When the 1920s theater at 138 East 14th Street bit the dust in 1997, more was lost than just the Palladium nightclub, which had occupied the space in the 1980s.
On the second floor was the cavernous Julian Billiard Academy, run since 1933 by the Julian family but operating as a pool hall since 1916. Until Julian’s shut its doors in 1991, it was New York’s oldest billiards room and once one of hundreds across the city.
“Old school” is the way ex-customers describe it. Like the rest of this stretch of East 14th Street, it was slightly seedy but safe, attracting “students, actors, businessmen, and bums” and providing “safe harbor at most hours of the night and morning.”
What brought it down? High rent, of course. According to a New York Times article, it went from $300 a month in 1933 to $6,000 in 1987.
”I don’t know what I will do when my lease is up in four years,” the 53-year-old owner [Ron (Julian) Hickers] said as he looked out the window at a luxury apartment building rising across East 14th Street. ”I may just hang it up and go to Florida.”
Today, 138 East 14th Street is the site of NYU’s Palladium Hall dorm.
Here’s a link to a terrific grunge-era photo of the entrance of Julian’s, from a blog called The Devil Wears.
[Top photo: Courtesy Warehouse Magazine]
Tags: East 14th Street NYC, East Village in the 1980s, Julian Billiard Academy, Julian's Pool Hall, old nightclubs NYC, old pool halls NYC, Palladium nightclub
Ephemeral New York 
December 12, 2012 at 1:35 am |
This building is another of the destruction of NYC culture by NYU (the Bottom Line, e.g.), whose pitch to potential students is how downtown is full of culture.
Before it was called the Palladium, the disco, the building was for years the Academy of Music, home to the Stones first US tour in 1965, as well as The Band, Kiss, Iggy Pop, Blue Oyster Cult and others – as well as Julian’s.
Instead of pool at Julian’s, NYU students prefer beer pong, to the detriment of downtown.
December 12, 2012 at 4:42 am |
“Seedy but safe” is an apt description. Went there a few times back in the 80s and most of the pool & snooker tables looked like they were original.
December 12, 2012 at 8:17 am |
Julian’s pool hall was always there. I played in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, and I wasn’t a very good pool player but at least it was a place to go when you had nowhere in the big city to go to. I wonder where losers end going up nowadays?
December 12, 2012 at 10:03 am |
I just remembered at the basement level at the bottom of Julian’s stairway was a tiny bowling alley 3 or 4 lanes. This was in the early 1960s and they had these black guys setting up the pins by hand, of course, some smart aleck Italian Mafia wannabe would ‘accidentally’ toss his bowling ball at the black guys, that would set the up the dago wops into hoots and hollers. I did watch them but never participated. Oh, the things you see at night… Gone forever…
December 12, 2012 at 2:05 pm |
The Men’s room at Julian’s in the ’70s was one of, if not the, most disgusting public restrooms in New York. In the ’70s, that was saying a lot.
December 12, 2012 at 2:29 pm |
It was gross but not that bad, you had to try Clancy’s Bar right across the street at 14th & Irving Place, for the vomiting pits, ugh! Went in once up the stairs and never went back, that place would have you renounce alcohol and find religion very fast. Again, ugh!
December 12, 2012 at 2:50 pm |
[…] The site of NYU’s Palladium Hall was once home to “the cavernous Julian Billiard Academy, run since 1933 by the Julian family but operating as a pool hall since 1916. Until Julian’s shut its doors in 1991, it was New York’s oldest billiards room and once one of hundreds across the city.” [Ephemeral NY] […]
December 12, 2012 at 8:43 pm |
Julian’s was a fine place. If someone considered it seedy, that someone probably had misgivings about all of 14th Street. (Though I must concede that at a time in my youth, 14th Street and Third Avenue was indeed a corner to be on one’s toes, if not necessarily on one’s guard.)
One might have called Julian’s grubby, or one could consider that it had acquired a patina over the years. Some might have considered many of its regulars lowlifes, but those characters were a part of what makes this city so diverse and vibrant.
Have I given myself away — that I really miss Julian’s?
(By the way — thanks, Mick. I couldn’t remember the name Clancy’s. I had more than a few cold ones there before shows at the Academy of Music.)
December 12, 2012 at 9:18 pm |
[…] Remembering Julian’s on East 14th Street (Ephemeral New York) […]
December 13, 2012 at 6:22 pm |
also, this was where The Clash’s iconic cover shot for “London Calling” was taken (Paul Simonon smashing his bass)…a shame. NYU needs to slow the f*#%k down.
December 14, 2012 at 12:52 pm |
Ahh…. learned to play pool there when I first moved to NYC; the Clash, Elvis Costello at the Palladium…
Julians was also where The Hustler was filmed, so I can always relive it.
