Re: \"Before the Movie\"
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The Fischer-Spassky world championship match in 1972 made chess huge in the USA.
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and the movie Searching For Bobby Fischer probably caused another spike in popular interest twenty years later.
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I don't think this is a fair comparison.
Maybe a really modest spike after the movie. But it's not like it was a huge box-office sensation or anything.
The Fischer-Spassky match was a BIG freaking deal.
Fischer was on the cover of Time magazine and it was a U.S. vs. the USSR type thing.
My Dad already knew how to play chess but I consider myself to be a product of the Fischer-wave because he taught me to play in 1976 when I was 5.
This isn't a movie (but neither was the Fischer/Spassky match): but the biggest wave of all that I can think of is Pele's influence on soccer in America.
Before he came over the N.Y. Cosmos were practically a semi-pro team getting 1k fans or fewer for some games.
They were selling out Giants Stadium to 70k+ just a few yrs later after getting Pele.
Great documentary titled, "The Time of Our Lives" about the NY Cosmos and the NASL in the 70's was on ESPN a few months ago.
It could be argued that a lot of Americans who currently play soccer (including me) may very well never have learned to play at all if it weren't for Pele's influence.
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