Marble King, And Similar References, Pre Berry Pink

[Steph]

The earliest outright "marble king" = "marble champ" reference I have is 1922. I have a very close one from 1916, which indicates the name might have been around for decades before that. I also have earlier "marble king" references for children but they're more along the lines of a pun and it's not clear what the original inspiration for the pun would have been. I would like to get my hands on the OED entry but haven't yet.

Anyway, though the following are still within Pink's lifetime they are before he would have had an influence on how marbles were discussed in newspapers. in my opinion. :-)

In 1920 Berry was a silk salesman. Since MFC had gone out of business, the only American company making glass marbles until something like 1925 would have been Akro. That's one of the few companies he seems never to have claimed to be responsible for. LOL.

In 1930 he was an exec with the Rosenthal rubber company. When he started working for Rosenthal his options for marbles would have been severely limited. Peltier had Gropper to jobber for them. Alley didn't start making marbles until 1929 or so. So these articles are from before Pink became a force in the marble selling world.

Jan. 24, 1916

April 21, 1922

May 21, 1922

Sept. 8, 1922

Have a couple more from 1923 and 1925, but still not sure about the copyright issues for 1923 and later so I am being cautious today.