Game of Intrigue

A mysterious publication, found on a giveaway shelf at the library.

Challenge Bridge
Reference Manual
Volume 1
Deals 1-100
1972, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company

First mystery (to me) was that this company had ever published stuff.

It turns out there was a "3M Bookshelf Game Series"—made from 1962 to 1975, and meriting its own Wiki page. According to which—

These games were marketed towards adults and were designed to fit onto a standard bookshelf. Each game fit into a slip cover that was made to resemble the spine of a hardcover book. 3M's catalog described them as follows: "bookcase games, packaged in attractive leather-like slipcases, make a handsome set of volumes for any bookshelf."

Sure enough (once I bothered to look beyond the cover and title page), there's a photo of the missing box and its contents.

According to Wiki, freelance designers created 3M's games. That may account for a cover image that seemed to be another mystery. I know pretty much zero about card games, but have long had the impression that bridge players are elderly people, not dashing intriguers.

At least, that was going by players I've known. And remembering the guy on the left, whose columns ran in the newspapers of my youth.

Here's his Wiki page.

Poking around in this stuff, I find there was also a TV show, from 1959 to 1964 (Theme Song: "Music to Play Bridge By").

I like the credits' low-budget stop motion effects, which are very early TV. Here's an entire show: an episode with Chico Marx.

He was known as a compulsive gambler, and the brothers' bad late movies supposedly were made to pay off his debts (unless Groucho told that story to excuse the turkeys).

But enough digression, as tempting as it is to pursue the tangents of odd things people have left around the tubes. (Whatever kind of person puts time and effort into such things ...)

Back to the game booklet: 3M had an expert of its own, who, like Charles Goren, seems less than glamorous—

"After playing each deal," reads the booklet, "your foursome should refer to the corresponding deal in the Reference Manual for scoring and valuable comments on the bidding and play, written by one of the world's foremost bridge authorities, Oswald Jacoby."

Mr. Jacoby does seem a bit of a contrast to the James Bond-ish feel of this group.