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North Hollywood Billiards Closes After 42 Years

The historic venue never recovered from the death of longtime owner Larry Weir.

The venerable , which has been in operation for 42 years on Magnolia Boulevard just west of Lankershim Boulevard in NoHo, closed its doors for the last time last week.  

Run since 1977 by the late Larry Weir, a great raconteur and billiards enthusiast who died in 2009, it was considered one of the preeminent billiard rooms in America. Weir’s infectious charm and love of the game attracted countless billiard champions to the room,  many of whom worked there at one time, including former U.S. Champion Eddie Robin.

“North Hollywood Billiards was the No. 1 billiard room in the country,” said Robin in a 1987 interview. “It had the best equipment and the best players.”  

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According to Chuck Aldrich, another longtime friend and co-worker of Larry Weir and his widow Carmen, the formerly booming business dwindled down to nothing, and Carmen had no choice but to close.

“Business has been so slow,” said Aldrich, an 85-year old former construction worker who remodeled Larry’s home on Chandler in North Hollywood, “and there’s no parking anymore. Back in the day there was a lot across the street, and you could park ten hours for a quarter.  Those days are gone.”

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Originally Tiff's Billiard Room, owned and operated by Billiards legend Tiff Payne from 1962 to 1977, it’s always been a hang-out for lovers of the game.

Payne, known as “The Tiffin Kid” since winning a 1928 billiards tournament in his hometown of Tiffin, Ohio, made his name by taking on the great Rudolph Walderone, now known as "Minnesota Fats," back when he called himself "New York Fats." And he won.  

“Tiff was really funny,  a good character,” remembered Aldrich. “He invented the bubble machine they used on The Lawrence Welk  TV show! One time he was on What’s My Line even.”

Payne and his friend Red Backer, a trick-shot artist, opened the room in 1962, rightly believing that the 1961 Paul Newman movie The Hustler would make pool and billiards seem more respectable. It was a hunch that paid off, and became what Payne called "a lucrative hobby.”

Payne sold the business in 1977 to Weir, a native Angeleno, who made a considerable fortune in a New Jersey trucking business and moved back to L.A. in 1976. He bought North Hollywood Billiards from Payne, and spent $50,000 remodeling.

"It was a real dump," he remembered in 1987. Asked why he bought the establishment, he said, “Because it "always gives me a place to play."

He outfitted his bar with nine beautiful antique billiards tables. Each was immense, weighing almost two tons each, and outfitted with fine Spanish cloth and rare slate. He also installed eight ordinary pool tables for those choosing that game, but he had little interest in pool.

"People in the U.S. don't want to think," he said in 1987. “That's why chess isn't a big game here. Billiards is like chess. It's a thinking man's game.”

When he came to L.A. in 1976, he was a pool player, but could find no games. Then he discovered three-cushion billiards, which differs from pool in that there are no pockets, is played with only three balls, and requires a quick and keen calculus of angles. Although played with pool sticks and balls, it’s a much different sport. As soon as Larry tried it, he was hooked immediately. “It's like a disease,” he said.  

From the start of Larry’s era, the place had a schizoid personality; a peaceful and serious billiards club during the day, and a rowdy pool hall at night. Larry didn’t come in at night.

What he did do was establish North Hollywood Billiards as the preeminent billiards hall in the region. Billiards champion Bill Smith used to manage Hollywood Billiards on Western in Hollywood, but became a regular at North Hollywood, “because I could always get a game.”

Smith, who spoke to Patch from Cocoa Beach, Florida, also known as "Mr. 3-Cushion," is the author of The Concise Book of Position Play. He was but one of many Billiards champions who congregated at Larry’s tables. Frank Torres, a former U.S. champion, managed the place at one time, and played there with Eddie Robin, Allen Gilbert, Jose Hernandez, Paul Ferris, and Charlie Milliken.

“It was a real nice place,” remembered Aldrich, who lives nearby at a Senior residence at Vineland & Magnolia. “And it did a terrific business for many years. I didn’t really work there, but I had keys to the place, and I’d open up some mornings at 7:30. Back then it was mostly gringos, but that changed. ”

“Larry was a good guy," Aldrich said. "He treated me like family. I  liked opening up for him. I live nearby, and it gave me something to do. I told Carmen I’d open for her, but she said it’s just too expensive to keep the place going. And she doesn’t care about billiards. Not like Larry.”

Weir would often hold tournaments, and many of the nation’s champions would compete, drawn by his infectious charm and the familial club scene he created.

“We didn’t come for the décor,” joked Bill Smith. “Because there wasn’t any. We came for the game.” 

“Larry was a real character,” Smith said. “He was a multi-millionaire, had his own cantina in his home with two pool tables and a bar," he said. "Used to open up his place at 7:30 in the morning, stay there until 12:30, and then go out for lunch. Always to the same place, Val’s in Toluca Lake, a very exclusive restaurant. He’d have me and many other friends with him, every day, five days a week. Weekends he spent with his kids.

“He had his own table at Val’s, and would be there every day from 12:30 until  5:00. He never ate much, just drank Sambuca all afternoon. We’d all have full meals and afterwards we’d each have a snifter of Napoleon brandy, which was $75 back in the ’80s! He’s spend about $500 to $600 for lunch everyday.

“After lunch he’d go to another bar and drink Sambuca until he’d meet Carmen for dinner.”

“Carmen’s from Mexico,” said Smith. “She used to be his maid. They have seven sons. For their 20th anniversary, he bought her a beautiful Rolls Royce. On the weekends she’d go out somewhere in North Hollywood with her friends, and every single time they’d get stopped by the police. Four Mexican girls in a Rolls Royce, they’d always get stopped.”

Larry Weir had seven son, including Carlos Weir, who ran the Brawley Billiards Hall in Brawley, California for several years.

His son David Weir has been a fugitive from justice since 2006, when he allegedly killed his girlfriend at the Sherman Oaks home they shared with Larry and Carmen. He then fled, calling his father on the phone to confess the crime. The former manager of the restaurant Lucerna, which was owned by his father, his whereabouts remain unknown, despite the notoriety the case has received since the America’s Most Wanted TV show featured it on an episode. 

During its heyday, North Hollywood Billiards was an ideal place for a young player to learn from the experts. "There's lots of lifetimes of knowledge in this room," Eddie Robin said back in 1987. "It's really an advantage to a younger player to know he can come in here and see several players—not just one—who are extremely knowledgeable. In the '50s in New York, I took a subway for an hour to play with Arthur Ruben, who was then one of the country's top players. Here you can learn from half a dozen.”

Now those young players will have to look elsewhere for a game. Because there’s still many who feel today as Larry felt back in 1987, when he said, “Nothing is more important than billiards.”

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