Peter Lindhart, alias Peter Rabbit, The Rabbit, or just plain Rabbit to his friends...
That's right if it walks like a rabbit, smiles like a rabbit, looks like a rabbit, but has smaller ears, stands 5'10", weighs 200+, and carries a cue stick --- It's Peter Rabbit.

Rabbit is without a doubt one of the funniest pool players of all time, he could tell you a fairly clean joke every minute for days. He always has a smile on his face and laughs all the time. Truly a delightful personality.

My thoughts of Rabbit go something like this, ie;
1964, I'm living in West Palm Beach, Fl., I just beat Fats in an exhibition match at the Carefree Theater in West Palm.

A couple of days later I'd heard a poolplayer by the name of Peter Rabbit beat Fats 5 games in a row of one pocket for $300 a game at the Congress Bowl in Miami.

The next day I heard Fats came back and beat the same Peter Rabbit 5 games in row for $500 a game.

Looking back now in retrospect, Fatty was both a better player and definitely a better gambler. Peter, however, when he was spinning his ball perfectly was capable of beating anyone at times. Boy could he spin the cueball, he spins it more than anyone else in the world.

The first time I played Rabbit was about 1972, we were at "The Rack" in Oak Park, Michagan.

We were playing 3 cushion billiards - 15 points, for $200. Peter was getting staked ( he had a backer ), I was betting my own money.

At "THE RACK" betting $200 was like playing for fun.
Rabbit beat me 15 to 11, or thereabouts. I liked the game and paid off preparing to play another. Peter walks over to his backer, hands him a hundred and says " You're Fired! ", then he laughs an infectious laugh that gets the whole room laughing with him.

Rabbit walks over to another person ( Charlie ) and tells him he can have the privilege of backing him against me, playing the same game he just beat me at.
Rolling over him by a decisive margin, Peter went over to his new backer, got the $200, paid me and quit.

Laughing and all smiles, he said to his first backer "now aren't you glad I fired you, we both locked up a hundred, Reid broke even, I can't help it if Charlie blew the $200".

Moment of silence, then Rabbit starting laughing that infectious laugh and telling Charlie how unlucky he was, all the while laughing at him and the way he broke even with me and made a $100.

Before you knew it he had everybody in the room laughing with him, even Charlie...

Another memory of Rabbit goes something like this;
There's a one pocket tournament at Pete Fusco's Family Recreation in Feasterville, PA.. I beleive it was $200 entry fee and $10,000 added, not sure. Anyway, it drew a great field of one pocket players

Rules were; Lag for first break, then alternate the break after that. Race to 5 games (5 out of 9).
Rabbit was playing Joe Visi, the score was 4 to 4 in games, Joe had 7 balls and Rabbit 6, 2 balls left.

Joe had the upper left pocket, Rabbit the right.

Visualise a ball frozen on the rail 1 diamond above Visi's pocket, the other ball is in the middle of the rail between their pockets, the cueball is about 2 inches off the end rail and maybe 3 or 4 inches from the pocket cattycornered to Visi's pocket. Rabbit was in a tough spot to say the least.

Rabbit jacked up and looked to be spinning the ball a tremendous amount. He fired hitting the object ball that was frozen against the 1st diamond, the cueball stopped but kept on spinning. When the object ball came off the second rail I thought it was looking real good to have a chance to go 5 rails into Rabbit's pocket and if it goes he'll be sitting pretty to make game, set, and match ball.

The ball came off the 5th rail and looked like it was going in, the crowd stood up and started cheering and yelling for Peter.

Then about a diamond and a half from Rabbit's pocket the ball hit a piece of chalk and was thrown left, it hit the rail and bounced up leaving Visi a crosscorner bank, which he made.
Since it was the last match to end in that time slot, Pete Fusco walked out to congratulate the players on a great match and asked the crowd to give them another hand. The crowd obliged and gave a riproaring round of applause and accolades, mostly for Rabbit's effort and the shot that he almost made.

Rabbit held his hand up smiling, saying yeah, yeah. He held his hand up till everyone stopped applauding. Then he announced loudly to the whole crowd!

Yeah, that's what I'll tell my landlord tomorrow when he asks for the rent. I'll tell him I don't have any cash to give him, but I've got lots of applause.

Then he'd start that infectious laugh again...

The last time I saw Rabbit he picked me up at the Philadelphia Airport, we rode around for a few hours going to all the pool rooms, saying hello to people I know.

Rabbit told me joke after joke while we were riding around, I was in stitches the whole time.
Then Rabbit asked me. "When you're betting your own money, how is it possible to play better for $100 than you can for $50. When I play Visi $50 one pocket, I beat him even. For a $100 he gives me a ball".

And beats me! Then he starts laughing again...