Sunday, August 7, 2011

Curious book cover: "Bridge Babies"


Here's a book you don't stumble across every day. It's "Bridge Babies," a 1961 staplebound paperback by Dorothy W. Wilson.

The book consists entirely of pictures of babies' faces on the right-hand pages and typical bridge comments or retorts on the left-hand pages. That's it.

So here's a typical pair of pages:


Yes, I find it a little bit creepy, too. But, then again, my generation allowed "Baby Geniuses"1 and "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2"2 to come into the world, so I'm really not in a position to be critical on this matter.

"Bridge Babies" was published by Heines Publishing Company of Minneapolis. The company, for which John C. Heines was the president/treasurer, is no longer in business.

Heines Publishing Co. specialized in bridge books and playing supplies. Most notably, it published several popular books by Charles Goren, also known as "Mr. Bridge."

Footnotes
1. "Baby Geniuses" was directed by the late Bob Clark, who also brought us such wide-ranging films as "A Christmas Story," "Porky's," "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things,"1 and "Turk 182!" And if that schizophrenic collection of nostalgia, sex, zombies and blue-collar schmaltz doesn't perfectly encapsulate my generation, I don't know what does.
2. "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2" features Scott Baio as "Stan Bobbins." Just FYI.

Secondary footnote
1. See Footnote #4 on my May 27 post.

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