ABC in Syracuse

In Syracuse, early one morning last week, affable Carl Mensenberg took his stance to bowl his first singles game in the annual American Bowling Congress. Fifteen minutes later, Bowler Mensenberg had done the thing that most bowlers do only in their dreams. Handicapped by an arm injury, using a borrowed ball, watched by his best girl, he had bowled a perfect game.

Chances against a perfect game--300 for 12 strikes--under the circumstances in which Bowler Mensenberg made his, at the No. 1 event of the year for U. S. bowlers, were 400,000 to 1. In the 35-year history of the Congress, only three bowlers in some 1,250,000 games have ever done it before.* Bowler Mensenberg. of Scranton, Pa., competent enough to have made one other perfect game in informal competition, responded politely to the cheers of his gallery, learned that he would get a special gold medal with two diamonds, told reporters he felt "swell." Then, unnerved by his achievement, he rounded out his score with a creditable 203, a mediocre 169, for a 672 series that remained the best score of the day for only two hours.

Fully as impressive as it sounds, the American Bowling Congress this year attracted 14,175 individual bowlers, 2,837 five-man teams. In the festooned Syracuse Armory, equipped with the 24 brand new alleys which Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. builds each year for the event, the Congress began to assemble last fortnight. It will adjourn the third week in April, when entrance fees and admissions are redistributed in prizes of which Bowler Mensenberg is unlikely to receive any but his medal. Most Congressmen bring their own bowling balls, of lignum vitae or composition rubber, in specially tailored leather cases. Since it is easy to cheat by putting lead in the finger-holes, each ball is carefully weighed before its owner uses it to make sure it conforms to the 16-lb. standard.

The three singles games allowed each Congressman are not a comprehensive test. Consequently, the best bowlers in the U. S. are rarely found in the list of Congressional Champions. This year's ABC is mainly notable because entries and gate receipts, biggest since 1930, are further proof that the mysterious influences which govern U. S. tastes in sport are currently producing a bowling revival. Originally an aristocratic pastime, the form of indoor bowling called "ninepins" acquired such opprobrium early in the 19th Century that laws were passed against it. The contemporary U. S. game, played with ten pins set in triangular formation instead of the square of nine still used abroad, was designed to evade these laws. Until a year ago, the 5,000,000 enthusiastic bowlers in the U. S. included few socialites. This winter, charity tournaments in most big cities and an extensive publicity campaign have helped restore the sport's cachet. John D. Rockefeller Jr. has had bowling alleys installed in his Pocantico Hills estate. Other famed bowlers are Harold Lloyd, Charles M. Schwab, Francis P. Garvan, Julius Fleischmann, Heywood Broun, Wooster Lambert (Listerine), who usually attends the Bowling Congress in his private car.

* First to bowl a perfect same during the Congress was Billy Knox of Philadelphia. Date: 1913. Late last week Bowler Knox, after narrowly missing another perfect game, was leading the singles with a three-game score of 681.

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