This June, 1930 Modern Mechanix article on the cheats used in carny midway games is great -- it's amazing how many of these cons are still in use today.
Ever play the bucket game? The idea is to throw balls into the bucket in so many attempts. Try and do it! Every bucket has a turn screw on the bottom, adjusted so that it will positively throw out the ball with which the game is played. Of course, the “capper” is allowed to win and occasionally the operator gets generous enough to allow some outside person a fair chance of “winning. There are many varieties of this swindle. One uses but a single bucket mounted in the center of a closely-woven net. The tautness of the net makes it impossible to pocket the ball. In another type the bottoms are hinged so that they can be deflected upwards and downwards. With the bottoms flat, the player has no chance whatsoever, but by pressing a lever, the “barker” can deflect the bottoms slightly, causing the ball to strike the inside on the rebound and then stay put.
Link
See also:
Rigged carny game
Rigged carny game -- secret revealed! (with videos)
HOWTO beat carny games
the latest
latest episodes
Please tell me I'm not the only one that noticed the first sentence in the third picture.
Check out the 'acceptable' use of racial slang in the 30s.
BB is having issues today. MY comment is right over ---> there on recent comments, but not on the entry.
@#1: Actually, I thought I'd skipped a page, and "nigger in the woodpile" was the name of another game. It took me a minute to dredge up the original meaning of that charming little colloquialism. :|
"nigger in the woodpile"
Oh I'm so using that one... What? What are you looking at?
Hilarious, I was just coming here to remark on that very thing and here it turns out that ALL of the comments thus far are about that first sentence on page 3. I've heard older relations using that term before but I -never- would've expected to see it so matter-of-factly in print, even in something from the 1930s ... yeesh ...
I will pass over the racial commentary and get to the 'exposure'
As a sometimes carny of a sort and someone with a romanticized love of that world I am loathe to ruin the fun but I will say readers should look at these pieces with skepticism. Often they are fake reveals, similar to the magic secrets revealed TV shows that expose complicated mechanical gimmicks for tricks that are really just sleights or other methods - remember Occam's razor and beware the convincing lie
Damn - cut myself off in mid post...
Many, if not all, games are fair in that they are not rigged but have an incredible house bias (you aren't being cheated simply trying to do something very very hard that doesn't necessarily appear so) in their win percentage combined the almost complete lack of real value of the prizes (the entire display is often only worth a few bucks - one or two players losing covers the inventory costs). This means the operators have no reason to risk cheating and the subsequent bad faith / legal issues.
...and a Masonic reference, too!
But fedoras make all the difference. :-)
i'm still in shock at the casualness
and assuredness of the writer that his
readers would understand what n.i.t.w.
meant.
the dude could have just said "rub."
(that sure looks like Bud Abbott with
the cigarette on page 3 btw)