As I mentioned in the "About the Artist" page, Mr. George Frank had built up a nice Pool Hall Franchise headquartered right in our hometown of Billings, Montana. He had two locations in Billings and at one of them he had hired Lyndon Pomeroy to do a Double-Life-Size steel sculpture of a man shooting pool. One day Mr. Frank told me that he wanted to have such a statue at each and every location. He asked if I would like to make them since Mr. Pomeroy was not interested in doing any more of them (I later found out why).
I jumped at the chance and started doing a scale model with my torch. It didn't take long to figure out that the techniques I had been using up to that time were not appropriate for this project (unless I wanted to put about a year-and-a-half into each piece). I didn't even finish the model. This large-scale stuff was right up Mr. Pomeroy's alley. For me, though, it was a brand new experience. But, I bought myself a MIG Welder and got crackin' on a full-size statue. While making that first one, I had the hardest time not putting too much detail into it. I should have made a scale model using the MIG, but I was running out of time. The result was that the first one took way too long to build. But, it did look good and Mr. Frank bought it and shipped it down to a new Pool Hall in Las Vegas.I took a picture of it standing next to my car before it was shipped.
Now Mr. Frank said he would like me to build some more. However, he said he could only afford to pay a fraction of what the first one had cost. My brother was a contractor at that time and he used to say, "I figure that I lose an average of about $2,500.00 on every house I build. But I make it up in volume." Well, I had lost money on that first statue, and even though I probably should have asked my brother for his opinion, I told Mr. Frank that there was no possibility that I could make those statues for less money. He countered by asking what I could do for $1,500.00. I replied that, after paying for the steel, I might have enough money left over to buy pizza and beer, but not to make a statue. He asked again what $1,500.00 would buy and I told him it would be so simple as to be hideous. He said, "Show me what you can do."
So, I made a small scale model and I made it so simple that it really was hideous. Everything was square - the arms, legs, torso and even the head. It looked like a robot from a 1950's grade-C sci-fi flik. I made sure it was so unmitigatedly aweful that Mr. Frank would just have to see the error of his ways and agree to pay more money for the statues.
When Mr. Frank came by to see the model, I pulled the shades down and locked the door so no one else would see the monstrosity. I pulled it out from behind the woodpile and showed it to him. He looked at it and asked, "That's what I can get for $1,500.00?" I answered, "Yup, that's it." He said, "Make me two of them." I almost got sick. What I didn't know was that Mr. Frank had already sold sculptures to two franchises and had only charged $1,500.00 for each of them. Not only did he want them, he wanted them fast.
I made the first one just like the model, but when it came time to put my name on it, I almost couldn't do it. In fact, I'm not sure whether I did or not. For the second one, I felt compelled to make it nicer, but it was still horrible. After that, though, Mr. Frank and I came to an agreement we could both live with. I continued making them for a couple years. Mr. Frank shipped them all over the country, usually in a little half-ton pickup.
This lasted until Mr. Frank's business went bankrupt. That was a very hard time for him and me both. I learned many lessons from this experience and I will always appreciate Mr. Frank giving me that opportunity.
On a more trivial note, out of all the Pool Players I made, I only actually saw two of them after they left my shop. One ended up back in Billings. Mr. Frank's son-in-law started a nursery/garden center. They took one of the statues and had someone weld a goofy hat on his head and a hoe-shaped blade to the end of the pool cue, so he looks like a gardener now. I need to get a photo of that one. The second one I saw while I was on a cross-country drive. I think I was in South Dakota, driving through some town or other. There I was, minding my own business when I looked over and - there IT was! It was the hideously freakish robot-man! I kept going and didn't stop driving for a day-and-a-half. I don't want a photo of this one!
Another trivial note. When Roger Clawson did the newspaper article (mentioned in the "About the Artist" page), the photographer wanted a picture of me in my studio. For some unknown reason, he wanted that ugly, square robot-man model in the shot. Luckily, I was able to put a welding cap, goggles and gloves on him before he took the shot.
A little more trivia. While I was working on this website, I did a search for images of pool players. Two more of them popped up! My cousin actually found one photo before I did. It shows a bike club standing under the pool player. What they wrote was kinda funny. They said they were on this trail in Iowa when they came across a statue of a guy with dreadlocks playing pool out in the middle of a field! They were naturally curious.
The second one I found is in a sign graveyard in Las Vegas. It's the first one I did! There are actually quite a few pictures of him on the web. Unfortunately, it looks like someone decided he needed to be painted, so he now has faded blue jeans, a faded red shirt and other assorted faded colors elsewhere.
* All descriptions and all images (except the last three on this page) are copyrighted by J.P. Pendergrass and cannot be used without my expressed permission.
