Such a Deal: 1950s

Double deck pinochle- 2 pinochle decks with the 9s stripped = 4 of each card A 10 K Q J - 80 cards in the deck. They should each have twenty cards, the best I can count is 19 in the plaid shirt.

So why is there a shotgun leaning against the wall?

Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco. One of the first I got hooked on back in the mid-50's.

My wife is playing canasta right now with her pals, a game played with multiple decks. It was very popular in the 50s & 60s along with pinochle.

Did anyone else notice the pack of non-filter Lucky Strikes on the table? Now those were some serious coffin nails. Man it seems everybody smoked smoked back then. I remember my pops smoked non-filter Philip Morris, three-plus packs a day. It's been a long time since he was among the living -- about 44 years.

Might be home on leave from the service.

The player on the right is showing a smallpox vaccination scar on his left arm. No longer necessary since the 1970's.

It could be that these people are playing POKER, and they cheat a lot.

I have a straight flush.
Well I have a royal flush.
Oh yeah? I have 5 of a kind.
Well, I have 6 of a kind!

Look alike, or maybe he was between East of Eden and Giant?

When I was a kid my father used a similar beanbag ashtray. It could easily sit on the upholstered arm of a living room chair.

The deck only has 10's, aces and face cards, and 20 cards in each hand. That sounds like double deck pinochle.

The most popular card game of the 50s and played with two decks.

[These cards are from at least three decks, though. -tterrace]

Way back in 1966, when I graduated high school, I began working for a major department store, The Broadway. During the 6 months before I enlisted in the Air Force I sold a lot of Samsonite card tables. Back then card tables were required furniture in every proper home. Today, not so.