Home Page

Harold VANDERBILT  &  Gertrude CONWAY

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt nacque a Oakdale nello stato di New York il 6 luglio del 1884 da William Kissam ed Alva Erskine Smith, si laureò in legge alla Harvard Law School nel 1910 e si occupò degli interessi dell'azienda di famiglia che era una delle più ricche e più note dell'epoca.

 Alla morte del padre avvenuta nel 1944, subentrò alla Presidenza della New York Central Railroad e vi rimase fino al 1954 quando si ritirò per entrare nel Consiglio di Amministrazione della Vanderbilt University, che era stata fondata dal nonno Cornelius e dove rimase fino a poco prima della sua morte.

 In gioventù ebbe grande notorietà nel campo della vela dove difese molte volte i colori del suo Paese vincendo tre volte la Coppa America, tanto che tutt'oggi viene ricordato per i suoi suggerimenti sportivi noti come "Regole Vanderbilt".

 Sua moglie "Gertie", Gertrude Lewis Conway (14 maggio 1901 - 6 agosto 1978) fu la prima donna  a far parte dell'equipaggio di una regata che gareggiava per la prestigiosa coppa e per questo è stata eletta nella Hall of Fame dell'America's Cup.

 Al suo tempo fu anche un'autorità incontrastata nel mondo del bridge e contribuì in maniera determinante a traghettare il gioco dall'Auction al Contract.

Ricordato nella Hall of Fame del Bridge americano fin dal primo anno della sua fondazione e terzo in ordine cronologico ad esservi accolto, Vanderbilt iniziò a giocare nel 1906 e dal 1910 formò un formidabile sodalizio con Joseph Bowne Elwell che, nel primo ventennio del '900, fu considerato il più forte giocatore americano di Auction Bridge.

Nell'autunno del 1925, durante una crociera da California a Cuba attraversando il Canale di Panama, sul suo panfilo privato Finlandia, con alcuni amici suoi ospiti, ideò ed introdusse nel Bridge il concetto di vulnerabilità, quello dei premi di Slam e il nuovo valore delle prese.

Teorico notevole, per primo ideò l'apertura di 1SA forte per le Mani Bilanciate di 16-18PO e quella di 1 forte con annessa risposta negativa di 1.

Tutte le sue idee innovative, compresa quella delle Sottoaperture, furono esposte in diversi libri tra i quali ricordiamo: "Contract Bridge Bidding and the Club Convention" e "Contract by Hand Analysis".

Nel 1928 organizzò una Competizione a squadre per Nazioni e mise in palio la Coppa che porta il suo nome e che egli vinse due volte, nel 1932 e nel 1940.

La Coppa Vanderbilt rimase per molti anni il titolo più agognato da ogni giocatore di bridge ed è la stessa che oggi premia i componenti del Team che si aggiudica le Olimpiadi OPEN a Squadre, perché, quando si spense il 4 luglio del 1970, lasciò una somma di 50.000$ destinata ad assicurare ai futuri vincitori delle Olimpiadi il suo trofeo.

Fino al 1941, quando si ritirò dalle competizioni agonistiche, formò con Waldemar von Zedwitz una delle più forte coppie degli Stati Uniti.

In precedenza egli aveva già fatto sfoggio della sua generosità donando alla ACBL una somma di 100.000$  finalizzata alla costituzione di un fondo che rivalutandosi nel tempo, consentisse alla Federazione stessa di elargire donazioni caritatevoli.

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (July 6, 1884 – July 4, 1970) was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman and a champion bridge player and a member of Vanderbilt family.

Il  Finlandia

  He was born in Oakdale, New York, the third child and second son of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith. To family and friends he was known as "Mike." His siblings were William Kissam Vanderbilt II and Consuelo Vanderbilt. 

 As the great-grandson of the shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, he was born to great wealth and privilege: as a child he was raised in Vanderbilt mansions, travelled frequently to Europe, and sailed the world on yachts owned by his father.

 He was educated by tutors and at private schools including St. Mark's School, Harvard College (AB 1907), and Harvard Law School, graduating in 1910. He then joined the New York Central Railroad, the centerpiece of his family's vast railway empire, of which his father was president. On his father's death in 1920, Harold inherited a fortune that included the Idle Hour country estate at Oakdale, New York, (on Long Island) and equity in many railway companies.

