Off set in 1941: the gunfighters play gin
In May 1941, actors dressed as desperadoes were playing gin rummy off set at Columbia’s Texas.
A game built for waiting
Moviemaking alternates activity with waiting. Gin offered something useful in those gaps: a contest small enough to carry in a pocket and short enough to stop between hands.
Two actors could start a game without rounding up a whole table. They could stop between hands and resume when the next break came. Gin fit the studio schedule.
Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre: beyond the lot
Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre played gin at a Sunset Boulevard bathhouse. Their games carried on away from their Warner Bros. work.
Lucille Ball and the trouble with the score
Lucille Ball joked about her difficulty adding a gin score consistently when crediting Desi Arnaz’s business abilities. The household arithmetic made her point.
For the arithmetic behind the joke, see our scoring guide.
Hollywood made gin fashionable
Hollywood gave gin a national audience. The stars’ enthusiasm for the game reached readers through coverage such as The New Yorker’s 1941 account. A game developed in Brooklyn around 1910 had become a celebrity pastime and an American fad.
Follow its rise and the competitive scene that came afterward in our history of gin rummy.
Your turn at the table
Play gin rummy against Gus. It’s free and requires no signup.
Sources and further reading
- Jimmie Fidler’s May 19, 1941 Hollywood column, reproduced by the L.A. Daily Mirror. Contemporary reporting from Columbia’s Texas set.
- Stephen D. Youngkin’s companion material for The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre. Caption identifying Bogart and Lorre’s gin games.
- David Parlett, “Gin Rummy”. The game’s history and suitability for actors’ schedules.
- “Gin Rummy,” The New Yorker, August 23, 1941 issue. A contemporary account of the boom.
- Catchy Comedy’s Lucille Ball interview excerpt.