Monday, Dec. 13, 1937

Culbertsons, Inc.

Most of the 20,000,000 people in the U. S. whom the American Contract Bridge Association likes to think of as bridge players would not dream of saying "pass" when their partners have begun by bidding two in any suit. That interesting fact is due solely to 14 years of unceasing agitation by Mr. & Mrs. Ely Culbertson, who are to contract bridge exactly what Henry Ford is to motoring. They practically invented it and they have made a fortune out of it.

Gaunt, bony Mr. Culbertson combines the hottest temper in a hot-tempered business with the exquisite politeness of a cinematic headwaiter. One day in 1923 he met a young woman whose skill at bridge so astounded him that he asked her to marry him. Soon Mr. Culbertson started to write about bridge as well as play it. Mrs. Culbertson gave lessons to anyone who could afford her remarkable fee of $40 an hour. Together they made about $30,000 a year.

As contract bridge replaced auction and auction players became hopelessly confused by contract's elaborate mathematics, more and more people turned to Mr. Culbertson for instruction. In 1930 the Culbertsons were taken in hand by Manhattan Pressagent Benjamin Sonnenberg, and before long they had their pictures in the papers and the reading public knew that Mr. Culbertson slept in silk pajamas and smoked monogrammed cigarets. The next year, in a blaze of newspaper publicity instigated by hard-working Mr. Sennenberg, the Culbertsons challenged Sidney S. Lenz, who held different views about the opening two-bid, to a duel of 150 rubbers. The Culbertsons won by 8,980 points and Mr. Culbertson began to appear in advertising testimonials.

In 1932 their partnership had become so profitable that they incorporated themselves as The Culbertsons, Inc. Out of The Culbertsons, Inc. come salaries of $2,000 a month apiece, living expenses which last year totaled $107,000. Into The Culbertsons, Inc. go towering profits from a number of sources. Publishers do not like to have their authors hear that Mr. Culbertson gets a royalty of about 33% on his books--of which about 200,000 copies are sold every year. Bridge rules, happily, keep changing. Daily bridge advice from Mr. Culbertson is printed in 110 newspapers, from Mrs. Culbertson in 56. That brings them in $30,000 a year. They publish two magazines, Bridge World and Games Digest. They run a bridge club in Manhattan. Bridge teachers, mostly widows making a haphazard living, find a Culbertson "diploma" almost indispensable. And yearly courses are required to keep the diploma up to date.

The $180,000 the Culbertsons earned this year represents a distinct drop from earnings which several years ago were said to have run to $500,000. A knowledge of the Culbertson forcing approach is becoming less and less a social necessity as more and more of the U. S. public turns to less taxing indoor sports like bingo. But the Culbertsons are not likely to be financially embarrassed for some time to come. Nor were they embarrassed personally last week when Mr. Culbertson appeared without his wife at the American Contract Bridge national tournament in the Shoreham in Washington. Pressed by reporters, he confessed that Mrs. Culbertson was on her way to Reno for a long-rumored divorce. Said Mr. Culbertson: "I have been a bad husband. ... I am a solitary animal. . . ." The Culbertsons will continue to split the profits of The Culbertsons, Inc. and bridge experts who have long marveled at Mr. Culbertson as "a man who could play bridge with his wife" were relieved to hear that Mr. & Mrs. Culbertson will continue to play in tournaments together.

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