December 14, 2012 at 1:02 pm |
I’ve always known that The Hustler was filmed at McGir’s Poolhall on 8th Avenue in the 50ths, was exactly like it was in the film.
February 12, 2019 at 5:52 am |
Guess what, folks, you’re both mistaken. The Hustler, a fine movie, had it’s iconic pool scenes with Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman shot at AMES BILLIARD ACADEMY which occupied a second floor loft space in the Claridge Hotel at 44th and Times Square. I know, I used to play there. Used to hang at Julian’s, too. But if you actually watch the movie, you’ll plainly see it’s Ames.
December 17, 2012 at 8:36 pm |
For those of you who really miss certain things about NYC, like the Palladium mural, a before and after photo is here: http://www.rhythmism.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72773
December 17, 2012 at 8:38 pm |
Did I mention I’m one of those people?
July 22, 2013 at 10:17 pm |
Loved shooting pool at Julians. The big tables with leather net pockets…the fans blowing…and the “no alcohol” signs at the entrance, but if you put a dollar in one of the coke machines, and pushed the unmarked button at the far right, an ice cold bud would come out. Definitely a missed landmark.
September 18, 2013 at 7:23 pm |
I used to play a lot at Julian’s from 1965 to 1970. There was a local hustler there who went by the moniker Pablo or Paulo, memory fails me now, but in actuality he was Polish. I used to play him all the time when I was in the neighborhood. I wonder what happened to him? Probably hanging out at Amsterdam billiards now, but I wouldn’t recognize him. He was a fixture at Julian’s then, and pretty good too, but not nearly in the class of Boston Shorty at the 7-11 club (on 52nd and Broadway) in those years.
September 18, 2013 at 7:46 pm |
Back in the 1960s there was a Ukrainian pool shark who always beat whoever he played against. A young guy too, by the name of Red, and always carried his pool cue just ready for a game. In the 1970s he disappeared into Europe where he killed a French cop and was put away for life. I was very happy at the time, I had lost 5 bucks shooting pool but to this day I recall I never paid him a dime, of course I stayed away from Julian’s at the time. When I learned that he had been sentenced I breathed a sign of relief. End of story, I suppose.
October 14, 2013 at 5:20 am |
[…] An Ephemeral reader did, and he sent this photo, from 1933, showing the original location of Julian’s upstairs from an automat. The building was demolished in the early 1980s to make way for Zeckendorf Towers, and Julian’s moved across the street to the old Palladium building, once the Academy of Music. […]
October 18, 2013 at 3:13 pm |
[…] Remembering Julian’s on East 14th Street (Ephemeral New York) […]
January 9, 2014 at 7:40 am |
I used to play snooker with friends at Julians in the early-mid 1960s. I can remember the police detectives shooting pool there. They of course wore white shirts, some with bow ties and their snub nosed .38s holstered on their belts. The Big Apple was still the old NYC I grew up around and loved – not sanitized, not regulated to death; just a great place that was what it was. Julians was just a great part of it.
October 17, 2014 at 7:50 pm |
YEAH BABAY! I want my city BACK! 🙂
October 17, 2014 at 7:49 pm |
I learned to play pool there in 1968 when I was 8… with my dad, who was a “mad Man”- a copywriter at Ted Bates under Jerry Della Femina… draw and follow, my friends…
Never mind all the shows I saw at the Academy and the Palladium… including Zappa’s “In New York” Halloween shows, Neil Young, Jeff Beck, Alvin Lee… and on and on… my first show was The James Gang (with Joe Walsh), Vanilla Fudge, and BB King… 1969…
February 13, 2015 at 4:44 pm |
My “buds” and I always played pool up in Julian’s during the late 50s early sixties. We were in our early teens and loved to hang out there. Tables were $1.25 an hour for two players and $1.50 for three to play.
The tables were magnificent; old brunswicks mahoghany with thick slate tops and a variety of fast and slow cushions. Hustlers abounded in that place and I saw more than a few knife fights break out between regulars and new comers.
One if my favorite guys up there was a one-legged, one armed shooter whose name I have long forgotten, who could beat the pants off you every day of the week – and always by “just one ball”, be it 8-ball, 9-ball, Chicago, Pill pool, or straight 100 point pool. Man that guy was a great hustler…lol. Took me a few times before I realized I was being hustled.
The really sad thing about losing Julian’s was the loss of the people and characters that used that place, and of course the hall itself, and I hated when they changed the Academy of Music theater into the Palladium, although I did see Sha Na Na there after they first converted it… but I remember going to that theater on dates to see two movies, a travelogue, a couple of cartoons, maybe a short film, and a newsreel as a teen- I think it $ .50 or $ .75 for evening shows. The loge and balcony were great places to get to know your girl friend 🙂
I remember the old man at the desk really watched the younger guys who were always putting their cifarettes on the rails, sometimes burning the cloth…oh man he would get hot if he saw you doing that…he’d kick you out and not let you back for months.
