- Billiard hall
:Otheruses4|commercial billiard venues|billiard rooms inside larger structures|Billiard roomA billiards, pool or snooker hall (or parlour or room) (sometimes written poolhall, snookerhall, poolroom, etc.) is a place where people get together for playing
cue sport s such as pool,snooker orcarom billiards . Such establishments often serve alcohol and may have gaming machines,darts ,foosball and other games on the side.Public perception
In North America in the 1950s and 1960s especially, "pool" halls in particular were perceived as a social ill by many, and laws were passed in many jurisdictions to set age limits at pool halls and restrict gambling and the sale of alcohol.cite news
url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0010354 |work=Maclean's
date=March 24 ,1995
title=Pool Gets Respect
last=Chidley
first=Joe
coauthors=Nemeth, Mary
publisher=Rogers Communications
location=Toronto
id=ISSN 0024-9262 Rs|date=August 2008 ] The song "Trouble" in the 1957 hit musical "The Music Man " lampooned this prejudice (even contrastingcarom billiards , requiring "judgement, brains, and maturity", versus pool, said to be a gateway to laziness, gambling, smoking and philandering).Cite video
title=The Music Man
people=Willson, Meredith (writer)
year=1957 (1962)
format= [http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?id=6353 stage] ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056262/ film adaptation, VHS/DVD] )
publisher=Frank Productions, Inc., "et al.", producers (Warner Bros. Pictures )
accessdate=2007-11-13] Public perception had changed considerably by the 1990s.In popular culture
Pool halls necessarily feature prominently in the novel and film "The Hustler", and their sequel book and movie, "
The Color of Money ", as well as other pool films such as "Poolhall Junkies " and "Shooting Gallery ". The historic depth of American pool halls and their subculture was touched on in "The Color of Money" in various ways, including dialogue extolling the virtues of particular landmark venues, the disappointment at discovering one such hall's closure, a comment that regulars at a well-known hall "never leave the street" it is on, and the return of a pool hall janitor in "The Hustler" as a hall owner decades later in the sequel.References
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