, parents Anton and Natalie and younger sister Mary, settled in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Although originally named Gregori, according to Balabushka he was given a new first name, George, by immigration officials when he was processed through Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
.
Employment
Balabushka's first job was as a wooden toyToy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
designer and maker, working for the Educational Equipment Company, then located at 71 West 23rd St., in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, which made building blocks
Toy block
Toy blocks , are wooden, plastic or foam pieces of various shapes and colors that are used as building toys...
for nurseries and schools. Thereafter he built children's furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
for the Playtime Woodworking Company located on Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
's Jane Street. While on the job, Balabushka lost his middle finger to a band saw
Band saw
A bandsaw is a power tool which uses a blade consisting of a continuous band of metal with teeth along one edge to cut various workpieces. The band usually rides on two wheels rotating in the same plane, although some small bandsaws have three wheels. Bandsawing produces uniform cutting action as a...
. Using a wooden mold, he made himself a replacement plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
finger of such craftsmanship that even his friends did not realize his loss until long after the incident. As Balabushka's carpentry skills deepened he began building accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
s and other detailed carpentry pieces on his own time. In 1949, Balabushka applied for patent on a folding leg bracket mechanism he invented, which was granted in 1951.
Marriage and children
While working at Playtime Woodworking he met a woman named Josephine, his future wife, who then lived directly across the street from the toy company. They were married in 1941, and bought a home in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
several years later. Josephine and George had two sons, Gregory and George, both named after their father.
Josephine was not just a source of love and stability but was the rock that allowed Balabushka the ability to hone his craft. According to the writers of the The Billiard Encyclopedia, "Josephine's limitless patience and strong sense of independence would afford George the time and solitude necessary that a great artist needs in order to perfect his craft."
Transition to cuemaker
Balabushka was an avid billiards player, especially of the game of straight poolStraight Pool
Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game, and was the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball...
, taking part in competitions and spending time with well known practitioners of the sport. In 1959 he purchased a Brooklyn-based pool hall
Pool hall
A billiard/billiards, pool or snooker hall is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards...
with partner, Frank McGown, which was located at 50th Street and 5th Avenue. While running the room, he began repairing cues as a hobby, and soon the idea was sparked to design and manufacture his own line of pool cues.
By the end of 1959, Balabushka had made a number of cues, most of which were given to friends as Christmas gifts. As this practice went on, he began receiving orders for his cues. His first cues were conversions of the popular Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company
Brunswick Corporation
The Brunswick Corporation , formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is a United States-based corporation that has been involved in manufacturing a wide variety of products since 1845. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois...
manufactured "Titlist" cues, which were one-piece cues; that is, they had no in the middle that would allow a player to the cue into two sections for ease of transport. At the time he started, there were very few private cuemakers, the industry being dominated by large manufacturers.
Cuemaking career and death
Between 1959 and 1962, Balabushka handcraftedHandicraft
Handicraft, more precisely expressed as artisanic handicraft, sometimes also called artisanry, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It is a traditional main sector of craft. Usually the term is applied to traditional means...
between 20 and 30 cues per year on a part-time basis. Because of the relative dearth of private cuemakers and the excellence of his product, Balabushka's name quickly became known amongst professional players. By the end of 1962, Balabushuka was receiving more orders for cues than he could fill given his time constraints. Balabushka accordingly sold his interest in the pool room, converted his garage
Garage (house)
A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
into a carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
shop, and by 1964 was building cues full time, while continuing to hone his cuemaking abilities.
Unlike many of the large manufacturers
Assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods...
of the day, Balabushka's emphasis was on playing ability and fine craftsmanship, reflecting the values he had held during his years in the woodworking
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
business. He was an innovator in cue construction, cue finishes
Varnish
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...
and cue design. Balabushka's cues were not the elaborately decorated attempts at building art that became a mainstay of the cue market starting in the 1980s and onward. Rather, most Balabushka cues are relatively plain and without grand ornamentation flourishes. Many of his trademark construction techniques have become standard in the industry, such as the use of Irish linen
Irish linen
Irish linen is the brand name given to linen produced in Ireland. Linen is cloth woven from, or yarn spun from the flax fibre, which was grown in Ireland for many years before advanced agricultural methods and more suitable climate led to the concentration of quality flax cultivation in northern...
for wrap material and block style checkered-pattern ringwork above a cue's wrap, commonly employing alternating ebony and ivory, pieces which are eponymously named "Bushka rings."
George Balabushka died in 1975 at the age of 62. He was posthumously honored as the first inductee into the American Cuemakers Association Hall of Fame in February, 1993. In 2004, he was inducted into the Meritorious Service category of the Billiard Congress of America
Billiard Congress of America
Billiard Congress of America is a governing body for cue sports in North America , the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association...
