Longone Antiques
Today a bunch of old bingo cards went up on etsy. They are the heavy woodgrain look cardboard with the sliding clear red plastic windows that you pushed to cover your numbers. No markers needed. Everyone used those apparently to doodle on the cards. There's art. There's names. There's initials. There's addresses. There's lists. And hearts with who loves who. And more than a few phone numbers. Can you imagine. "Hi, got your number off of a bingo card from a Moose Lodge in Texas. Oh the cards date from the sixties. I know it is 2019 but are you busy tonight?"
Here is a little info about the famous Bingo King.
The game of BINGO was born in the 1920’s with the help of a toy salesman named Edwin Lowe who incorporated a carnival game called BEANO into a version for home play. When a happy tongue-tied winner yelled out BINGO instead of BEANO, Edwin knew he had a perfect name for his game. Even though almost all states prohibited gambling during the 1930’s and 1940’s, churches wholeheartedly adopted the game to raise money. By 1949, legislation was passed in most states to attempt to regulate or outlaw the game resulting in only four states where bingo was legal. This is when Bingo King was formed in Colorado as a small business distributing bingo cards for fund raising. Bingo became huge in spite of being regulated to death. Since each state had different rules, Bingo King utilized mail-order and sold cards, markers and number blowers as well as dispensed advice on how to organize and set up games. By building these close relationships with large charities, Bingo King became one of the top five distributers in the 1960’s. By then law enforcement agencies were finding it difficult to get convictions on bingo charges against institutions like the Elks Club or the Catholic Church. By the 1970’s BINGO became legal in some form in all but 12 states. Standex International Corp. took over Bingo King in 1971 and renamed them the Norbro Corporation. Strandex attempted to run the bingo business alongside their mail-order grapefruit distributor and a mail-order colonial furniture manufacturer. Strandex’s largest distributer was a religious publishing company and this gave Stramdex pause concerning the gambling aspect of bingo. In 1981 Bingo King was reborn as independent and spun off from Strandex. About the same time Native Americans became a large and growing customer for the game after court decisions allowed tribes to bypass state gambling laws. Super jackpots brought profits and expansion. Bingo King expanded through acquisitions and a revamp of its distribution system. Too much too soon. In1988, in debt and unable to keep pace with the growth of the industry, Canada's leading bingo equipment supplier, Bazaar & Novelty, assumed control of Bingo King. Utilizing disposable bingo cards and a revamp of operations, Bingo King, now named Stuart Entertainment prospered and today continues operations internationally. And the future is bright.
Till next time. Stable Art Studio
No comments:
Post a Comment