What's Wrong With This Picture??

Frank Marshall gave a lecture at the Marshall Club in February of 1943. The demonstration board in the background was used during the lecture.  Afterwards the 65 year old master played a 24 board simul, winning 20, drawing 4.

But there's something wrong with this picture (besides the jumbled pieces on the foremost board).

Can anyone find what is wrong and offer an explanation for it?

The boards are oriented wrong, h1 should be white.

Negative flipped is the only explanation I can give.

The black salamander on Frank Marshall's chest 

Maybe it's a negative of the photo??

That's quite correct. You have good powers of observation!

A woman is watching. No women are allowed in chess clubs a century ago.

The positions of the pieces of the nearest (black) board are wrong. They are positioned like a bunch of flowers.

Judging from the picture, space was at a premium in the lecture hall that day.  In order to squeeze all the participants in, they might have had to turn the chess tables sideways so they would all fit.

Is tis better?

The color of everything else is correct, so that can't be the case.

I was sure that you will take it seriously

this is why I wrote salamander and not crocodile 

A flipped negative will cause this. 

see #5

The second picture: Is it the IWatch on his hand your are referring to?

Or the cuts on the top left, must be cuts on the negative, because structure is too fine and sharp

Surely you're joking?

Here's a photo taking in the Marshall Chess Club in 1942

Marjorie Luce Seaman, already a member of the Staten Island Chess Club, became a member of Marshall's Chess Club in 1934. Several other women became members in the 1930s.

Maybe they should have used the National Press Club in Washington D.C.?

This is a 110 bd simul give by Reuben Fine on May3, 1942.

Fine scored 87 wins, 17 draws and 6 losses in 9 hours ad 25 minutes.  Play started at 2:26 pm and wrapped up at 1:23 am with a 45 minute break for dinner and a 17 minute intermission during the evening. Fine lost to H.C. Lewis, A.Y. Hesse, H.Shelton, A. Gorinstein, R.E. Cheney and D.H.Mudridge.  Mudridge may have been the best D.C. player of the time. The winners received a copy of Fine's "Chess the Easy Way." It seems to me, the losers should have gotten tha book. But everyone else receives and autographed program and a scorecard. Actually that seems pretty generous of Fine to sign all those programs.  The sponsors were the Capital City C.C, the Washington Chess Divan, the Federal C.C.I.S., W.k. Wimsatt, Sr. and I.S. Turover.  Turover, the player and patron deserves a article all to himself.

Thanks and apologies Batgirl. I see only larger detail and miss the little detail.

Here's the "official" explanation: