Back in 1960, two young Montrealers met on a baseball diamond. Nearly six decades later, the pair runs Canada’s largest bridge club.
Lenny Zelnicker plays bridge at a club he co-founded in Montreal on Monday, September 11, 2017.
Back in 1960, two young Montrealers met on a baseball diamond in the Adirondacks when their summer camps came together to compete and that chance encounter evolved into a lifelong friendship chiefly centred on what some people say is the smartest card game ever invented — bridge.
Nearly six decades later, the pair runs Canada’s largest bridge club right in the heart of Côte-St-Luc on the fourth floor of the Quartier Cavendish and that bridge club, named Shakespeare’s Elbow, recently turned 21 years old.
“Bridge is just so good for the brain,” said Lenny Zelnicker, sitting at a card table next to Michael Efraim as he answered dozens of incoming phone calls from players asking about upcoming games. “It keeps people young.”
All 196 seats may still be filled on a busier day in warmer months and reservations are recommended, but attendance plummets in the winter when snowbirds fly south. In recent years, interest has waned and an increasing number of seats left empty as people move on to other games or to the grave. Players in their fifties are considered “young bloods” and one woman just turned 100.
Shakespeare’s Elbow has trimmed back from seven days a week to six and evening matches are a thing of the past. However, Efraim, 72, and Zelnicker, 85, keep plugging away with hopes that younger generations in the area will take up the game and interest will grow strong once again.
Back in the 1950s, immigrants brought bridge to Quebec and, by the 60s and 70s, Montreal became a hotbed for the game. Those immigrants passed the game down to their children, like Efraim, who learned how to play from his parents.
“One time Montreal was a top bridge city in the world,” said Efraim and, Zelnicker added, “years ago, a lot of guys paid for their education at McGill by playing bridge in the washroom there.”
While some people play for money, that’s not the case at Shakespeare’s Elbow. Competing in teams of two, most players’ goals are to amass points. Some play tournaments, vying for American Contract Bridge League master points with hopes of achieving the rank of life master like Efraim, who competes globally. At Shakespeare’s Elbow, players pay $14 to play three-hour rounds. A catered lunch is included.
“You don’t become rich running a bridge club,” said Efraim. “If you did, everybody would be in the bridge club business.”
Instead, he explained, it’s something he does as a way to pass the time in his retirement. It’s more of a public service, he explains, and it’s a service he enjoys.
“You meet people,” he added. “You talk to people. It makes for a really nice social life.”
Efraim was a teenage sleepaway camper summering in northern New York when he first met Zelnicker, who was a councillor at the opposing camp’s baseball team. By the late 60s, the two, both from Montreal’s west end, ended up working together at Camp Pembina in St-Donat.
Zelnicker was head councillor there and he was developing an interest bridge. He heard Efraim, a councillor, was already an experienced player and he invited him to play with fellow staffers.
Once back in Montreal, they played when they could, but life got in the way of their hobby. Zelnicker went into the men’s fashion industry and Efraim became an engineer. They had spouses, children and busy jobs. Efraim started a construction firm and Zelnicker travelled throughout North America to sell clothes.
They stayed friends over the years, but it wasn’t until the mid-80s when they started getting serious about bridge again, playing at local clubs.
“Where we were playing, the owners were not friendly people and they were driving people away,” said Zelnicker. “And then Mike had a vision.”
Once they found a vacant space in the local mall, Efraim closed his construction company and Zelnicker eventually quit his job so they could both retire in style. They launched Shakespeare’s Elbow on Aug. 1, 1996 and, said Zelnicker, “it took off right away.”
As far as the name is concerned, Efraim came up with it and found it catchy. Lenny Zelnicker added, “It was either that or Lenny’s Bad Knee, but then both knees went so that didn’t work.”
One of the first people through the door was Barbara Bernstein, a newbie that was immediately hooked.
“I’ve been playing there since they opened,” said Bernstein. “I played, believe it or not, seven days a week.”
Now she plays six days a week, her passion for bridge unwavering.
“It’s wonderful for your mind,” she said. “It’s wonderful to meet other people. It’s very competitive and you can play to any age.”