The year 1951 was the first year Nielsen television ratings came out and the most watched series was Texaco Star Theater, comedy and variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. Milton Berle, a silly, not so funny comedian and Lady: Lucille Ball of whom the same could be said were the two most popular personalities on television.
People were going to the movies to see The African Queen, Scrooge (A Christmas Carol), The Day The Earth Stood Still, Kon Tiki, A Streetcar Named Desire and Show Boat.
The there was a conspiracy theory going around that J.D. Salinger did not write Catcher in the Rye, a coming of age novel narrated by the disillusioned 16-year-old boy who, after being expelled from prep school, explores New York City and grappling with the "phoniness" of the adult world and his own feelings of alienation and loss. It was controversial because of its profanity and sexual content.
If Salinger wasn’t the author, who was? According to the theory it was a CIA brainwashing program using neurolinguistic passages. The fact that Salinger, who was rafted into the Army in 1942, served as a counterintelligence agent probably feuled the theory/
Neurolinguistics is a field of study that explores the connection between the brain and language, examining how the brain processes and represents language. Neuro-linguistic programming is a pseudo-science claiming to improve communication and achieve desired outcomes. There are also theories that assassination codes are buried deep in Salinger’s book.
Alexander (Al) Bisno was bon in Chicago on January15, 1897 and died at the age of 90 in Los Angeles on July 13,1987. A real estate investor, in the chess world he was a patron and benefactor who also played a significant role in other areas of the game such as serving as President of the Manhattan Chess Club (1951) and the non-playing captain of the US team for the USA-USSR team match (1954). He was a negotiator in the 1952 match between Reshevsky and Kashdan. He also served as an official of both the USCF and the American Chess Foundation. Curious fact: Bisno's son was named Paul Morphy Bisno.
Almost none of his games are available, but I ran across the below miniature in which he defeated a National Master. The game was superficially annotated by Al Horowitz in the January 1952 issue of Chess Review so it was probably played in 1951, perhaps at the Manhattan Chess Club. Horowitz had the annoying habit of not giving the date or the event in which games were played.
Harold M. Phillips–Al Bisno0–1C41New York1951Stockfish 17
[%evp 11,34,48,52,48,63,51,62,12,20,9,-11,-1,16,14,21,-152,-135,-140,-211,
-237,-210,-316,-379,-476,-12800] C41: Philidor Defense 1.e4 e5 2.f3 d6
Considered a second rate defense today, this defense is still playable except
at the GM level. 3.d4 This is about the only move you will ever see played
here because black is compelled to exchage ...exd4 which gives white a
dominating center position. d7 The beginning of the defensive setup known
as the Hanham Variation, the idea of which is that black wantsto make the P on
e4 a strongpoint. One disadvantahe is that the N interferes with the B's
development, but that's not really important because there is no way for white
to take advantage of ot. Dpending on how the game goes, black will find a good
fquare for the N later. 4.c4 Aiming at the weak f7 and hoping at some
point to take advantage of it. c6 Only 4 moves in and the position requires
precise play on black's part! Aside from avoiding the disaster given in the
note, 4...c3 opens a diagonal for the Q. 4...gf6 What could be more
natural looking than this? 5.dxe5 xe5 5...dxe5 6.g5 and black is lost. 6.xe5 dxe5 7.xf7+ e7 8.xd8+ xd8 9.f3 with the advantage. 5.c3
This move, the idea of which is to maintain a strong P center in the event of .
..exd4, is not witout merit, but white usually plays 5.O-O and if ...exd4
white can retake with his Q leaving him with a dominating center. e7
This gets slapped with a couple of question marks. The idea of the move is to
avoid any danger from Ng5, but it allows something even worse. 6.0-0
White miises his opportunity and he doesn't get a second chance! 6.b3
Adding pressure to f7. Black doesn't have a really good way to defend it. d5 7.exd5 b5 8.d3 cxd5 9.xb5 gf6 This looks reasonable, but after 10.dxe5 g4 11.h3 Black's best try is xf2 12.xf2 b8 13.xd5 and whiye should
win. 6...gf6 7.e1 c7 Black usually castles here, but he did not, as
Horowitz claimed, fail to capitalize on white's last move with 7...Nxe4 7...xe4 8.xe4 d5 9.xe5 A surprise move that Horowitz missed. xe5 9...dxe4 10.xf7 is obviously good for white. 10.xd5 cxd5 11.xe5 White is a P
to the good plus black has an isolated d-Pawn. Blackls two Bs are not enough
compensation. In Shootouts white scored +4 -0 =1 8.bd2 0-0 9.f1 The
idea is to reposition the N to the K-side, but the problem is that now ...Nxe4
is a good move. Guarding the e-Pawn with 9.Be3 was better. xe4 10.dxe5 10.xe4 is also layable, but it does not have the same force as in the similar
situation nebtioned in the note to move 7. d5 11.xe5 dxe4 12.xf7 Black
could offer the draw with 12..Nb6 13.Nh6+ Kh8 14.Nf7+ or 12...Nf6 13.Ng5+ etc. xf7 would be losing after 13.h5 Taking the strongly favors black. f6 14.xf7+ h8 15.f4 xf4 16.xe7 f5 17.e3 White has good expectations
of eventually winning which he did in 5 Shootouts. 10...d5 11.d3 f5
A good move solidifying control over e4. Horowitz comments that white's K is
insufficiently guarded, but that comment was apparently based on the game's
outcome. Engines )Stockfish, Dragone by Komodo, Berserk and Lc0 all assess the
position as sompletely equal. 12.exf6 Necessary. Otherwise white's e-Pawn
falls. dxf6 Black has somewhat better development, more active poeces and
the f-file on which to operate, but white's position has no exploitable
weaknesses, so the position is equal. 13.g5 But, not after this! This
aggressive looking move is a losing mistake. 13.xe4 xe4 14.g3 White
wants to eliminate the aggressive, and dangerous Ns. f5 14...xf2 is
completely wrong now. AFter 15.xf2 g4 16.d4 xf3 17.gxf3 f6 18.g4
Black has lost material and there has no attack to show for it. 15.xe4 xe4 16.g5 Now this is OK. f5 17.e6 xe6 18.xe6 with a completely equal
position. 13...xf2 Alertly playec. Black now has a decisive
advantage. 14.xf2 There is nothimg any better. 14.c2 xd3 15.xd3 d6 16.h3 h6 17.f3 f7 Threatening ...Bxh3; white is lost. 14...g4+ Best/ 14...c5+ isn't quite so good. 15.e2 e5+ wins a piece. 15.g1 c5+ 16.e3 xe3+ 17.xe3 Has white survived? No. It's black to play and win. xf1+! White resigned 17...xf1+ 18.xf1 18.xf1 xh2# 18...xe3+ wins the Q 0–1