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Show Growth of Bingo National ProMem A SUSCEPTIBLE American public with an ever ravenous hunger for fads, welcomed with open arms, early in the thirties, a game which overstayed its popularity as a novelty to become something of a national controversy. Bingo, it was called, and under various names it has delighted or annoyed the country as a whole for nearly leu ais. As a fad, it was first played at resorts re-sorts and parties with signal success, suc-cess, but charitable organizations, eager to increase their source of revenue, seized upon the idea, and soon filled their halls with parish-loners parish-loners who couldn't play enough of It. Even though this was the Midas Touch to fund raising, it also marked the appearance of the law on the Bingo-playing scene, says journalist James Monahan writing in the June Good Housekeeping Magazine. Bingo became a community problem, prob-lem, he says, when it moved off the midway and into the average American city. Conservative groups In these communities, alarmed by its instantaneous and sweeping popularity, pop-ularity, called on the courts to crush the movement since in many instances in-stances it was a direct violation of state lottery laws. And staunch Bingo supporters refusing to take the opposition sitting down, iuur back fiercely for their rights to play. It was harmless entertainment, they pointed out, and a rich source of funds for worthy charities. Headquarters of the anti-Bingo forces are centered in Washington under Dr. C. N. Howard of the International In-ternational Reform Federation, who has agents up and down the land trying to stem the rising tide. He fought tooth and nail the bills that legalized Bingo in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Spearhead of the pro-Bingo faction is Billboard, trade paper of show business. It encourages encour-ages reputable promoters of Bingo and blasts the cheap fly-by-nights. Against the chief danger of the. game, cash winnings, Billboard offers a suggestion. Why not, they ask, give only merchandise as prizes and eliminate the objectionable aspect 1 |