I happened onto a newspaper article dated May 16, 1925 in the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (via newspaper dot com). Featured was a photo of my father, Joe Viani, 12-years-old, who was competing as a representative of Director Hanna’s Recreation Center in the city-wide marbles tournament sponsored by the paper. The winner of the competition was going to be flown to Atlantic City for the National Tournament. So I searched the Atlantic City event and determined that Joe Viani was NOT a participant (although I also saw a post of someone buying a trophy from the event). I’ve also learned there are several marbles-related collector forums, and have posted inquiries to learn more about the local tournament and how he faired among the other LA contestants.
Here are the clips I found, and they make for entertaining reading. It was quite a thrill to find that photo, and it inspired me to pull out the baggie with some of his marbles I had kicking around. Can’t guarantee they’re his originals, however, but they sure look old.
Curious to learn more, I happened onto the site, All About Marbles, and suspect this may be a good place to begin. There is also a site being posthumously maintained due to its value to collectors: Joe Marbles.