I have never seen any biography of Ronald Reagan that includes the fact that was an inductee of the Mechanix Illustrated Hobby Hall of Fame. What a travesty. How can I ever trust them again?
Ronald Reagan - Movielandlubber
ON board the S.S. America on her maiden voyage, actor Ronald Reagan asked to see the blueprints. One look and Reagan, a whittler from way back, was trapped. He wanted to build a model.
“I had all the material,” he says, “but no experience. I had to find out that you don’t put each piece into place as you finish it, that you don’t paint the parts after you have them in place.
“I always carried a piece of the boat around with me and any time I had a spare moment, I’d drag out my knife.”
Finally it was completed—a fine scale model of the S.S. America. And since then, Reagan has made a model of the S.S. Challenge, a C-2 freighter. He plans to continue building model ships because, as he says himself: “a ship is a thing of beauty—-whether it’s on the high seas or on your living room table.”
Caption: Movie star Ronald Reagan, featured in Paramount’s Hong Kong, left surveys his model of the S. S. America, below. It took him a little over a year of spare-time work to complete the difficult job.
I love how they speak in absolutes “never makes a mistake”, “perfect chess techniques”. I’m worndering how it could possibly play chess at all. My guess is that what they mean is it always makes a legal move, i.e. pawns don’t go sideways.
Also, does that board look a little small to you?
Mechanical Chess Opponent
Chess fans can play solitaire against a machine that never makes a mistake. Invented by a Spaniard, the machine teaches perfect chess techniques. Whenever an error is made in play, a light flashes on automatically.
Apparently bowling used to be a lot more popular.
25,000 Bowlers Participate In National Contest
CLOSE to 25,000 bowlers, members of 5,000 five-man teams, recently gathered in Chicago, 111., to attend the mammoth competition sponsored by the American Bowling Congress. The competition lasted for one and a half months and the prizes totaled $290,000. Because of the large number of contestants, the competition was declared to be the nation’s most extravagant sports event. More than forty alleys were constructed at the contest site to accommodate the bowlers.
PARLOR MAGIC with CIGARETTES
IF THE cigarettes themselves could only express the keen competition apparent among their manufacturers . . .well!
Try this: Drop a bunch of one brand smokes into a hat. Take a lone cigarette of another brand and skoot it into the enemy encampment. Bang! Out comes the intruder with much gusto to be deftly caught in your hand. The “how” is absurdly simple. The “bunch” is dropped into the hat, taking care that they land in the far compartment of the crown. The lone cigarette goes into the near compartment. What’s left is merely a matter of voicing a loud “bang” at the same moment you snap the crown of the hat with your thumb, projecting the cigarette high into the air. For so simple a bit of foolery, this goes over nicely.
How to Tie a Cigarette in a Knot
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This looks like a hell of a lot of fun.
Human Squirrel Cage
THRILL ADDICTS registered their screaming approval of a German-made fun machine introduced at Chicago’s Riverview Amusement Park this summer. Little cars circle a drum 27 feet in diameter which supports five circular tracks. The cars are loosely attached to the tracks and, by operating a foot pedal, the rider can lock his car to the track. As the drum revolves at about 15 miles per hour, the cars go around with it. Timid riders can release the brake pedal and their cars merely rock back and forth. But braver souls press the pedals and make like squirrels in a squirrel cage.
Learn all about a new game called Monopoly that is taking the nation by storm.
Feeding America’s Appetite for Games
AMERICA likes to play. Whether they know it or not, millions of otherwise rational Americans are forever waiting to be caught in the craze for a new puzzle, a new diversion, a new game. The very word “game” sounds trivial, but it isn’t. Games have a powerful influence on the social life of the world, and—games are the delight and the despair of the men who invent them.
America likes to play, and is willing to pay for its fun. Right now it is playing a new game called Monopoly. Already the fastest-selling non-card pastime in the country, Monopoly bids fair to break all-time popularity records.
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How Carnival Racketeers Fleece the Public
by EARL CHAPIN
MILLIONS of dollars are taken from the public by clever operators of the smaller sideshows and carnivals who have capitalized upon the American love for games of chance.
Cries of “Try your luck” still meet with ready response despite the fact that one might as well back a three-legged horse to win the Derby as to buck the carnival games and gyp wheels. But the gullible bystander persists. He believes that luck and the law of averages has something to do with it-and he’s right; but the luck is all with the operator. The player doesn’t stand a chance. He can’t win because the games are set against him.
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