George Balabushka

George Balabushka (Russian: Григорий Антонович Балабушка Grigoriy Antonovich Balabushka; December 9, 1912 – December 5, 1975) was a Russian-born billiards cue maker, arguably one of the most prominent members of that profession. His full name or last name standing alone is often used to refer to a cue stick made by him. )

Employment Balabushka's first job was as a wooden toy designer and maker, then located at 71 West 23rd St., in Manhattan, which made building blocks for nurseries and schools. As Balabushka's carpentry skills deepened he began building accordions 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. At the time he started, there were very few private cuemakers, the industry being dominated by large manufacturers. In 2004, he was inducted into the Meritorious Service category of the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.

alt= Photograph of upright pool cue with written labels naming the technical term for each part of the cue and lines drawn from each label to pinpoint the part described.

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). 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). The filmmakers feared that any cue used might get damaged during filming; especially in the 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. 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.