By Anthony Stoeckert

All it takes is one conversation with Gary Lucchesi to get an idea of how important family is to him. As he shares the remarkable story of the Lucchesi family and its immeasurable impact on the billiard industry, he mentions all sorts of relatives – siblings, aunts, cousins – and remembers the contributions each and every one of them made.

Lucchesi also mentions relatives of other people in the billiard world he has met throughout the years. And he recalls countless names of individuals he and his relatives have done business with over the years. It’s safe to say that small show of respect – taking the time to get know the people he has worked with – has helped Eastern Billiards, the store Lucchesi’s family has owned for generations, succeed throughout good times and bad.

But the story of Eastern Billiards is about a lot more than a store. It is a story of the Lucchesis, and the incredible impact they have made on the billiard business for some 75 years.

Gary’s father, Paul, came to the United States from Italy as a kid, and Paul’s family (which included his parents and his sister, who is still alive at 101 and living in Houston) made their home in Pennsylvania. In the post-war years, Paul and a friend moved to Massachusetts, because they had heard jobs were available there. They ended up in Holyoke, and enjoyed the entertainment the area had – movies, boxing matches, bowling, etc.

They also roller skated.

“He saw this good-looking girl, and he knocked her down on her ass, on purpose, so he could help her get up and say he was sorry and introduce himself,” Gary says. “That turned out to be my mother. It was a good move, he was a slick guy.”

Paul had been married previously, in Pennsylvania, and his first wife died in a car accident. Paul’s in-laws didn’t approve of him being an immigrant, and they raised Gary’s half-brother, Raymond. Meanwhile, Gary’s parents raised their family in Massachusetts, and Paul who had played pool in the service, got a job in a small pool room, working as a house manager and card dealer for a judge.

“In the ’50s, it wasn’t appropriate for a judge to own a local pool hall/card room, so my dad’s name got put on the license to cover for the judge,” Gary says. “That area was later taken over for a municipal parking lot – all the buildings were basically torn down, so my dad was basically out of a job.”

Paul went to the local candlepin bowling alley that had 10 Brunswick Centennial pool tables on the second floor.

“The noise was so much, the pool players didn’t like it,” Gary says. “It was not a successful venture. My dad made a deal to buy the tables – this was probably in the mid-1950s – for $1,000 each.” That was a pretty steep price, but the guy selling the tables accepted payment over time, so Paul took the deal.

That allowed Paul to open his first pool room – in the basement of the Holyoke Knights of Columbus building. As Paul decided what to name his pool hall, he thought of a room a friend of his owned in Northampton, Mass. – the Ivory Billiard Room. Paul asked his friend if he could borrow the name for his pool room in Holyoke, and the friend agreed.

Paul couldn’t afford to pay for someone to service his tables, so he took on that work himself and learned how to cover tables. He bought his cloth in Connecticut, and his wife, Yvette, would dye the stripes of the old cloth to cover the cushions. Paul got to know the family at the Ellis-Mills billiard cloth company in Connecticut, and became an expert in their cloths and products. That led to him taking a job selling cloth for the company. When the company was sold, Paul was working as the New England sales representative, but the new owners, J.P. Stevens, didn’t know anything about the business, and that led to Paul selling billiard cloth around the country.

“He got to know everybody in the industry – manufacturers, retailers, store fronts, table coverers, pool halls – from Maine to Florida, from Florida to Portland, Oregon, from Portland to L.A., from L.A. to Houston and from Houston up to Detroit, he knew everybody,” Gary says.

All of these people also knew that Paul was born in Italy. In the 1960s, after the movie The Hustler was released, a new market for pool was created. Paul’s friends in the business needed slate, which was made in Italy. That led to Paul making trips to Italy and establishing the Eastern Slate company.