Edward N. Bomsey Autographs, Inc.

Goren, Charles H.
1950s-60s champion bridge player, wrote numerous books & columns that popularized the game

Price:

$125.00

Description:
(1901-1991) World champion American Jewish bridge player and best-selling author who contributed significantly to the development and popularization of the game following Ely Culbertson in the 1940s, rising to prominence in the 1950s-early 1960s. He earned a law degree and briefly attempted a law career in Philadelphia. The growing fame of Ely Culbertson prompted him to pursue bridge competitions, where he attracted the attention of Milton Work, who had developed the Work Point Count system. Goren began helping Work with his bridge articles and columns, and eventually began ghostwriting some of his material. By 1936 Goren had begun his own bridge career and his 1st book on playing bridge, Winning Bridge Made Easy, and quickly became popular as an instructor and lecturer. He became World Champion at the 1950 Bermuda Bowl. His 36 bridge books sold millions of copies (especially Winning Bridge Made Easy and Contract Bridge Complete); by 1958 his daily bridge column was appearing in 194 US newspapers. He also had a monthly column in “McCall's” and a weekly column in “Sports Illustrated”. His 1959-64 TV program, “Championship Bridge with Charles Goren”, was broadcast on the ABC network. Goren's longest partnership was with Helen Sobel, but he also partnered with actor Omar Sharif. Sharif who wrote introductions to or co-authored several of Goren's bridge books, and co-authored Goren's newspaper column, eventually taking it over in collaboration with Tannah Hirsch. As he continued writing, Goren began to develop his high card point count system, based on the Milton Work point count, as an improvement over the existing system of counting "honor tricks." The high card point system quickly gained popularity due to its simplicity. Goren and others later refined the system to account for hand distribution. Goren also worked to popularize the opening of 4-card suits, in contrast to the well-known 5-card majors approach that has become a major feature of Standard American bidding. He helped popularize the Precision bidding method, one of many variants of so-called big club or strong club systems. While few players "play Goren" exactly today, the point count approach he popularized remains the foundation for most bidding systems. He was ACBL 1959 Honorary Member of the Year and ACBL Hall of Fame 1964, and received the 1937, 1943, 1945, 1947-51 McKenney Trophy and 1974 Precision Award (Best Article or Series on a System or Convention). He won: 32 North American Bridge Championships; 1944 & 1945 Vanderbilt Cups; 1937 Asbury Park (now Spingold) Trophy & 1943, 1947, 1951, 1956, 1960 Spingolds; 8 Chicago (now Reisinger) Cups; 1952 Men's Board-a-Match Teams win; 6 Master Mixed Teams wins; 1942 & 1958 Life Master Pairs championships; 1940 Fall National Open Pairs; 3 Men’s Pairs; 1947 Rockwell Mixed Pairs; 1943 Hilliard Mixed Pairs; and, 1945 Master Individual championships. SP, 10 x 8 glossy b&w seated bust portrait signed with sentiment at top; undated.

Condition: Very good, few slight creases at bottom
Type:Photograph