The Blue Book: Sears & Roebuck for the Jazz-Age Hustler
We recently acquired a copy of the Blue Book (BOOK SOLD), an evocative Jazz-Age catalogue for gamblers, grifters, and back-room gaming operations. This remarkable publication, like Sears & Roebuck for the Jazz-Age hustler, offers everything you could possibly need to trim a sucker in all popular games of chance or skill, lovingly described in considerable detail using language straight out of Mamet.
An article in The New Yorker in 1935, The Americanization of Lady Luck (22 June 1935) – essentially a critique of this catalogue – describes the ambition of Mason & Co., “the company, having taken under its wing the K. C. Card Co., of Kansas City , is still restless and growing … two new outlets have been established in California, … the New York saleroom has been moved over the the main factory at Newark, and … to speed up service, all seven factories have been equipped with private telegraph stations”. K. C. was to be one of the last surviving operations of this kind, issuing Blue Book catalogues until the early 60s.
The catalogue begins with the innocuous Perfect Dice…
…but quickly introduces a huge variety of trick dice, from the Slick Dice that “trip from certain sides due to the mechanical construction of their corners, edges, or surfaces rolling over in action until they strike a smooth side when the dice will slide to a stop”, to the Special Filled Transparent Dice, “so perfect that most experienced experts have been baffled by it, as this work cannot be told from fair dice by appearance”.
Also advertised are dice measuring tools, “a necessity for every operator of a dice game.
Regardless of the care exercised in selecting your dice, there is always the possibility of someone substituting dice for increasing percentage to give the outside advantage. The precision tools listed below are offered to help the operator to know that the dice in action are his own”.
A requirement for any backroom gambling operation is the Giant Magnet, “the most practical magnet on the market for properly controlling” trick dice, which will “give more positive results and general all-round satisfaction than any other… When dice are in play the action is so natural that it is impossible to detect whether the switch is on or off”.
In addition to dice, K. C. & Mason specialised in marked cards. “Our card work has been recognized for years as the most perfect ever produced and all our work is produced by artists with years of experience. Combinations are original and the best ever developed, easily read while dealing, and at the same time impossible to detect”.
They even made marked decks to order, based on the customer’s preference for combinations.
Examples of marked cards:
For those with a gadgetry bent, the company also provided Luminous Readers. “These cards do no bear any visible marks, but when viewed with our Luminous Visor or our Luminous Glasses the work appears as plain as the figure 8 on the back of the cut pictures… One pair of Luminous Glasses or a Luminous Visor free with orders for six or more decks of Luminous Readers”.
There were also intricate mechanical devices for palming cards. The Arm Pressure Holdout is “the smallest and lightest holdout ever offered… operated by merely pressing the arm against the body” and the Silent Sleeve Holdout “defies detection and baffles the most keen-eyed observer”.
The card shiner below is “just an ordinary looking ring which will arouse no suspicions. Besides being a very practical article, it is also a real neat ring for street wear”.
Dice and cards weren’t the only types of games on offer.
Punters could buy supplies for tops, bingo, keno, rolling logs, slots, three card monte, and shell games which “fool the wisest of the wise… Get it now and have plenty of fun. Someone is always sure he can guess where the pea is.
He guesses wrong; tries again, and again is wrong. The most perfect outfit ever produced and has unlimited possibilities”.
And for those whose skill or luck failed, there was always the Chive or Trick Knife. “Every cross roader should have one of our Chives for those special occasions. This knife is made with two secret locks and is faster than the old style Chive. Easy to operate with our instructions. A natural looking pocket knife that will stand up under hard use”!
Other unusual offerings included a lodestone, magnetic sand to “feed” to the lodestone, and several books of magic, including Albertus Magnus: “Egyptian Secrets. The book of nature and the hidden secrets and mysteries of life unveiled.
Forbidden Knowledge of the Ancient Philosophers. Contents in part: To secure men and beast against evil spirits; banish robbers; murders and foes; to make oneself invisible; how to see on the darkest night. Hundreds of others. Here is a hot book. Get it”.
Here for our complete selection of books on cards & games.
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