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From the time that John Moses Brunswick built his first billiards
table back in 1845, the company he founded has remained
 singularly dedicated to premier design, superior craftsmanship, and
uncompromising quality and performance. It is no wonder that, for
more than 150 years, owning a Brunswick table has been a matter
of pride and prestige.
In 1845-and the decades that followed-a billiard table was a
fine status symbol. The mere presence of a table stated that you
were a person of wealth and influence…because you could afford
a table, you could afford a home large enough to accommodate
one! But a man of influence and position had more than one
reason to own a billiard table. Aside from the pure enjoyment of
the game-and impressing guests-a man could complete
negotiations over a friendly game of billiards. Whether commercial,
political, or even military, serious issues could be discussed, and
deals could be struck, over the neutral ground of a billiard table.
John Brunswick recognized that his customers were affluent and
educated so he built tables that appealed to their elite and elevated
tastes. In fact, it is because of this that Brunswick became the very
first American brand name with true prestige.
The first real American celebrity who owned a Brunswick table
was an immensely important person in American
history-Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a self-confessed
“billiards addict.” He described the game as a “health inspiring,
scientific game, lending recreation to the otherwise fatigued mind.”
It is quite possible that critical issues of national interest-slavery,
international relations and the civil war-were handled over the
slate of a Brunswick table.
General George Custer also owned a Brunswick table. One
can only imagine the important issues he might have discussed with
other military leaders over that table.
We know of one account in the 1890s, when Buffalo Bill Cody,
Texas Jack Uhumbro and Wild Bill Hickock were touring with
their “Wild West” show… While drinking in a tavern in Boston, a
group of about thirty longshoremen decided to see how tough
these “Westerners” really were. Well, Hickock grabbed a pool
cue, and about one minute later, there were four people left in that
room-Hickock, Cody, Texas Jack, and of course, the bartender.
Now, maybe it was the beautiful styling, or the craftsmanship, or
the sturdy construction. But when Buffalo Bill bought billiard tables
for his hotel in Cheyenne, you can be sure that night in Boston had
something to do with his decision to buy Brunswicks.
The foremost captains of industry - Andrew Carnegie, John D.
Rockefeller, William Vanderbilt, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan
and William Randolph Hearst-all of these people owned
Brunswick tables. And we can only speculate what issues were
discussed, what negotiations were undertaken, and what matters
were handled over a game of billiards.
Teddy Roosevelt-our Secretary of the Navy and the hero of
San Juan Hill, the President of the United States and, later, a
distinguished wild game hunter-owned a Brunswick table. How
many of the decisions that shaped our world were reached over a
Brunswick table?
Among sports figures and celebrities, Mark Twain, one of our
nation’s most renowned authors, Babe Ruth, one of our great
sports legends, and Humphrey Bogart, one of our greatest
actors…all owned Brunswick tables. Nat King Cole, Lou
Gehrig, James Dean, and of course, Frank Sinatra owned
Brunswick tables.
There was a Brunswick table in the White House during the
administrations of several recent presidents. And when President
Eisenhower established Camp David, it was furnished with not
one, but four Brunswick tables. Every President from
Eisenhower-Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Clinton -has used
those tables.
A stream of notable visitors, including Winston Churchill, Nikita
Krushchev, Charles de Gaulle, Anwar Sadat and King
Hussein, all knew those tables. Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan were known to be pretty good players. What
issues of world security, what areas of common ground, what
conflicts were settled over those Brunswick tables?
A Brunswick isn’t just a table, it’s an experience.
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