As a child I remember my mother telling me about the kidnapping. She never mentioned that chess Master Norman T. Whitaker was involved in a scam involving the kidnapping.
I met Whitaker once at a tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina...he was hawking a book he co-authored with Glen Hartleb titled 365 Selected Endgames. He said, "Learn everything in this book and you'll be a Master." It didn't work, but then I never leaned everything in the book.
The most infamous person in America was probably gangster Al Capone, but people were enjoying the comedy of Laurel and Hardy and W.C. Fields.
It was also the first year that the Federal government reached into people's pockets to snatch a penny a gallon for gasoline. That was even though in 1932 the auto industry was suffering a serious drop in sales. Even so, they still managed to produce some of the most memorable cars in history. Ford introduced the V8, Hudson introduced the Terraplane (an inexpensive, yet powerful vehicle) and all the automakers made important advances in engineering and styling.
We've all seen the disclaimer, “This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental” that is at the end of all movies. It's there because in 1932 the Russian prince who killed Rasputin sued MGM for not accurately depicting Rasputin’s murder in their 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress. Details
Other interesting facts: The University of Southern California was the first to print “property of” on their t-shirts in 1932. An office staple, the staple remover, was invented. The dog in Mickey Mouse cartoons named Goofy debuted in 1932, but his original name was Dippy Dawg. Be thankful you didn't live back then...life expectancy for males was only 61.0 and for females it was 63.5 years.
The following game which won Frank Marshall a brilliancy prize is just a fun game to play over.
A little bit about Marshall's opponent. The September 1923 issue of Boy’s Life magazine had an article about a couple of young men attending New York University, 15-year old David Gladstone (1907 - June 15, 1964, 57 years old) who had graduated from high school in Newark, New Jersey, was one of them and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle touted him as a new chess prodigy. His father had taught him the game only 2-1/2 years previously.
Gladstone was good enough to play in the 1944-45 US Championship (won by Arnold Denker), but finished 17th out of 18 with a +2 -14 =1 score.
At one time he served as president of the Queens Chess Club and he also played for the Manhattan Chess Club.
When downloading the following game it lists him as having been playing for the Manhattan CC, however, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article mentioning the game says he was playing for Rice Progressive. After graduating from NYU he graduated from Harvard Law School and for many years he maintained an office in Brooklyn until around 1949 when he went to work for the State Rent Commission and later when it became the City Rent Commission. At the age of 57, Gladstone suffered a fatal heart attack near his home.
In his notes to this game Marshall noted that while his notes may have indicated that conducting a "tricky and puzzling attack" looked easy, it was, in fact, "a man-sized job over the board."
Frank Marshall–David Gladstone1–0D63New York Met League ChampNew York, NY USA1932Stockfish 15.1
Queen's Gambit Declined: Classical 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.c3 f6 4.g5 e7 5.e3 bd7 6.c1 c6 7.f3 0-0 8.c2 h6 9.h4 a6 10.a3 dxc4 Giving up the
fight for the tempo. Usual is 10...Re8. It's interesting that in my database
black fares poorly in this position no matter what he plays. After the text
white wins half of the games and the other half is evenly split between black
