Action
A motion picture about to be made based on my life story
This is a treatment for a book and motion picture about the story of my life, which includes a very unique time in the history of bowling. The late fifties and sixties, this time period was the hay days of action bowling in the metropolitan area. The large new bowling establishments came to New York for the first time; bowling became much more popular than ever before. This was prior to, and including, the early days of the PBA, (Professional Bowlers Association) when the prize money was really low. Most of the really good area bowlers, were action bowlers, even the ones that joined the PBA.
Many of the bowling centers were opened 24 hours a day, most of them had house bowlers that would take on the outside hustlers who traveled around looking for easy marks. Many of the better bowlers became legends in the N.Y. area. Men like Iggy Russo, Richie Hornreight, Joe Santini, Ernie Schlegel, Burt Goodman, Johnny Petraglia, Freddie the Ox, Mike Lemongello, Fats & Deacon, Mac & Stoop, Sis Montevano & Johnny Myers, Lenny Dwoskin, just to mention a few.
You could walk into many bowling establishments any night of the week after midnight, the place would be packed with bowlers and their backers from all over the tri State area looking for the same thing! ACTION. A few hundred people might be there, bookies, shy locks, lawyers, business men, street people, all for the same reason, to watch and bet on some of the best bowlers in the world.
Like sport teams, and horses, the action bowlers had very loyal followings. There were also the backers, many of which had their own stable of bowlers, they would arrange matches and give their bowler a percentage of the winnings, if there were any. They also backed a lot of guys on the PBA tour, and took a piece of the pie.
New York bowlers were known through out the country as action bowlers. This whole scene started to die out in the late seventies, a lot of the bowling alleys were closing down, the ones that remained open started shutting the doors after the leagues ended for the night, the 24hr day no longer existed. We'll probably never see this type of action again.
1 - AC Butch / The Early Years
4 - I Found Heaven
5 - The Hustle
7 - Ave M Becomes a big time Action House
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He didn't think I could pull it off, but was willing to help me anyway; he deposited 30 thousand dollars in my checking account. The money was needed to get the type of credit lines I would be applying for. What he didn't know was that I had enough confidence in myself that I could beat the casinos legitimately and had no intentions of ripping them off. I called my first casino and applied for credit over the phone, at the same time I made reservations for Thursday through Sunday of that week. Larry was going to come with me but couldn't leave until Friday, I was anxious to get there, I was on a real high, and so I left him my car and took the bus on Thursday. As the bus was pulling into A.C. I felt great, there's nothing like the anticipation of four days of unlimited gambling, I'd show everyone what I was capable of, completely on my own. My friend Bob also gave me 10 grand to put on deposit in the cage, he said it should help me get a bigger line from the get go. I checked in, went to my room, took a shower and changed cloths. I was milking the moment for all it was worth, I was bathing in the atmosphere of my casino room and loving it. I was actually glad to have this first day all to myself, it felt great, and I was walking on air. I go downstairs, deposit the cash and go to the credit dept. To my dismay, they only give me a twenty five hundred dollar line. I was very disappointed but said to myself, fuck it, it'll just take a longer to build up my lines. I had all the confidence in the world that I could hold my own with the best of them. I sat down to play some black jack for $25 a card, the real gambling would start the next day when Larry got there. If need be, we would bet a few hundred a roll opposite each in craps, just to make it look good. I ordered Haig n Haig on the rocks (my first big mistake) and started playing. After four hours of drinking and playing, my bet never went past fifty, I was ahead about three hundred ahead and feeling real good. It was about 9 PM; I took a break and called my wife. After I spoke to her, the strangest feeling came over my body, the liquor started going to my head and I was in a cold sweat, I made the mistake (my second one) of going back to the black jack table. To this day I can't figure out what happened, it was like something took over my brain and I had no control over it. I sat down and asked for a five thousand dollar marker off the 10 grand I had on deposit. I bet a thousand dollars and lost five hands in a row. I asked for the remaining five and lost that to. Ten loosing hands in a row hands at a grand each. I walked up to my room in a daze, total disbelieve, it had to be a bad nightmare, and this couldn't be for real. I never felt so sick in my live. I sat on the edge of the bed, the whole room was spinning, I actually would of welcomed death, that's how bad and fucked up I felt. How did this happen, one minute I'm feeling great, I have life by the balls and loving it. The minute, or so it seemed, total disaster, how is this possible. Never in all my years of gambling had I ever done something so stupid, all my friends had, many times, but not me. After about an hour of hell, I remembered I still had the twenty five hundred dollar line of credit. I walked out of my room like a zombie (my third mistake - three strikes and your out) and went back down to the casino, drew out the balance of my credit line and lost two more hands, I was completely broke. Somehow I had the common sense to ask the pit boss to comp my stay, he did. When Larry arrived the next day, he took one look at me and said, you look worse than a bad shit that died, and he couldn't believe how I fucked up. I couldn't go home, I had to figure out what to tell Bob, we stayed until Sunday, and I was a total Zombie the whole time. I came up with a good story along with borrowing some money from my brother on the way home from A.C. Over the next couple of months, I managed to dig my self out of the hole. I actually had one six month period of going down every other week for two or three days at a time without a loosing trip, the worst I did was break even, good money management and a plan, you need it to win. I had gone back to my conservative basics. My biggest hit in that period was 18 grand. I was getting credit lines at all the casinos. Two years later I had a total of two hundred thousand in credit lines. Everything was going great, I started to truly believe this could go on forever, why not. I was living like a king, the best suites, limos, great food and front row seats for the best shows, what could be better, everything was comped and I really had life by the balls. I was gambling for more money than I had ever before, and all I had to do was sign for it, absurd. Every other day I was getting invitations to Vegas, the Caribbean, all over the world, credit lines approved in advance and everything totally free. As usual, fighting with my wife fucked it all up. I went down one week with the wrong head, dropped 10 grand, and decided to put it all on hold until I could get my head straightened out. I wasn't about to make the same mistake as the last time. |
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| as seen on tv wholesale |
