Helen Sobel Smith
| Helen Sobel Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Helen Elizabeth Martin May 22, 1909 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | September 11, 1969 (aged 60) Detroit, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Bridge player |
| Spouse(s) |
Jack White (m. 1927; div. 1930) Alexander M. Sobel (m. 1937; div. 1945) Stanley Smith (m. 1966) |
Helen Elizabeth Sobel Smith (née Martin; May 22, 1909 – September 11, 1969) was an American bridge player. She is said to have been the "greatest woman bridge player of all time" and "may well have been the most brilliant card player of all time." She won 35 North American Bridge Championships, and was the first woman to play in the Bermuda Bowl. She was a long-time partner of Charles Goren.
Sobel Smith was born Helen Martin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Cornelius and Ethel Martin (née Murphy). Her father, whose own father had emigrated from England, was working as a machinist when Helen was born in 1909, joining a 5-year-old sister, Dorothy.
Helen was a chorus girl in her youth. At age 16, she was already performing with the Marx Brothers in shows including The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. She only knew only how to play Pinochle and Casino until another chorus girl taught her bridge: she took to the game like a duck to water. From that moment on, there was no doubt about her future.
She started earning a reputation in the mid-1930s, winning her first national championship in 1934. After a brief marriage to a Jack White that ended in 1930, she married bridge player Alexander M. Sobel (1901–1972), a former vaudeville performer who found better work in the Depression as a tournament director. Though she and Sobel eventually divorced in 1945, she achieved most of her success under the name Helen Sobel.
Sobel and Sally Young won the annual North American women pairs championship (now Whitehead Women's Pairs) in 1938 and again in 1939. That year Young became the first woman to achieve the rank of ACBL Life Master; Sobel became the second in 1941. (They were 17th and 25th overall, of whom the first twelve preceded ACBL.)
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