wins and draws. But, that's better than 10...Re8 where white also wins 50% of
the games, but black only a scant 7%! 10...b6 11.d3 b7 12.0-0 c5 13.g3 dxc4 14.xc4 xf3 15.gxf3 b5 lead to a quick draw in Sasikiran,K (2661)
-Zvjaginsev,V (2674) Khanty Mansiysk 2007 10...b5 was suggested by
Marshall. 11.c5 e5 12.dxe5 e8 13.xe7 xe7 14.e2 xe5 15.xe5 xe5
is equal. Eliskases,E-Ragozin,V Semmering 1937 11.xc4 b5 12.a2 12.d3
is not quite as precise. After c5 13.e5 xe5 14.dxe5 d7 15.xe7 xe7 16.h7+ h8 17.e4 b8 18.f4 c4 Black is slightly better. 12...c5 13.e4
As Marshall pointed out, the book line is 13 dxc5. He also commented that his
novelty is no better, but objectively it gave Gladstone more to think about. 13.dxc5 xc5 14.0-0 e7 15.fd1 e8 16.b1 g6 17.e4 white has the more
promising position, but black is not with resources of his own. 13...a5+ 14.fd2 After this black can boast of having a slight advantage. 14.e2
Although 14.Ned2 was satisfactory, this surprising move keeps the balance. b7 15.xf6+ xf6 16.xf6 xf6 17.b1 fc8 18.h7+ f8 19.e4 with a very
sharp position. 14...cxd4 After this ...Bb7 is a strong threat. 14...b7 15.xc5 xc5 16.dxc5 xg2 17.g1 is equal. 15.0-0 dxe3 Marshall wrote,
"As will be seen, the acceptance of the speculative P-sacrifice is playable;
but the return of the P with 15...d3 is simpler." 15...d3 16.xd3 b7 17.b1 fd8 is no more than equal. 16.fxe3 16.b1 This move, which is
quite typical in these types of positions, was much better than the text. d5 17.d6 Equally good was 17.Bxe7 f5 18.xe7 xe7 19.f3 b6 20.c7 d5
and black has a slight advantage. 16...b6 While hardly a mistake, this is
not the best. 16...b7 17.xf6+ xf6 18.xf6 xf6 and positionally black
is better. 17.xf6+ This wily move by Marshall sets a trap into which
Gladstone falls. 17.b1 is also a logical move. After d8 18.xf6+ xf6 19.xf6 xe3+ 20.h1 xf6 21.h7+ f8 Black is better. 17...xf6
To quote Marshall, "This plausible move loses, whereas 17...Nxf6
would have left him with a satisfactory defense. After the text, white's
attack crashes through to victory." 17...xf6 18.b1 xe3+ 19.h1 d8 20.xf6 xf6 21.h7+ f8 22.c7 d7 White has no attack and black's position
remains preferable. 18.b1 Unlike in previous lines this move is now
decisive. Black now has now defense. d8 18...g6 19.xf6 xf6 20.xf6 xe3+ 21.h1 e5 22.cf1 b7 would, at least, allowed black to continue for
a while. 19.h7+ f8 20.h8+ e7 Marshall's next move required some
though because the wrong move would result in giving black some significant
chances to salvage the game. 21.xg7 This is the move that Gladstone
overlooked. Black will find his K wandering in the middle of the boar, and
with most of his pieces serving as just bystanders the result cannot be in
doubt. 21.xf6+ is weaker. xf6 22.xg7 xe3+ 23.f2 23.h1 g5
favors black 23...xd2 24.xf6+ d6 25.xf7 xf2 26.c7+ d5 27.h1
Only this! 27.a2+ This is tempting, but it loses! e4 28.h1 f5
Black's K is safe and he is a R up. 27...a7 28.a2+ 28.xc8 d6 29.d1+ e7 Black is better. 28...e4 29.b1+ d5 30.a2+ draws 21...xe3+ 22.h1 xh4 Marshall commented that black has to take the B. Taking it
results in a forced mate in 10 moves, but all alternatives were hopeless. 22...d4 23.g6 d6 24.e4+ xe4 25.g3+ e5 26.xe4 b7 27.xf7 dc8 28.xe5+ xe5 29.cd1+ d3 30.xd3+ d5 31.xd5+ exd5 32.xd5+ c7 33.c5+ d8 34.d1+ e8 35.g6# 22...d6 23.xf6 e5 24.e4+ d5 25.ff1 c4 26.xd8 d7 27.fd1+ c6 28.d6+ b7 29.xd7+ c8 30.c7+ xd8 31.7xc4 g1+ 32.xg1 bxc4 33.f8+ c7 34.d6+ c8 35.c6+ d8 36.d1+ e7 37.d6+ e8 38.f6# 23.xf7+ d6 24.e4+ d5 25.h5+ g5 26.d1+ Missing the
shorter mate...not that it matters! 26.fd1+ e5 27.xg5 hxg5 28.f7 f8 29.g7+ f6 30.e7 f7 31.xf7 xc1 32.g7+ f6 33.xc1 a7 34.xg5+ d6 35.c5+ d7 36.xa7+ d8 37.c7+ e8 38.g6+ f8 39.f7# 26...d4 27.b3+ e5 28.g3+ d5 29.d6# 1–0
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