Frances Young Flintom
Full Name
Frances Young FlintomRole
Backgammon PlayerPerson Description
Frances Young Flintom was a reputed California bridge expert and backgammon authority who popularized the game by means of high profile lectures at exclusive venues such as the Miramar Club in Santa Monica and the Bullock's-Wilshire department store in Los Angeles, where she served as the house backgammon expert much as Grosvenor Nicholas did at Saks in New York. In a series of photographs preserved in the Huntington Library, she is shown holding forth upon a giant backgammon set for a rapt audience of society ladies. She likewise deployed a deck of oversized playing cards for he bridge lectures and appears to have been in high demand as a presenter of both games. As evidenced by the Miramar Club photographs, Flintom's audience appears to have been comprised chiefly of society women eager to include this essential new party game to their social gatherings, and so here influence in spreading the game was exponential. “Mrs. Flintom is given credit for the revival of and intense interest in this game on the west coast, having introduced it in a series of social lectures in Hollywood and los Angeles.” (February 15, 1931, Long Beach Press-Telegram). Flintom was herself a student of Leila Hattersley, the noted backgammon author.Web Links
Flintom at the Miramar Club
Frances Young Flintom casts a pair of oversized dice during a lecture in Santa Monica California in December 1930.
Created for Powell Press Service, held by Huntington Digital Library (photCL_555_06_604).
