22 Facts About Ely Culbertson

Elie Almon Culbertson, known as Ely Culbertson, was an American contract bridge entrepreneur and personality dominant during the 1930s.

Ely Culbertson played a major role in the popularization of the new game and was widely regarded as "the man who made contract bridge".

Ely Culbertson was a great showman who became rich, was highly extravagant, and lost and gained fortunes several times over.

Ely Culbertson attended the Ecole des sciences economiques et politiques at the Sorbonne in Paris, and the University of Geneva.

Josephine Ely Culbertson retained the surname after their divorce in 1938; indeed, a revised edition of Ely Culbertson's Contract Bridge in Ten Minutes was published under her name in 1951.

Gradually the new game of contract bridge began to replace auction bridge, and Ely Culbertson saw his opportunity to overtake the leaders of auction bridge.

Ely Culbertson planned a far-reaching and successful campaign to promote himself as the leader of the new game.

Ely Culbertson was a brilliant publicist; he played several famous challenge matches and won them all.

Later, Ely Culbertson managed to adroitly avoid playing the leading American team of the mid-1930s, the "Four Aces".

Ely Culbertson was defeated again in Budapest, June 1937, in the first world championship teams tournament, by the Austria team led by Dr Paul Stern.

Ely Culbertson never lost again, because he never played again.

Ely Culbertson founded and edited The Bridge World magazine, which is still published today, and wrote many newspaper articles and books on bridge.

Ely Culbertson owned the first firm of playing card manufacturers to develop plastic cards, Kem Cards, and developed and owned a chain of bridge schools with teachers qualified in the Culbertson bidding system.

Ely Culbertson continued to play high-stakes rubber bridge for many years, but gave up tournament and match competition in 1938 to write and to work for world peace.

Ely Culbertson challenged Lenz to a match, wagering $5,000 against his opponent's $1,000, with the money to go to charity regardless of the outcome.

Ely Culbertson's challenge was accepted by Culbertson, and a teams of four match took place in London in 1930.

The Ely Culbertson team won by 4,845 total points over 200 deals.

Ely Culbertson partnered his wife, Josephine, and his other pair comprised Lightner and von Zedtwitz.

Later in the match Ely Culbertson played with Lightner, and his wife played with von Zedwitz: this was the more successful line-up.

Immediately after the Buller match, the Culbertson team played another match, against Crockford's Club.

The Ely Culbertson team won by 10,900 total points over 300 hands, a decisive but not overwhelming victory.

All the same, Walshe's team had shown that the great Ely Culbertson team was vulnerable.