This World of Leisure pool table, circa the 1970s, has found a new home in Fullerton, CA. For the past 10 years, it’s been in musician Kevin Manok’s home in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Prior to this, it was in Dana Point, CA and before that, well I don’t know that was before I started working on the pool table. But now Kevin has sold it to a nice family of four from Fullerton, CA. Being a pool table mover takes us to many different parts of Orange County and we get to meet many interesting people. I call this pool table the widowmaker because of its one-piece slate design and the fact that the slate weighs 450 pounds by itself. Nowadays, all World of Leisure pool tables are built with a three-piece slate design. But back then the big three pool table manufacturers, Golden West, World of Leisure, and Ohlhausen all built their tables with a one-piece slate design. I don’t know which manufacturer was the first to return to a three-piece design, but they all followed suit quickly.
In principle, the one-piece slate design pool table makes sense. It’s much easier to level and install a one-piece slate pool table versus a three-piece slate. There are no slate seams to fill and most of the time the felt is glued directly to the slate. The huge misconception those pool table shoppers had shoved down their throats by the salesmen of the time, was that the one-piece slate design was the best thing since sliced bread. That was the furthest thing from the truth.