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Philip Erenberg

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Philip Erenberg
Full namePhilip Richard Erenberg
Born(1909-03-16)March 16, 1909
Loyew, Russian Empire
DiedFebruary 2, 1992(1992-02-02) (aged 82)
West Hollywood, California, U.S.
Gymnastics career
DisciplineMen's artistic gymnastics
Country representedUnited States
GymLos Angeles Athletic Club
Medal record
Men's artistic gymnastics
Representing  United States
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 0 1 0
Total 0 1 0
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1932 Los Angeles Indian clubs

Philip Richard Erenberg (March 16, 1909 – February 2, 1992) was an American gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal for Indian clubs.[1]

Personal life

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Born in Belarus in the Russian Empire,[1] Erenberg was Jewish.[2][3][4][5] He arrived in the United States around 1912 at the age of three with his family.[6] He had one brother and one sister.[6] Initially, his family lived in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, where his father was a worker and foreman at the Florsheim Shoe Company.[6] In 1923 they moved to Los Angeles,[6] where he attended Roosevelt High School,[6] where he participated in sports and served as a sportswriter for the school newspaper. He was introduced to gymnastics around the age of 18, and as Roosevelt High was a new school with a new gymnasium and had acquired only limited equipment, he took up the Indian Clubs as they were inexpensive and easy to acquire.[6][7]

Erenberg noted that Los Angeles became a growth center for gymnastics and Roosevelt High produced several Olympic athletes including track star Lillian Copeland, divers Johnny and Michael Galitzen, and basketball player Sam Balter who won a gold in the 1936 Olympics. In Indian Club Swinging, there is no juggling and the club never leaves the palm of your hand, making the sport more dependent on muscle and endurance then purely on timing, as the clubs each weigh around a pound and a half.[6]

He attended UCLA as an undergraduate.[6] Erenberg received a medical degree from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine in 1934.[6] He practiced obstetrics and then internal medicine in the Los Angeles area with a practice in Hollywood for a period, completing over a fifty-year career in his lifetime. He lived for a period on Laurel Pass near Laurel Canyon, and Hollywood.[8] He married Doris Weitzman, who attended UCLA, in the fall of 1937 in Hollywood, and was later married to Patricia Zidell.[9][6] The great majority of his medical career was in private practice at the same Los Angeles office.[7][6][10]

Olympic silver medal

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Erenberg was given a membership in and competed for the Los Angeles Athletic Club.[6]

Erenberg won the 1932 National American Athletic Union (AAU) Championship in Indian Clubs.[7] He heard about the Olympic selection for Indian Clubs through the Los Angeles Athletic Club, but with few Indian Club Swingers, Erenberg did not recall that he was required to compete for the team.[6] A selection process of some form did occur in Los Angeles around July 25, 1932, where Erenberg was placed first in club swinging.[11]

He competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where he received a silver medal in gymnastics in clubs.[12][13][14] The gold medalist was American George Roth, and the bronze medalist was American William Kuhlemeier, giving the Americans a clean sweep of the medal competition in the event that year. In the 1932 Olympics and prior, Americans had a limited history with Olympic medals in Gymnastics competitions.[15] He received his invitation to the Olympics during the years he was enrolled at Medical School, eventually graduating from UC Irvine in 1934.[7]

Erenberg died in Los Angeles in Los Angeles County on February 2, 1992, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park as would be his wife Patricia.[10][16] He was survived by his wife Patricia Zidell, a son, and a daughter who worked as a Registered Nurse.[6][10] His obituary requested that donations in lieu of flowers be made to the Cardiac Care Center at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, a Los Angeles Hospital with a Jewish Religious affiliation and an association with UCLA, Erenberg's undergraduate school.[10][16]

In 2010 Erenberg was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Philip Erenberg". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 15, 1996.
  3. ^ Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by Day in Jewish Sports History, ISBN 9780881259698, KTAV Publishing House.
  4. ^ "Jewish Olympic Medalists". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  5. ^ George Eisen. "Jewish Olympic Medalists". www.jewishsports.net.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "An Olympian's oral history Philip R. Erenberg, 1932 Olympic Games, gymnastics". la84.org. 1988.
  7. ^ a b c d "Erenberg, Philip". Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
  8. ^ "Find 2 Pedigreed Dogs", Daily News, Los Angeles, California, pg. 18, 1 January 1947
  9. ^ Practiced in Hollywood in "Miss Weitzman and Dr. Erenberg Wed", Los Angeles Evening News, Los Angeles, California, pg. 8, 1 October 1937
  10. ^ a b c d "Death Notices, Eherberg, Philip", Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, pg. 23, 3 February 1992
  11. ^ "World's Mark is Broken", The Pasadena Post, Pasadena, California, pg. 5, 26 July 1932
  12. ^ "Erenberg, Philip R., M.D." The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, CA. February 3, 1992. p. 253. Retrieved March 13, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  13. ^ "1932 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles, United States – Gymnastics" Archived August 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on March 31, 2008)
  14. ^ "Historic Men's Gymnastics Clubs" – CNN; Sports Illustrated (Retrieved March 31, 2008)
  15. ^ Hoffer, Richard, "Remember When Olga Caught the World Off Balance?", The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, pg. 84, 28 July 1984
  16. ^ a b "Dr. Philip Richard Erenberg". Find-a-grave.
  17. ^ "PHILLIP ERENBERG, MD; Gymnastics - 2011". Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
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