's Hall of Fame.
Cue details
There are three distinct classes of cues produced during different time periods related to what Balabushka was using in cue construction: The Titlist blank era (1959-1966), the Burton Spain blank era (1966-1971) and the Gus Szamboti blank era (1971-1975). The "blanks" referred to are the bottom portion of a cue where the splicing of various hardwoods has been completed but the cue has not yet been turnedWoodturning
Woodturning is a form of woodworking that is used to create wooden objects on a lathe . Woodturning differs from most other forms of woodworking in that the wood is moving while a stationary tool is used to cut and shape it...
on a lathe
Lathe
A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
to produce the final shape, and certain features have not yet been added such as a , , , and any inlay
Inlay
Inlay is a decorative technique of inserting pieces of contrasting, often coloured materials into depressions in a base object to form patterns or pictures that normally are flush with the matrix. In a wood matrix, inlays commonly use wood veneers, but other materials like shells, mother-of-pearl,...
s.
While blank variety is the defining demarcation between one Balabushka cue and another, there are some shared features spanning Balabushka's fleeting 16-year career. Cue forearms were characteristically made with straight-grained
Wood grain
In speaking of wood the term grain refers to the alternating regions of relatively darker and lighter wood resulting from the differing growth parameters occurring in different seasons . The term is used in several ways. Perhaps most important is that in woodworking techniques...
maple, based on Balabushka's belief that a single-direction maple grain provided superior integrity to that of curly maple
Flame maple
Flame maple , also known as flamed maple, curly maple, ripple maple, fiddleback or tiger stripe, is a feature of maple in which the growth of the wood fibers is distorted in an undulating chatoyant pattern, producing wavy lines known as "flames"...
or birdseye maple
Bird's eye figure
Bird's eye is a type of figure that occurs within several kinds of wood, most notably in hard maple. It has a distinctive pattern that resembles tiny, swirling eyes disrupting the smooth lines of grain. It is somewhat reminiscent of a burl, but it is quite different: the small knots that make the...
. He used stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
joints and delrin butt caps almost exclusively. A small number of his cues feature ivory joints and ivory butt caps, making them highly valued collector's items. Balabushka used a distinguishing reddish-brown bumper, and employed Cortland Irish linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
for many of his wraps, with the highly sought after leather wrap a rare departure for him and a distinct value enhancer. Unless a different length was specified, Balabushka made all his cues to a standard 57½ inches in length.
In addition to Bushka rings, various other decorative rings were commonly incorporated, including various colored plastics (often marbleized), and silver and contrasting wooden rings. For decoration, Balabushka often inlaid small mother-of-pearl
Nacre
Nacre , also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer; it is also what makes up pearls. It is very strong, resilient, and iridescent....
dots and notched diamonds. Series of window-shaped maple pieces commonly adorned Balabushka butt sleeves, with each window usually featuring one burl
Burl
A burl or bur or burr is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds.A burl results from a tree undergoing some form of stress. It may be caused...
for its aesthetic effect. Some other features common to many other cuemakers' lines from the same era are notably absent or mostly absent from Balabushka's, including ivory inlays and the signing of his cues. A long-standing controversy exists over what finish
Wood finishing
Wood finishing refers to the process of embellishing and/or protecting the surface of a wooden material. The process starts with surface preparation, either by sanding by hand , scraping, or planing. Imperfections or nail holes on the surface may be filled using wood putty or pores may be filled...
Balabushka used. One side argues that he used an oil finish on all his cues, while the other insists that his later cues were coated with a spray lacquer
Lacquer
In a general sense, lacquer is a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required...
.
Titlist era
When Balabushka first started repairing cues while working at his pool room, he started converting into custom cues. Many of these house cues were made by Brunswick. When he started building his own cues in 1959 he used blanks purchased from Brunswick for their "Titlist" cue line; the same used in the construction of the house cues he had been converting. Many of the fine cuemakers working during the same era as Balabushka did likewise, including Frank Paradise (Paradise cues), Eugene Balner (Palmer cues, named after Arnold PalmerArnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer is an American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955...
) and Ernie Gutierrez (Ginacue), all following in the footsteps of earlier master cuemaker, Herman Rambow.
Building a full spliced blank from scratch was an expensive and painstaking process, and the large manufacturing facilities of Brunswick turned out good quality blanks, with beautiful points, veneers and sound construction. In Balabushka's case, his entire workshop consisted of a single lathe and other woodworking equipment in the confines of his modest garage, and building his own full-splice butts would have been prohibitively difficult and expensive for him.
