Our Rich History
The Founding Years (1948-1953)
The first organizational meeting of the Ring was held on December 12, 1948, at Valle's Restaurant, a prominent eatery since the late 1920s. Valle's was located on Kalmia, between 4th and 5th streets in the Uptown area of the city. The restaurant was razed in the 1960s and today is the location for apartments and condos.
Those present were the original signers of the Ring's Charter and included: Tom Oliver, Ted Angell, James E. Thompson, Stewart Wilson, and Kevin Berry. Members included: Howard Valle, Richard Stahl, Howard Chernoff, R.W. Hafler, Edward Harrison and Bill Risling.
Like all good magic meetings, once the first order of business for the evening, selecting the officers, was out of the way those assembled began doing tricks at the dinner table for each other. This caused quite a stir among the patrons of the restaurant. However, one of the owners of the restaurant, Howard Valle, was a member of the new I.B.M. Ring, so nothing was said about the magical disturbance.
Historic Document (2003)
In 2003, Ring member Ed Estrin presented then-president Don Soul with a long lost document of historic significance. Among a pile of papers containing magic instructions and illusion blueprints he had collected was a typed sheet titled "Temporary Authority to operate as an affiliated Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians." It is dated December 6, 1948. The paper grants authority to operate as I.B.M. Ring 76 and is signed by C. James McLemore, Supervisor of Rings, I.B.M.
Early Meetings
The second meeting was again held at Valle's Restaurant on January 16th 1949, but it was decided that all subsequent meetings would be held at the various member's homes. Howard Chernoff hosted the first such meeting on the first Monday of the month. February 7, 1949, was the third meeting and was held at the Chernoff home in La Jolla.
Visiting La Jolla for the winter, from the mid-west was I.B.M. member F.W. Thomas. Thomas was a prominent amateur magician who presented an impromptu magic lecture featuring some of his sleight of hand skills to the delight of the new Ring 76 members.
Howard Chernoff
Howard Chernoff was a prominent and influential businessman, known throughout the United States for his charitable efforts. He is best remembered in San Diego history books for his work as a trustee for the San Diego Zoo and being an outspoken member of the San Diego County Grand Jury.
In the early-1970s he single-handedly rounded up an endangered species of small wild horses known as Preswaldsky's Horses, and brought them to the Wild Animal Park in the San Pasqual Valley where they enjoyed such a successful breeding program that today they are no longer on the endangered species list.
During a television news interview in the early 1970s, Chernoff told reporter Jack White that he had had a life long interest in magic. He told White he became a "magic dropout" in 1952, because of new demands on this time in the business world brought on by the Korean War. He added his interest in magic never waned and he hoped to one day again become part of Ring 76. But that wish was never realized.
A Period of Dormancy (1953-1958)
Throughout 1951 and into 1952, Ring 76 continued to grow in membership and its meetings continued to flourish. It was during this period that San Diego was enjoying new growth and a bit of a rebirth. The Korean War had begun and local military installations were reopened; industrial plants to build aircraft and arms opened their doors again throughout the county.
They were all retooling and restaffing for the winds of a cold war that was sweeping over the world. Suddenly there was no longer time for a local magic meeting. No one knows or remembers exactly how it happened in late 1952 and early 53, but the Ring very suddenly lapsed into a period of lethargy. The leaders of the Ring were also at the time leaders in the community and they channeled their talents and interests in directions other than magic. By March of 1953, even fragmented and occasional Ring reports from San Diego stopped appearing in the Linking Ring magazine.
In 1956, the Society of American Magicians opened an Assembly in San Diego and a whole new list of names suddenly began to appear as members of that magic group. Prominent among those names were Pat and Art Hannum, George Edwards, and Sid Gerhart.
Honest Sid Gerhart
After World War II, Navy veteran Cecil "Sid" Gerhart and his new wife settled in San Diego where he opened a neon sign business. Magic occupied all his spare time, as a collector, a teacher and a performer. "Honest" Sid's comedy magic act was that of a traveling medicine show pitchman.
In late summer of 1958, Art Hannum and Sid Gerhart decided they needed another night of magic club meetings every month. The two of them decided to reactivate the old I.B.M. Ring 76 charter and in December 1958, the Ring opened for business again with new leadership and a new period in history. In November 1958, Ring 76 was re-chartered.
Founding member Sid Gerhart was instrumental in keeping the Ring active, through good-times and bad, until his death in 1975. In honor of his efforts, Ring 76 is known as "The Honest Sid Gerhart Ring".
In September 2002, Ring 76 was presented with the Ring Quality Award.
