Cork? How much did these balls weigh?

CORK? Wow!!

Mine is 14 lbs.

I guess I'll find out for sure once I can get it drilled. (Pro Shop is on "summer hours" now).

ive seen them from 10 to 16 lbs.. yes, cork :P

The pro who drilled my ball called it "cork" as well. ("This must be about 30 years old", he declared. "I haven't drilled one of these since the late '70s!"). Now, when I hear the word "cork" I picture something like what you find stuck in the end of a wine bottle. But looking into the finger holes, what I see looks more like sawdust mixed with some kind of resin. I found Brunswick's 1959 patent on plastic-covered bowling balls and it appears that my guess was correct:
PDF of Brunswick patent

Here's a webpage that tells a little bit about the introduction of the Crown Jewel, Brunswick's first plastic ball. And lastly, here's a pic of my ball drilled and ready for action.

nice

Yeah, the pro was a little amused to see such an old ball come in for its first drilling. I believe he said it was the oldest undrilled ball he'd had come in to the shop. "You do realize this ball will only go straight, right?" he said to me. "That's all I want it to do," I replied
When he was finished with it, he said it was not unlike drilling concrete. (A slight exaggeration for effect? I dunno!).

I stopped bowling seriously not long after the ball was made, so it's like I'm picking up right where I left off. In 20 years or so I'll start looking at those newfangled reactive balls

Hey, Atomic, I was checking out your band. Good stuff! I'm a guitar player, too, although I've been mostly a couch warrior since my last band broke up ages ago. In the '80s and early '90s I was bashin' out punk rock all around the southern NYS and NYC area.

Memory Lane: Bill Lillard was one of my heroes. Lillard hooked the ball as much as any of the power bowlers of today. His fingers were drilled conventional but his thumb went in only to the first joint. He must have had a double jointed thumb as I have met a few persons who could bend their thumb back towards their wrist. Lillard was noted for his extra high kick by his trailing leg.

Marian Ladewig: I once saw a demo of her showing the value of spot bowling. An opaque screen was set up at the arrows so she couldn't see the pins and Marian proceeded to use the spots to make various spares. The last I checked, Marian is still living. She's in her 90's.

Andy Varipapa was more than a trick shot bowler. He won the All-Star twice while in his 50's and appeared on a bowling show while in his 70's and won the big money prize ($75,000) by rolling 7 strikes in a row. Andy was also one of the first to throw a semi-roller. The trick shot that Chris Barnes favors where he makes the 7-10 on adjoining alleys was part of Andy's trick shot repetoire.

Google reveals that Bill Lillard is still bowling at 80 years of age and carrying an overall average of 200.

As for Varipapa, I mentioned his name to my girlfriend's 75 year-old father and he lit up. Old bowlers still remember Andy with great fondness.

How did Varipapa do the S shot?

Norm Duke has a similar trick. Spins a spare ball slowly down the lane, then shoots regular ball around around the spinning ball, leaving a pin, usually on the left side, and his spinning ball comes along and picks that one up.

I can't see how he always leaves the last pin where the spinning ball is headed. That takes accuracy.