[Ads-l] Antedating of "Gin Rummy"

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

On Sat, Apr 1, 2023 at 5:10 PM Shapiro, Fred Shapiro
<fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> gin rummy (OED 1937)
>
> 1931 _Halifax Mail_ 16 Sept. 12/4 (Newspapers.com)  Last night there were two games in progress, but the youngsters were playing innocuous "gin rummy."

And here are some sightings of "gin [rummy]" from the '20s. (Note that
Brooklynites Elwood Baker and Charles Baker are said to have invented
gin rummy in 1909.)

-- Bonnie

The privilege of borrowing from one layout to fill another is peculiar
to coon-can, from which game rummy was derived. In that game the
player can borrow from anything as long as three cards of a proper
combination are left; but this is not allowed in rummy nor in gin.
["School of Card Players," New York Tribune, 23 May 1920, Section VII,
p. 8.]

Sometimes cards are played, but she cares little for bridge. The only
game at which she excells [sic] is the famous "gin," a two-handed
rummy which a friend invented so that she and the governor could play
alone every night. [Sarah Comstock, "'Just Mrs. Smith,' Neighbor's
Term," The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 29 June 1928, p. 11. Here,
"Mrs. Smith," is the First Lady of New York.]

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