This is the 1st Ewing mold chip to appear in an "Illegal Of The Day." IMO, the Dice & Card Pips is one of the nicer molds ever sold . Slim Ewing passed on in 1998. Early in 1996, I was talking to the Paulson salesman at the Four Queen's and Slim's name came up. He said Paulson had met with Slim a few years prior. Assumption was it concerned a buyout. He got me Slim's address and phone number. An older lady answered and told me to come by.

She answered the door and invited me in. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was an aisle about 2 feet wide winding through 3 rooms to the kitchen. Floor to ceiling, both sides was piles and piles of stuff. It would have been a dream location for the hoarder reality series on TV today. Slim was sitting at the kitchen table and all but incoherent. He managed to answer yes and no to a couple questions but mostly blanked on answers. I did not get the info I was looking for.

I am not sure if the Paulson buyout went through. I do know a couple club members visited Slim's house after the funeral. Not sure what they got if anything.

Kenny Craig found 1 each of 5 colors of these chips a few months ago. An inquiry on the BB found one other person that had 1.

Enough of that:

The chips appear to have been made for Dr. Chalmers Alexander McMahan. A native of South Carolina and graduate of Clemson, McMahan held several academic positions throughout his life. In 1957, at the age of 43, he became an associate professor at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans where he eventually became a full professor and head of the Department of Biostatistics. McMahan died at New Orleans in 1980 at the age of 65.

Credit to Tom Henderson in LA for this article:

The name Pontchippi is a contraction of the names of the two bodies of water which New Orleans is sandwiched between: Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

McMahan’s home at 6356 Bellaire Drive, where he trained and bred retrievers, was called Pontchippi (he registered the name with the American Kennel Association in 1963).

McMahan wrote several books including one about his hobby called Retriever Theory (1970). In the book McMahan presents a mock certificate which reads in part:

The Pontchippi Casino presents this certificate to Mr. Knowledgeable Retriever Enthusiast who is versed in the gamblementale of Retriever Field Trial Theory and, hence, expert in the Game of Chance called "Field Training." It is our sincere wish that you will "gamble only what you can afford to risk" in any trial and in so doing will enjoy a lifetime in our unique sport of sportsmen.
--The Management

My note: Keep the red highlighted words in mind.

Here’s the title and frontispiece--the Pontchippi logo sits between a drawing of the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River; statistical symbols surround the drawings, similar to the chip with it’s square root of –1; one of the sections of the book is called “Pontchippi Mathematics” (he was the head the Dept. of Biostatistics after all....)

ad for book:

My note: At this point, I was ready to accept the chips as specialty chips used in the promotion of his book.

McMahan’s 69 year old son Alex lives in San Antonio, TX and seems to have followed in his father's footsteps professionally. I called him. He was not real open but mentioned his father was fascinated with gambling and numbers. He then mentioned his father had a casino style crap table in the basement game room.

Now I wasn't sure about the chips. There are no Ewing records I am aware of. Ewing sold the chips but they were made at the Burt Co. On a whim I took a chance and asked for a Burt records check.

Reply:

I just found the Burt record and they were made in 1972. 7 colors of 300 each. Smells of roulette, not craps.

I called Alex back. Yes there also was a casino style roulette table (he called it an antique) in the game room. His words were, they were used for social gambling get together's.

Per Alex, he did follow in his father's footsteps professionally "but not with respect to the dogs and gambling."

The certificate above had references to gambling??? Read the parts in "Red" again. Was it really an invite to the games?

"Pontchippi Casino," "gamblementale," "Game of Chance," "gamble only what you can afford to risk."

I can only make educated guesses about what went on in that basement. We have professional gambling tables, dealers, chips, and social get together's. I am going out on a limb and call it "gambling."

Most gamblers are fascinated with numbers. They spend a life time trying to beat the numbers (odds.) The house hold will overcome that problem!

These chips were made well after the "Era Of The Illegals" ended. Neither gambling nor the thirst for the history of our chips has an ending date.