Bradshaw wrote his book Fast Company at the end of an era. The nature of the professional gambler has changed. Just a generation ago, the prototypical pro was a hard driven hustler who leapt from the pages of a Damon Runyon story. Most contemporary professional gamblers as likely to rely on mathematics and computer models as nerves of steel. The old-school hustler and road gambler is a thing of the past, and they are quickly passing from memory, as well as departing this mortal coil. One place where these characters have been frozen in time is in Jon Bradshaw's book, Fast Company.
In Fast Company, Bradshaw is not merely recounting the lives of professional gamblers, he has narrowed in on a specific subset, the hustlers. These are the folks who not only end up with their opponent's money, but leave them wondering how it could have happened. The people Bradshaw chose to profile in this book are Puggy Pearson (Poker), Bobby Riggs (Tennis), Minnesota Fats (Pool), Tim Holland (Backgammon), Johnny Moss (Golf and Poker), and Titanic Thompson (just about everything). It would be hard for me to imagine a finer representation of the great names in 20th century hustling.
Each of these stories is an exquisitely written profile describing what makes the subject tick. Bradshaw not only relates these folks' stories, but gives them a real presence. These characters really come to life in these pages, and the reader gets a real sense of what it would be like to square off against these colorful personalities. If they read like Damon Runyon stories, it's no wonder, as Titanic Thompson was the model for Runyon's character, Sky Masterson, and Minnesota Fats was known as New York Fats until he took the name of the character in The Hustler who may or may not have been based on him. In fact, many of these folks overlapped with each other and Runyon in New York.
Of all of these portraits, my favorite is that of Titanic Thompson. Now here is a character who is truly larger than life. Given his reputation, it's a wonder that anyone would bet with this man on anything. In any case, an entire book could easily be written about Thompson's exploits, but many of his most famous escapades are made available here, and this is just one of the fascinating characters profiled in this work.
Many of the subjects of Fast Company are not universally known as upstanding citizens. In some sense, all of the people the book profiles live on the fringes of society. This is not to say that they're criminals either, but their places in the world aren't easy to define. The author doesn't pass judgment on these characters, although he obviously romanticizes them. It is the fact that they are both successful, at least by some measure, and that they don't fit into convenient categories that makes them so vivid, and this quality comes through in Bradshaw's writing.
It's a shame that Fast Company is out of print. In many ways, it's a monument to a bygone era. The road gambler and hustler is all but extinct, and it's not likely that their kind will soon pass our way again. All we have of these fascinating individuals are the memories of their escapades. It would be a tragedy if these memories were to fade away as well. I believe that anyone who gets a chance to acquire this book should avail themselves of the opportunity.
Fast Company is an out-of-print classic chronicling the adventures of six infamous "old school" hustlers. While the author occasionally gets overly romantic regarding these vintage characters, there is no doubt that these are fascinating individuals whose stories are worth retelling. I very much enjoyed this well written testament to a bygone era that is starting to fade from our memories.
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