Billiard Tables on the Big Screen

Once I was reading something about Martin Scorsese where it said that he had directed a Michael Jackson video. Some time later I was watching something on YouTube when it popped back into my head. So I searched for the first Michael Jackson video that came to mind, Beat It. When I got to the part of the video that's shot in what appears (at first glance) to be a poolhall, I naively assumed it was the work of Scorsese. Only because it reminded me so much of the scene he would later direct in The Color of Money at Chalkie's, where Vincent plays Mozel. But I quickly figured out it Beat It was not directed by Scorsese. It was the video for Bad—lamely excerpted from an 18-minute film—that was directed by Scorsese. A different Italian-American, Bob Giraldi, was the director for Beat It. Regardless of who directed what, I couldn't help but notice the pocketless tables in Beat It. I thought "that's pretty bad ass to film around billiard tables." No doubt 99 percent of all people who've ever seen Beat It have overlooked the absence of pockets. But it was cool watch Beat It again after so many years. I had long known about the Eddie Van Halen solo in the song. But what I didn't know was that, during the recording of the solo, "a technician who was unaware Van Halen was beginning a take knocked on the studio door, entered and quickly closed it when he realized his error. Afterwards, it was jointly decided to leave this mistake in; the knock on the door is clearly audible just prior to the launch of Van Halen's guitar solo."

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, Yvonne brought home "Mean Streets," which is an early film by Scorsese. We finally got around to watching it last night. Pool is sprinkled throughout this movie, but there's an extended fight scene that takes place in a downstairs or basement poolhall. Acccording to the dialogue, it's on King Street. I would love to know where this poolhall is or was actually located. Check out the scene here (or go to bottom of post). The beginning of the clip shows them driving from high overhead, and I cannot for the life of me figure out where it was shot. If you watch closely you see that they make a left turn onto a one-way street that's going the opposite direction. Then all of a sudden it jumps to them on Bleecker Street about to turn right (downtown) onto Bowery. A summary of Mean Streets can be read here here. In this clip there are billiard tables, pool tables and what appear to be snooker tables: