Seven Decks of Cards You Will Never Play Poker With
Bill Schroeder
Smashwords ebook edition published by Fideli Publishing Inc.
Copyright 2011, Bill Schroeder
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ISBN: 978-1-60414-482-6
Propaganda
As devoted as Americans are to playing cards, it might come as a surprise to most that they also have a long history in another field — Propaganda. When the Crusaders brought playing cards back from the Middle East during the 13th Century, Italian nobility adopted them not only for gaming, but as an Art Form. Before they became the property of the common people, playing cards were individually painted works of art, picturing real people of wealth and notoriety.
Schroeder Collection
For example, the Visconti-Sforza deck is one of the oldest existing examples of playing cards commissioned to be painted to commemorate the joining of two wealthy families in Italy. It was a way of letting the world know that something important had happened. The individuals pictured on the court cards were notable members of both families painted in miniature and trimmed with gold. The deck was presented to the newly married couple as a prize gift. (Try giving a deck of cards as a wedding present today).
By the 17th Century, cards had become common throughout Europe, and on occasion were used to publicize political events. One that stands out is the 1588 printing of the Spanish Armada deck at the request of Queen Elizabeth I in England. Its sole purpose was to publicize the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the Her Royal Majesty’s Navy. It was an ideal way to publicize a victory among literate people when there were few forms of printed media. Original copies of this deck exist only in museums.
Schroeder Collection
There have been numerous examples of similar propaganda ploys, but we have several excellent ones within the past 80 years — most of which you never heard of for one reason or another. In 1934, during the First New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt suppressed a deck that outraged him.
Schroeder Collection
Then during World War II, he authorized the creation and mass distribution of an anti-Axis deck of playing cards to persuade Latin American countries to declare war on Hitler.
Schroeder Collection
In 1941 while Hitler was laying siege to Leningrad, the USSR tried to undermine the Nazi blockade with playing cards to be dropped on the front lines from airplanes.
Schroeder Collection
Even though that didn’t work, they issued another updated deck in 1943 with hopes of cracking German morale with similar results.
Schroeder Collection
But the Russians were no strangers to propaganda cards. The Bolsheviks tried to distribute anti-Religion playing cards at the 1933 Chicago “Century of Progress” World’s Fair.
Schroeder Collection
In Europe two anatomical decks we created that really stretch the imagination. They illustrate one of the other uses of early playing cards — education. They come from the Czech Republic and Italy and were used in training medical students. Known as the “Under Your Skin” decks, one deals with the bones of the human body, and the other the muscles.
Schroeder Collection
Schroeder Collection
THE RAREST DECK OF PLAYING CARDS IN AMERICA
Let’s start with a look at “The rarest deck of playing cards in America” — the 1934 NRA (National Recovery Administration) deck (not to be confused with he National Rifle Association). It is the rarest deck because there is only one known copy of it in existence. At the moment, it is in my personal collection in a safe deposit box.
Schroeder Collection
During the heated political battles of the First New Deal during FDR’s First 100 Days, anti-Roosevelt forces did all they could to prevent the passage of the numerous Alphabet Agency bills designed to fight the Great Depression. They focused on what was called “The Three Rs” — Relief, Recovery, and Reform, and would drastically change the federal government's role in politics and society. Opposing this approach were such organizations as The American Liberty League, funded by the DuPont family, GM, US Steel, and Goodyear. They were involved in a pseudo-fascist plot to overthrow President Roosevelt, and led so-called “educational campaigns” against social security, unemployment insurance, minimum wages, and other pro-union New Deal policies.
Schroeder Collection
One of their propaganda devices was a deck of cards picturing FDR on the Kings, Eleanor Roosevelt on the Queens, and Vice President John Nance Garner on the Jacks. If the name Garner rings a bell it is because, “Cactus Jack” Garner claimed he was misquoted by pantywaists as saying “The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.” He insisted it was another body fluid.
Schroeder Collection
The backs of the cards carried the initials of all the newly created government agencies the opposition found so offensive. Primary among them was the NRA (National Recovery Administration), symbolized by the famous “Blue Eagle Logo.
Schroeder Collection
Schroeder Collection
In 1934, FDR was so furious when he found out that they were publishing a deck of cards with his picture on the Kings he reportedly told the Secret Service to “put an end to it.” In no time at all, Secret Service agents confronted the owners of the J.M.A. novelty printing company in Dallas and ordered them to destroy all copies of the controversial deck.
In those days, when Federal agents showed up at your shop and told you to do something, the average small businessman did not argue. Under the watchful eyes of the Secret Service, they dutifully fed hundreds of decks into the furnace to prevent their distribution.
However, their eyes weren’t watchful enough. One of the printing company employees (known only as “Jeff”) grabbed a handful of the cards and stuffed them into his pocket. Nobody searched him, so he took them home and hid them. Then he is reported to have spent the next 60-odd years worrying about being arrested. It was not until his worldly possessions were auctioned off at a Dallas tax sale in the 1990s that he finally admitted to having taken them in 1934.
The guy who won the cards in a box lot had no idea how rare the cards were and put them up for sale on eBay in small groups of eight cards. I realized immediately when I saw them on the computer screen that in 30 years of collecting playing cards I had never seen them before. I lost no time in submitting a bid for them that no one matched. After winning the initial batch, I made a deal with the vendor for any and all available cards from the deck.