At The Pool Table

An early sketch for "F.P.A. [Franklin P. Adams] At The Pool Table" by John Falter.

By NEWMAN LEVY

Watching the balls as they merrily click

Sir Dixon and Tachau and King,

Keenly alert to each nuance and trick,

The stance of the players, the poise of the stick,

If some one should blunder to see it they're quick,

Are Dixon and Tachau and King.

They sit and remember the Players of yore

Do Dixon and Tachau and King,

Those gay, golden fellows who've passed on before,

Don Marquis, Frank Adams and Jack Barrymore,

Immortal Mark Twain -- ah, they've memories galore,

Have Dixon and Tachau and King.

And so if perchance I pass three score and ten,

Like Dixon and Tachau and King,

I hope that the youngsters who come around then

Pursuing the eight ball will glance once again

And regard me as I do those ever young men,

Dixon

and Tachau

and King.

Newman Levy joined The Players in 1941. His verse and short fiction were published in The New Yorker and collected in three books. When George Gershwin asked, "I wonder if my music will be played a hundred years from now?" Levy is said to have answered, "Yes, if you're around to play it!"

Copyright 1968 by The Players, New York. Faithfully reproduced from The Players After 75 Years, edited by George Woodbridge Stewart, whose Editor’s Note reads in part: “…we defy any one to reveal the full nature of our Club. At best we can barely suggest the warmth and humor and disarming and refreshing nature of our association. The nuances, the chuckles, and for that matter the passing tears are the texture of our living membership.”