Memoirs of Bingo
Players could enjoy all the types of bingo there is at all different places. Sadly, only a few of them knows where the game came from, who is considered its founding father, and what events occurred that led to its present-day form and calling.
In one lucky evening of December 1929 (see how old it is?), a businessman, who just had his starting toy business closed down, drove early to Jacksonville to get ready for his appointments the next day. He was named Edwin S. Lowe. He decided to give a nearby carnival a visit and found out one interesting game that the people playing there called "Beano." Just like the game today, they had number printed in cards, which they eventually mark when the caller shouts the number. They had to shout "Beano" when they form a line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Lowe thought this is one game that the people would hit off based from the interest the players in the carnival placed during the game. They had expressions of excitement and addiction in their faces that they held on to the game even if the carnival owner wants to close the place for that day.
He adopted the game when he went back to New York and had a pilot game test together with his friends as players. He gathered some dried beans, a rubber numbering imprint, and a few game boards. When one of his female friends was on the verge of winning, she started to get nervous. The other players also felt the tension and excitement that the players in the carnival had. The woman was waiting for only one number and when that number was called, she went nervous and instead of shouting "beano," she shouted "bingo!" From then on, Lowe called the game "bingo" and owned it. He had his competitors pay a certain amount each year for borrowing the game.
It wasn't a happily ever after story because problems arise when a lot of people would come up as winners and would get the prize. Lowe hired a professor from the Columbia University in the name of Carl Leffler. He asked the professor to make 6,000 cards with number combinations different from one another. Each card becomes more difficult until the last one. There were reports that said the professor lost his sanity after making the cards.
The next time you play bingo, think of the history of bingo and say a short prayer of thanks to the people who made the game possible and for the professor who lost lucidity.