Burton Spain era
Balabushka used Titlist blanks until 1966 when he was contacted by Chicagoan Burton Spain. Spain had recently begun making handmade spliced blanks and was supplying them to Balabushka's closest rival, Frank Paradise. Spain had become fascinated by splicing technology when he came upon a Titlist cue split down the middle in 1965 and set out to perfect and even improve on the Titlist splice. Spain's original intent was to be predominantly a cuemaker in his own right using his proprietary spliced blanks. However, by 1966 Spain's superior blanks were in high demand and he instead turned to making blanks for other cuemakers full time, which he continued until 1970.Balabushka took Spain up on his offer after seeing the quality of his splices. Buying from Spain also had the advantage that he was able to have Spain customize the blanks to his specifications. During this period Balabushka began incorporating more elaborate details into his cues, including the eponymous Bushka rings innovation. Many later cuemakers would install Bushka rings both above the wrap and on the butt sleeve below the wrap. Balabushka used them only above the wrap, which is believed to have aided him in keeping the higher on the cue. In 1970, Spain sold his cue business to tool and die maker
Tool and die maker
Tool and die makers are workers in the manufacturing industry who make jigs, fixtures, dies, molds, machine tools, cutting tools , gauges, and other tools used in manufacturing processes...
, John Davis, who had been assisting Spain for a number of years. Balabushka continued buying blanks from Davis until 1971.
Gus Szamboti era
In 1971 Balabushka met Penndel, PennsylvaniaPenndel, Pennsylvania
Penndel is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,328 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Penndel is located at ....
native Gus Szamboti at a tournament. Szamboti had been working for RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
as a draftsman and designer, but RCA layoffs were common at the time, and he had started designing and selling pool cues as a more stable job path. Though he too started production with Titlist blanks as well as blanks manufactured by WICO of Chicago, Szamboti later began making his own. Balabushka was very impressed with Szamboti's blanks and, in addition to the two men becoming fast friends, he became Szamboti's first customer, buying blanks from him for $18 apiece.
Balabushka cues from the Gus Szamboti era are typified by straight grained maple forearms bearing four ebony points, with four veneers included, normally colored black, green, white and mahogany, or sometimes with an orange veneer in place of mahogany. Balabushka cues from this era, spanning the last five years of his life, are considered the finest of his career as a class. There have been unconfirmed rumors that some few cues made during this period included splices made by Balabushka himself.
Prominence
It is estimated that Balabushka produced between 1,000 and 1,200 cues during his lifetime. However, by the mid 1960s, forgedArt forgery
Art forgery is the creation of works of art which are falsely attributed to other, usually more famous, artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged artwork much simpler....
Balabushka cues started circulating in the market, as he was already recognized as the premier cue maker of the era, referred to as "the Stradivarius
Stradivarius
The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...
of cuemakers". Balabushka and his cues achieved much wider recognition after being prominently featured in Martin Scorsese’s
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
1986 film, The Color of Money
The Color of Money
The Color of Money is a 1986 film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Richard Price, based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis....
(the sequel to the classic 1961 film The Hustler
The Hustler (film)
The Hustler is a 1961 American drama film directed by Robert Rossen from the 1959 novel of the same name he and Sidney Carroll adapted for the screen...
).
In the film, Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
’s character, Vincent Lauria, is presented with a beautiful cue by Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
's character, Fast Eddie Felson. Vincent takes the cue, his reverence obvious, and is told by Eddie "it's a Balabushka." After this, Balabushka's name became associated by the general public with highly-valued and rare cues. The cue actually used in the film was, however, not a genuine Balabushka, but a model 18, Joss brand cue, custom-made to look like a Balabushka. The filmmakers feared that any cue used might get damaged during filming; especially in light of a scene set in a pool room where Cruise's character rapidly whirls the cue around in time to the song Werewolves of London
Werewolves of London
"Werewolves of London" is a rock song composed by LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon and performed by Zevon. Included on Zevon's 1978 album Excitable Boy, it featured accompaniment by bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac.The single was released by Asylum as...
. An original Balabushka was thus considered too valuable to be risked in the production.
Original Balabushka cues with verified provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
may realize tens of thousands of dollars at auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
. In 1994, for example, a Balabushka was purchased by a collector for $45,000. In a 1998 Syracuse Herald-Journal
Syracuse Herald-Journal
The Syracuse Herald-Journal was an evening newspaper in Syracuse, New York, with roots going back to 1839 when it was named the Western State Journal. The final issue — volume 124, number 37,500 — was published on September 29, 2001...
article a collection of 30 original Balabushkas cues and 6 Gus Szamboti cues was estimated to be worth 2 million dollars, the cues said to be the equivalent in the cue collecting world of Rembrandts and van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
s respectively. There are, however, many fake Balabushka cues in existence. Complicating matters, in the 1980s with the permission and license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
of his surviving family, a line of Balabushka replicas began to be manufactured in large quantities by the Adam Custom Cue Company.
