ABSTRACT
The card game bridge developed from whist, an offspring of an early 16th-century English game called triumph. Not quite liberated from its antecedent, bridge whist was the most popular card game of its type from 1896 to 1908. In this form the dealer could name trump or pass the privilege on to his or her partner. Bridge whist also introduced a system of doubling and the use of a dummy hand during play. Auction bridge came next and reigned for about 20 years, before giving way to contract bridge in the early 1930s. Harold S. Vanderbilt, American yachtsman and card enthusiast, added the factor of vulnerability to the game and high bonuses for bidding and making slam contracts. These two refinements and others by Ely Culbertson and Charles Goren made contract bridge much more challenging and suspenseful. During the formative years, bridge play continued to build in popularity. Fashionable New York and London clubs offered plush surroundings in which to exhibit skill at the game. Middle-class Americans embraced bridge as heartily as the well-to-do, particularly after several guides to the game were published. During World War I, magazine articles chastized bridge players for wasting time at cards when Europe was at the brink of destruction. Later articles suggested that bridge blighted America's social and intellectual life, causing feuds and bitter resentment among family and friends, and that Vanderbilt, Culbertson, and Goren were pied pipers of anarchy.
