“I
consider Chivalry a remarkably interesting and amusing game of skill for young
or old.”
HARRY NELSON
PILLSBURY (United States Chess Champion 1897-1906)
“I
have no hesitancy in saying that I think Chivalry superior to checkers.”
H. DAVIDSON
(Chess and Checkers Expert)
“Chivalry is more easily learned than chess, since it is not so complex.
The possible combinations are entirely different from those of chess, but are
equally profound and pleasing.”
F. W. BERRY (Chess
Expert)
“New as it is, the
game of Camelot is a classic. Camelot is America’s contribution to the world’s
great games. It is this century’s contribution to the great games of all time.”
ELIZABETH CLARK
BOYDEN (Noted Bridge and Backgammon author)
“There is no question
about the remarkable excellence and lure of the game Camelot. It is easy
to learn, it is difficult enough to fascinate, a pleasant relief from the
deepness of chess. It has given me
real and exciting pleasure. The author of the game has given us something
that cannot fail to reach an immense permanent popularity.”
JOSE RAOUL
CAPABLANCA (World Chess Champion 1921-1927)
“Camelot is a
remarkable game – I play it a lot.”
SIDNEY S. LENZ
(World-famous Bridge player)
“Not since medieval
inventors developed Chess has there been a new game equaling Camelot in merit
and interest. I greatly enjoy playing it. Its place is in the front rank of
games. It is a bright, active, lively game, much more exciting and fascinating
than Checkers and far simpler and easier than Chess.”
FRANK J. MARSHALL
(United States Chess Champion 1907-1936)
“The game is one of
dash, daring, plots, counterplots, unexpected happenings, putting Camelot in a
class of its own. It is a masterpiece in games – a new delight.”
E. V. SHEPARD
(Noted authority on Bridge)
“Unlike any other game
in its unique atmosphere and charm. It has added another pleasure to life.”
MRS. PRESCOTT (EMILY STANLEY)
WARREN (Noted Bridge and Mah Jongg author, and author of the
1930 book
Games For Two
that featured an entire chapter on Camelot.)
“In Camelot Mr. Parker
has originated a new and brilliant game of extraordinary fascination. Easily
learned, its liveliness of action opens the field for adroitness and strategy of
the highest type. Camelot is one of the few really great games.”
MILTON C. WORK
(World-famous Bridge bidding authority and author)
“Growing in popularity
is a new game—simpler than chess, more complicated than checkers, a cross
between the two—called Camelot. Played with 26 [sic] "knights" and "men" on a
squared board, the object of the game is to get any two pieces through the
opponent's forces and into two starred squares in his back line. Created by
George S. Parker of Salem, Mass., inventor and longtime manufacturer of more
than 200 games, Camelot is played and recommended by Bridge Experts Milton C.
Work, Sidney S. Lenz, E. V. Shepard; Tennis Players Marjorie Morrill, Francis T.
Hunter; Lyricist Howard Deitz; Socialites Anne Morgan, Mrs. Prescott Warren.”
From TIME
MAGAZINE of September 8, 1930.
“Willoughby Jones, national Camelot
expert, and Edgar J. Davis, Harvard law student and winner of the
recent Metropolitan Theatre tournament, who played several exhibition matches at
Jordan's yesterday.”
From the BOSTON
HERALD of
April 1, 1931.
“Capablanca, who has
just left for Havana to spend Christmas at his home in Cuba, also explained some
of the mysteries of the new game Camelot. He then proceeded to defeat Jacob
Maghloff of the Jewish Morning Journal in an exhibition match.”
From the NEW
YORK EVENING POST of December 27, 1931.
“First Camelot
tournament in Manhattan, sponsored by expert Camelotist Anne Morgan, was played
last week at the clubhouse of the American Women's Association, refereed by
onetime Chess Champion Jose Capablanca, won by a Miss Elizabeth Wray. Named,
for no particular reason, after King Arthur's hometown, Camelot was invented
three years ago by George Swinnerton Parker, head of Parker Bros. of Salem,
Mass., who manufacture more games than anyone else in the U.S. Camelot is
played with pieces resembling pawn chessmen on an irregularly checkered board.
It comes in "editions" of which Parker Bros. say they have sold 2,000,000.”
From TIME
MAGAZINE of February 1, 1932.
“After the dinner, for
a change, bridge was played. Mr. Culbertson played incognito. Mr.
Lenz went back to his golf, his ping-pong, his magic, his camelot and his chess
with José R. Capablanca (World Chess Champion 1921-1927).”
ROBERT NEVILLE,
in an article written about the concluding social festivities hosted by Ely
Culbertson for the press at the conclusion of the famous bridge challenge match
of 1931-32 between Culbertson (the inventor of Contract Bridge) and Sidney Lenz.
“In
1929, George Parker gave some thought to the ambitious project of inventing a
game that would be faster than checkers and as fascinating as chess. In a
game called Camelot he came amazingly near achieving his ambition, and there are
many who believe he succeeded. It had been one of Parker's beliefs that
you cannot improve on a well-established game like checkers, for the reason that
the public will not stand for having an old favorite's face lifted. He
still feels that way about it, but Camelot was sufficiently different from
checkers to take it out of the face-lifting category. There was already in
existence an old game of his called Chivalry, played on a board that looked like
an overgrown chessboard. Parker took Chivalry, brooded over it,
experimented with it throughout a trip up the River Nile with his brother
Charles, drew up new rules, and emerged with Camelot. George Parker thinks
Camelot is his finest “origination” in board games of skill. Such chess
greats as the champions Capablanca, Lasker, and Frank Marshall wrote glowing
letters of tribute to its publishers after playing it. The play of the
game results in delightful combinations and absorbing problems not at all like
those of chess, nor restricted to those of checkers, said the man to whom the
mysteries of this game were revealed under the shadow of the pyramids. The
familiar phenomena following in the train of a successful game made themselves
apparent. Photographs appeared in the papers showing Anne Morgan playing
Camelot with Capablanca. Cartoonists drew pictures captioned "Einstein
could be a bear at Camelot." Chorus girls played it for news
photographers. After spending a month writing a book on how to be an
expert, Cameloter Sidney Lenz, the bridge expert, anticlimactically lost a game
to a man who claimed that he had never played it before.”
From THE SATURDAY
EVENING POST of October 6, 1945.
“A
visitor popping into the Parker home ... will probably find its proprietor
relaxing by the fire with Mrs. Parker or a guest over a game of Camelot ... .”
From THE SATURDAY
EVENING POST of October 6, 1945.
