By: Tom Parks

Published May, 1982 – Rubik’s Cube Newsletter by Ideal Toy Corp

You saw it on the “That’s Incredible!” TV show…but what was it like to be there for the First Annual Pub’s Cube U.S, Championships? Rubik’s Cube Club News Editor Tom Parks traveled to Hollywood with the contestants…the fastest Cubists in America, all regional Cube-A-Thon winners…and filed this eyewitness report.

November 12, 1981 was the date that the Ideal Cube-A-Thon regional winners were anticipating. That’s when they were to go to Hollywood for an exciting four days which included competing for the opportunity to represent the United States in the Rubik’s Cube World Championships this Spring in Hungary, home of Professor Erno Rubik.

The day finally arrived. Contestants started arriving in Hollywood about noon. There was a little bit of excitement during the trip from the airport in the van carrying the New York, Houston, St. Louis and Atlanta winners. A suitcase fell off the luggage rack as the van was coming along the Long Beach Freeway. The cars following ran over the suitcase, making that gorilla in the commercial look tame by comparison. Everyone in the van thought the worst. The suitcase turned out to be Michael Mandell’s. Ideal Toy, the sponsors of the Championship event, treated him to a shopping spree that afternoon to replace his losses. I hope he had his favorite Cubes in his pocket and not in the crushed luggage.

That afternoon, the contestants and the people with them checked into the hotel. Some chose to rest, some to tour Graumann’s Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Wax Museum, and others practiced Rubik’s Cube.

In the evening there was a meeting in which the contestants went over contest rules, regulations and details with the “That’s Incredible!” TV show people and the contest officials from Ideal.

The contestants were given the opportunity to select the Cubes they would be using in the competition and tested the electronic timers. The best time recorded in the practice session was 29.23 seconds by Minh Thai of Los Angeles. This excellent showing raised some eyebrows and let everyone know that Minh was a definite contender.

At the dinner that followed, the contestants had the opportunity to converse, but most of them kept their methods and secrets to themselves. David Conrady said he would prefer to solve the Cube with his back to the camera and audience. Others, too, wondered about the effects of stage fright on their performances.

Ruth Wunderlich, sister of contestant Kris Wunderlich, displayed her fantastic Cube collection. We hope to have an article on “Ruthic’s Cubes” in a future issue. You will be amazed at what Ruth does with standard Ideal Rubik’s Cubes.

The next morning, a special tour was arranged of Warner Brothers Studios and Columbia’s Burbank Studios. Contestants and their families walked through the street sets where the film “Annie!” was shot and all around TV’s “Hazzard County.” They even watched quietly while crews shot a scene for a future episode of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” During one of their breaks, contestant Jonathan Cheyer solved a Cube for “Dukes” star John Schneider. The kids were so awestruck that they had trouble coming up with a Cube, though I’m sure there was at least one in the pockets of every member of the group.

In the afternoon, we arrived at ABC’s Hollywood studio, site of the taping for “That’s Incredible!” The contestants were briefed and did practice “walk-throughs” of the routines that would be used in the actual contest later that night.

John Davidson, Kathy Lee Crosby and Fran Tarkenton were doing voiceovers of film for future shows. Acts soon to be featured on the show went through their paces. Non-contestants sat in the audience and practiced Cubing.

At 6 p.m. there was a break for dinner. At 7 p.m. the studio audience arrived and the excitement started to mount. Finally, at about 9:30, the moment we had all been waiting for had arrived.

The contestants were to compete three at a time. They were placed in their heats based on their winning times in their respective regional competitions. Each group would perform twice and the contestant with the best individual time in either of the heats would be the winner. In both heats, each contestant would be trying to solve exactly the same problem on their Cubes.

The contestants for the first heat came out and were introduced. They were given thirty seconds to study their Cubes (this was cut from the TV broadcast). They were given a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown, a buzzer sounded, and the competition was ON! The sound of clicking cubes filled the air (though music was to be dubbed over all that wonderful noise for the TV soundtrack). There was a solid thump and Holden Thorp put down his completely solved Cube in 48.73 seconds.

The second group came out and competed. The new leader was then Minh Thai, with a time of 38.99 seconds.

The third group did their twisting and turning and also provided a new leader, Lance Ahrens. At the end of the first heat, Lance led all contestants with a time of 32.05 seconds.

In round two, Mike Mandell came up with a 34.11 for his second time, best of the first group. The second group provided the most outstanding time of the contest as Minh Thai put down his solved Cube in 26.04 seconds and took over first place. In this heat, Tom Nierman also solved his Cube, in 55.39 seconds.

Group Three then came out. This time, Jeff Varasano did a 28.96, Lance Ahrens a 30.83 and Chris Wunderlich a 35.30, outstanding times for all. Their excellent times gave Jeff second place and Lance third place to the first United States Rubik’s Cube Champion, Minh Thai.

Ideal’s Senior Vice President, Mort Schneider, presented Minh with a beautiful trophy, a gold-plated Rubik’s Cube, as well as a check for $2,000. Jeff received a silver-plate Cube trophy and $750, and Lance received a bronze-plated Cube trophy and $500. Michael was presented with a bronze-plated Cube trophy and $250. The rest of the contestants received Olympic-type medals to wear proudly. These nine champions made history as the contestants in Ideal’s First Annual Cube-A-Thon, the American leg of the search for the World’s Fastest Cubist.

A lavish party, hosted by Ideal, was held right after the competition. Contestants autographed each other’s Cubes and Cube books. I was delighted to come back from California with three of my Cube books autographed by their authors. I also had Minh Thai autograph Herbert Taylor’s book (Herb is Minh’s Cube coach). At about 1:30 a.m., the party came to an end and the contestants, families and officials returned to the hotel…not to sleep, but to talk Cubing for several hours before retiring.

Many moans and groans came from the contestants when they saw the problems they had faced in the competition that night, set up on a Cube they were now able to observe at their leisure, in a non-pressure situation. As one contestant (who shall remain nameless) put it, “Now I see that the top is only four turns away…if I’d seen that earlier, I’d have won!” Such is life! People all over the country will be working on improving their study time technique and their Cubing techniques in the hope that in November 1982 they might have the opportunity to study and solve a Cube in the National Championships.

Sixteen-year-old Minh Thai (pronounced “Min-Tie”) is the first and current American National Rubik’s Cube Champion. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and is a senior at Eagle Rock High School. Minh plans to enter the University of Southern California this Fall to study electrical engineering.

Interestingly, Minh is not a native-born American. He and his father, mother and five brothers and sisters came to the United States only three years ago.

Minh first saw a Rubik’s Cube just four months before he won the Western Regional Championship Cube-A-Thon with a time of 39.40 seconds. His solution time was already less than two minutes after only one week of Cubing. Soon after, he had perfected his own Cube solving method and then refined his technique under the guidance of his Cube coach, author Herbert Taylor.

Minh made history in front of 30 million TV viewers on the “That’s Incredible” show as he solved his Cube in 26.06 seconds and became the National Rubik’s Cube Champion.

He will go to the 1982 World Rubik’s Cube Championship in Hungary to represent America in the final leg of the first annual search for the World’s Fastest Cubist.