Navy Base San Diego 1952

[tommyc]

Old black n white photo/postcard.........It was inside a book i bought some time ago.Pictured is a setting in a large hall of U.S navy personel seated in a large square and it says"Irving Davids plays 40 games simultaneously every Sunday".

Also says " GSO girl helper ". AND THEN OVER 11 YEARS HERE SINCE 1945. Arrrowed is.........FRANK WM Close music teacher Hoover High School San Diego [in civvys]...Interesting? Says photo taken in 1952.

Looks like some kinda covers draped across the ceiling from wall to wall.........dust catchers maybe?

THERE ARE 40 BOARDS N TABLES LAID OUT WITH SAILORS SITTIN AT EACH ONE[most of em in full uniform]. Others are looking on ,some seated [perhaps waitin a turn] im wat looks like gymnasium maybe?

Says on the bottom IN PROPER PRINT........free to military personnel only.Every Sunday 12.30 pm Iriving Davids plays 40 games of checkers simultaneously.Armed Services YMCA San Diego California.Eugene Schram Progamme Director..........then in pen says........Casablanca Africa.
Below thats it says................Every King 5cents Candy bar,Draw 3 pkts cigarettes.Winner $1.25 Dinner.



ON THE REVERSE SIDE............
A picture of a draughts board with
J A Kear 40 Balmoral Rd Bristol England on it.................Game by H.L. Eddy Riverside R.1. Page.409 v .15

Above the board it says "How long is permanent"?? Jan 1952.

another bit says..........in 14 years has become temporary[underlined]Commercial liars.

Does anyone recognise anything here...............old service men maybe?

[JR Smith]

Thanks for sharing... I love seeing and reading about yesterday checkers, but no help here. Maybe Jay, Al, or Pal will respond. A Checker Friend, JR

[Mac Banks]

In 1960 I was in the Navy and assigned to a base in San Diego. I was at one of his demonstrations where he played 40 boards at a time. In fact I played him and beat him and then he quit with the other boards and took me to a private room where the two of us played. He did give out the prizes but the Navy men who played him knew nothing about checkers and most didn't even get a king. One on One I beat Mr. Irving so he quit giving me the prizes that he offered to the others. This was an enjoyable experience for me.

[tommyc]

Nice story there Mac its coincidental that yu actullay were there playing this guy Davids and his photo lands here. I suppose he musta been there a long time there by the 1960s lol."Takin a hand outa da lads" on base.Not many got the "candy bar" by all accounts....you musta got the "dinner" hehehe.
Of course the interest is in the actual photo itself and a piece of Navy and checker folklore.That it landed in Ireland with me is a shock? and a great surprise too.
It may be of some interest to Jay H.Thanks for that Mac and hope yur keeping well ol pal.

[Palomino]

tommy,

Is it possible for you to scan the picture and post it here, or if you can scan it and email it to me as an attachment, I will post it for you.

"Pal"

[tommyc]

Thanks Pal..........that sounds a good idea,ill need to get someone to scan it for me and then ill send it to you?

[Palomino]

Ok tommy,

Have someone scan it and they can email it to me .

[Mac Banks]

Hi Tommy,

Most of the time Irving would play at the YMCA. If I were to rate his strength of play, I would say he would be a good minor player with some knowledge of book on the GAYP as we didn't play anything but GAYP. I was stationed in San Diego from 1960 to 1964. In 1968 I was stationed again in San Diego but Mr Irving never surfaced during this 4 years.
There was a barber who played checkers and would offer you a free haircut if you beat him but if you lost, you would have to pay double for the haircut. I got free haircuts for over 3 years but the barber finally told me that the offer was off the table for me. He didn't even know about the ACF. Don't know the name of the barber. San Diego was the best time ever for me as I was in my twenties and had a ball there.
Take care Tommy, hope you get to come to Las Vegas again someday. If you do you can stay at my house.

[Irma Sierra]

[waynegober]

My parents moved to Southern California in 1956. My dad tell's of a barber shop in the Fullerton area that was a checker mecca. My dad would be probably a strong minor player in those days but played strictly crossboard gayp. He says he went by invitation of an uncle to that Barber Shop and held me as a baby and the boys cleaned him up. I was born in 55 so that was probably around 57 or 58.

Later my parents bought a new home in Westminister, just off of Westminister Ave and 39 if i remember correctly.

My father said a fellow moved in across the street and found out my dad played checkers. My dad said every day when he got home this guy would come running across the street with checkers and a checker board.
This fellow also was my dad's superior. However, dad attributed most of his losses to this guy because of physical fatigue (construction work) and
evidently the other fellow studied checkers till my dad got home lol.

Anyhow, anyone know anything about this barber shop or a Westminister player in the early 60's?

Respectfully,
wayne

[neilwenberg]

This is one of the most interesting topic sites on the ACF site!! Thanks to all those who contributed!

[Palomino]

Tommy,

I learned that one one of these postcards is a part of the World of Checkers Museum collection and thanks to Mr. Checkers I got a photo of it!

I'm assuming this is the same as the postcard that you have..."Pal"

[tommyc]

Sorry Pal.................ive not been on much recently................maybe yu will send me a copy of that photo in an email as i cant open the one yu posted here in the Forum....Tommy

[Palomino]

Sorry tommie,

I didn't know the picture had been taken off the Kodak site. I uploaded it again to Flickr, you should be able to see it now in my above post. ?

Let me know..."Pal"

[tommyc]

Thanks Pal....................this copy is exactly the same as the photo i have yessssss/

Your copy looks quite larger mb it was magnified somewhat.............the original is what looks like a post-card,its approx 6"x4".