St. Louie Louie: The Rise and Fall of a Pool Hall Legend
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, in pool halls across St. Louis, there was a player people spoke about in hushed tones. They called him St. Louie Louie, a natural talent with a cue stick who could run a table clean and leave even seasoned players high and dry. But his reign didn’t last forever.
Mark O’Brien, a listener of Our American Stories and the author of Have Pool Cue Will Travel, shares the true story of St. Louie Louie’s rise, untimely fall, and enduring legend.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.4 | This is our American stories. |
| 0:17.0 | Up next, a story from Mark O'Brien who listens to us on K-M-O-X-A-M in St. Louis. |
| 0:23.6 | And this story is about one of his personal heroes. |
| 0:26.6 | Mark is the author of Have Pool Q, Will Travel, which outlines this true character. |
| 0:33.6 | Here's our own Monty Montgomery with the story. |
| 0:46.8 | Pool is a sport with a rich history to it, and today it's one of the most popular participation sports in America, and there are countless names which have gone down as the best players |
| 0:51.9 | of the game, including St. Louis Louis. |
| 0:55.4 | Here's Mark O'Brien with more on this interest in character. |
| 0:59.8 | I met Louis when I was 15, and that was in 1970. It was at a small pool room in St. Louis. |
| 1:08.7 | I had heard some stories about someone named St. Louis Louis. I heard him over and over |
| 1:13.5 | again. I never met him. I thought he would be a guy about 50 or 60 years old. And one day I'm in the |
| 1:21.3 | pool room practicing. And a guy about 21 walked in. And you would have thought a celebrity walked in |
| 1:29.3 | all the old-timers in the pool room right about the same time they said it's |
| 1:35.3 | Louis it's Louis and everybody shook his hand hugged him blah blah blah and from that day on he |
| 1:43.3 | became my hero. |
| 1:47.0 | Louis was one of the most charismatic people I've ever met. |
| 1:52.0 | That didn't have anything to do with Poole. |
| 1:54.0 | When Louis was around anybody, anywhere at any time, all the eyes were on Louis. he just had a way of making you feel good |
| 2:04.1 | smile laugh he was like a magnet his skills were incredible and he has been called by |
| 2:13.0 | hundreds of people maybe the greatest shopmaker in pool history. Louis Roberts could cut a pool |
... |
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