Following the death of his brother William in 1944, he remained the only active representative of the Vanderbilt family in the New York Central Railroad, serving as a director and member of the executive committee until 1954.

As a boy, Harold Vanderbilt spent part of his summers at the Vanderbilt mansions, the Idle Hour estate in Long Island, New York on the banks of the Connetquot River, Marble House at Newport, Rhode Island, and later at Belcourt (the Newport mansion of his stepfather, Oliver Belmont). As an adult, he pursued his interest in yachting, winning six "King's Cups" and five Astor Cups at regattas between 1922 and 1938. In 1925, he built his own luxurious vacation home at Palm Beach, Florida that he called "El Solano." In addition to being his vacation home, El Solano is also notable for being purchased by former Beatle John Lennon shortly before his murder in 1980.

In 1930, Harold achieved the pinnacle of yacht racing success by defending the America's Cup in the J-class yacht Enterprise. His victory put him on the cover of the September 15, 1930, issue of Time magazine. In 1934 Harold faced a dangerous challenger in Endeavour, as the British boat won the first two races. However, Vanderbilt came back in his yacht Rainbow to win three races in a row and defend the Cup. In 1937 Harold defended the Cup a third time in Ranger, the last of the J-class yachts to defend the Cup. Vanderbilt's wife, Gertrude "Gertie" Lewis Conaway, became the first woman to compete as a team member in an America's Cup yacht race. They were posthumously elected to the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993. Later in life Vanderbilt would become Commodore of the New York Yacht Club and would be intricately involved in many successful America's Cup defenses.

In the fall of 1935, Harold began a study of the yacht racing rules with three friends: Philip J. Roosevelt, President of the North American Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to US SAILING); Van Merle-Smith, President of the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound; and Henry H. Anderson. "The four men began by attempting to take the right-of-way rules as they were and amending them. After about six weeks of intensive effort, they finally concluded that they were getting exactly nowhere. It was the basic principles, not the details, that were causing the problems. They would have to start from scratch."

In 1936, Vanderbilt, with assistance from the other three had developed an alternative set of rules, printed them, and mailed a copy to every yachtsman that Harold knew personally or by name in both the United States and England. These were virtually ignored, but a second edition in 1938 was improved, as were following versions. Vanderbilt continued to work with the various committees of the North American Yacht Racing Union until finally in 1960 the International Yacht Racing Union (predecessor to the International Sailing Federation or ISAF) adopted the rules that Vanderbilt and the Americans had developed over the previous quarter century.

Harold Vanderbilt had a keen interest in the success of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1873 through the financial sponsorship of his great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt. A longtime member of the university's Board of Trust, he served as its president between 1955 and 1968. He helped guide the institution through a time in history when racial integration of the student body was a divisive and explosive issue. In 1962 Vanderbilt attended one of the first meetings of the Vanderbilt Sailing Club and provided funding for the club to purchase its first fleet of dinghies, Penguins. The university annually offers several scholarships named in his honor, and on the grounds in front of Buttrick Hall, a statue was erected in his honor.

Vanderbilt was also a card game enthusiast who, in 1925, helped develop the scoring system by which the game of contract bridge supplanted auction bridge in popularity. Three years later, he heavily endowed the Vanderbilt Trophy which goes to the winners of the national team-of-four championship. In 1932, and again in 1940, he was part of a team that won his own trophy. He also penned several books on the subject of bridge, most notably "The Vanderbilt Club."

Not one to rest on his laurels, Vanderbilt also invented the first forcing club bidding system which has perennially dominated world championship play ever since. Nottingham Club, Neapolitan Club, Blue Club, Precision Club, and other strong forcing club systems are an outgrowth of the Vanderbilt Club. Polish Club, Unassuming Club and other weak club systems are an outgrowth from the Vienna System (Stern Austrian System, 1938).

In 1969, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) made Vanderbilt its first honorary member. When the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1964, Vanderbilt was one of the first three persons elected. His trophy remains one of the most prized in the game.

Indice / Index

Precedente / Previous (C)

Precedente / Previous (V) Successivo / Next (C) Successivo / Next (V)