I always feel sad that there are no longer places like that around any more. They homogenized pool halls in the late 60s and now they are places to take your girl friend to for a date…too clean for my tastes – no character any more.
There was another pool place over on 23rd and Fifth and Briodway, down in a basement – only had a jandful of tables but the guys there sure has “stick”. That place was pretty much a “money” place and getting a table you had to be able to defend keeping it, and that meant playing for real money. I think it was called O’Brian’s, although memories from55 years ago get a little rusty.
April 17, 2015 at 12:22 pm |
We adolescents played there starting in the 50’s. When new house sticks came in you could choose one, rent it for $2 a month and keep it in a holding area with a tiny padlock.
Three players stood out. “George” ,who ran straight forever. “Prince”, a Puerto Rican sharpshooter you did not want to play 9 ball with. And last and best was a character whose name eludes me. Perhaps not even 5 feet tall (he used the bridge brilliantly), always dressed to the hilt including a fancy fedora, and shot straight as well as I’ve ever seen (with the exception of Mosconi who would play event games at Julians from time to time. I saw Onofrio Lauri get so frustrated playing Willie, he flung his cue across the table into the pack.
If anyone can remember more about my 3 standouts, I would love to hear about it.
May 15, 2024 at 3:02 pm |
I was there in 63? when Mosconi played Lauri. It was Mosconi who threw his cue on to the table. Cue ball Kelly was the referee who straightened up the mess and the game continued.
November 25, 2015 at 4:43 pm |
I was an off & on regular at Julian’s in the 60’s. This place was a vintage “Template” for the old eastside. Standing & looking around was like watching a movie & the characters there, were more authentic then in any movie with pool rooms.. It was always a Real OLD School NYC Scene to BEHOLD!!! A couple other standouts John was a guy named Paul (phenomenal Straight pool player with Great Class (who by the way PERSONIFIED The HUSLER better then Paul Newman or anybody else in may opinion. He had a very Charismatic way of making a bridge with his hand while stroking the cue.) He played with a cool confident demeanor & rarely missed a shot. I prefer not to mention his last name, but he was my best friend back then. Anybody that was a regular knows who I am talking about. Another player I remember was a guy named Junior with a devastating stroke that broke a rack with the fast hardest hitting cue ball I ever saw. I was about 19 then & totally in love with Julians. I hung out there with this guy Paul & we use to go all over the city & he would play & give me money to make side bets. The Cue Lounge in Forest Hills, and many other Pool Halls in the city. Once we were at Guys & Dolls at 170th in the Bronx & he was playing a guy named Stanley Simon. I think Paul was playing bad that night & lost then challenged him to arm wrestling for money.
I don’t remember who won. One time in the winter there were a couple of tough looking eastside guys there in trench coats. One opened his coat from side to side and he had extra inside pockets full of HOT jewelry. He laid some of it on one the tables & a few guys were looking & dickering on price. It was just typical day in Julians. Julians besides the 92 st Y were my second homes. George Mikula could shoot over 300 balls in straight pool. He was the best player & was always there day or night. He was quiet & unassuming & a plain guy. This was a real authentic eastside pool place & along with it. has vanished – so have many of the old relics I grew up around that defined the Old Eastside. I may write a memoir if I can get another Memoir done I have been working on for ever.
November 26, 2015 at 7:46 pm |
Was Paul from Poland? See my comment above from Sep 18, 2013.
January 23, 2021 at 5:41 am |
Wonderful memories thank you for sharing
Neighbors neighborhood s not a ball for tourists it seems… lovely ☺️
March 14, 2016 at 7:31 pm |
i used to hang out there when i was a kid in the early-to-mid 80s. it was great.
January 16, 2017 at 8:40 am |
[…] name borrowing: The rock version of the Academy of Music became the Palladium in the 1970s (with Julian Billiard Academy on the second floor). Today, the site is occupied by NYU’s Palladium […]
November 16, 2018 at 6:46 am |
Are there any references to Elkins and or 7-11 both great rooms. HUSTLER Was FILMEd AT Elkins?
February 12, 2019 at 6:03 am |
Used to frequent Julian’s, it was never hard to find a money game, a great place late on Saturday morning, too, in the winter time.
May 22, 2020 at 6:25 am |
I did a number of oil paintings of Julian’s in the 80’s.
maxferguson.com
January 23, 2021 at 5:36 am |
Juliens had a beautiful black and white checkered floor ! Many music videos were filmed there ! I once followed Julien Sands the actor there … that’s how we found it ! So many interesting people in the neighborhood then !