No. 4 · Canasta Club · New York, 1949 · Now seating
The Blue Lantern
Two friends in Montevideo wanted a game as absorbing as bridge that didn’t take all night. Ten years later New York couldn’t put it down.
Who’s at the table
Twelve members. Every one of them is hiding something, and each secret is known to exactly one other person at the club. Nobody will confirm a thing. The chair at the end is yours.
- File CAN-01Member
Ada Brennan
The Quiet Half
- Age
- 58
- From
- Sligo; Tenth Avenue
- Occupation
- Widow. Formerly half of “the Brennans”
The club saysSpeaks rarely, in sentences that finish before you expect them. Has never once corrected a write-up.
“He was good. He wasn’t the reason.”
Also on file · The Meridian Room → - File CAN-02Member
Beatrice Hollis
Perfectly Correct
- Age
- 44
- From
- Harlem
- Occupation
- Teaches eighth grade, 135th Street
The club saysRespectable to a degree that takes daily effort, and kind underneath it in a way she’d rather not be caught at.
“You may. Whether you should is a different question.”
- File CAN-03Member
Col. Emmett Calloway
The Regiment
- Age
- 61
- From
- Virginia
- Occupation
- Colonel, retired
The club saysGenerous with an anecdote, certain about everything, and rude to precisely one member of this club.
“We’d have had that pile off you at Saint-Mihiel and thanked you for it.”
Also on file · The Meridian Room → - File CAN-04Member
Dov Abramovitz
The Guest
- Age
- 63
- From
- Vilna; Hamburg
- Occupation
- Watchmaker, Canal Street
The club saysProposed for membership twice before it carried. Unfailingly courteous, most of all to the Colonel.
“The Colonel is quite right. It was very much like that.”
- File CAN-05Guest
Eli Sackett
The Young Man
- Age
- 22
- From
- Flatbush
- Occupation
- Junior clerk, Mr. Prym’s office
The club saysCharming, in debt, and talks far too much. Knows it.
“No — I’m fine. I’m absolutely fine. Whose turn is it?”
- File CAN-06Member
Fay Marlowe
Not Her Name
- Age
- 35
- From
- Declined to state
- Occupation
- Actress, when she works
The club saysNeedles everyone at the table with an even hand. The only person alive who finds Mr. Prym funny.
“Mrs. Hollis wouldn’t know a place like that. Would you, Beatrice.”
Also on file · Stage Nine → - File CAN-07Member
Dr. Greta Vogel
The Doctor
- Age
- 49
- From
- Vienna
- Occupation
- Physician, Yorkville
The club saysHalf this club has sat across a desk from her. None of them will hear about it from her.
“Mm. Play your card, Colonel.”
- File CAN-08Member
Gerald Prym
The Attorney
- Age
- 55
- From
- New York
- Occupation
- Attorney
The club saysDrew up most of the wills in this room, remembers every one, and considers the subject closed.
“I couldn’t say. I could, in fact. I won’t.”
Also on file · The Meridian Room → - File CAN-09Member
Nikolai Barsov
“The Count”
- Age
- 58
- From
- Petrograd; Constantinople; Paris
- Occupation
- One-third owner of a taxicab
The club saysAddressed as Count by the whole membership, including the members who are certain he isn’t one. Impossible to embarrass.
“Take your time. I have had a great deal of practice at waiting.”
Also on file · The Meridian Room → - File CAN-10Member
Henry Quan
The Institution
- Age
- 70
- From
- Boston, originally
- Occupation
- Importer, Mott Street
The club saysA member since before most of them were born. Calls at least three people by the wrong name, and has for a decade.
“Your husband played that same card, my dear. Did it work for him?”
Also on file · family · The Lamplight Society → - File CAN-11Member
Arthur Keele
Trade
- Age
- 47
- From
- Bradford, Yorkshire
- Occupation
- Wool
The club saysBlunt about money and where his came from. Well aware a third of the room would rather he played elsewhere.
“Money’s money wherever it came from, Mrs. Vance.”
- File CAN-12Member
Rita Vance
Bored
- Age
- 33
- From
- Sutton Place
- Occupation
- Mrs. Vance
The club saysMarried to money and to nobody in particular. Plays to make something happen.
“Don’t help him, Doctor. He enjoys drowning.”
- File CAN-??Applicant
The empty chair
Name on the file
- Age
- —
- From
- you tell us
- Occupation
- you tell us
The club saysTake the empty chair →Proposed by nobody, seconded by nobody, and seated anyway.
Posted by order of the committee
House rules
- Every table plays the same game. There are no house variants and no table options, because rules are the rules.
- In a partnership you may ask, “Partner, may I go out?” The answer binds you. If you go out on a yes and then can’t, your side pays a hundred.
- Red threes go face up on the table as soon as you get them.
- Leave a rated game and your side takes the loss. Lose your connection and you have two minutes to come back.
- House players never sit in a rated game, and never appear on the ladders.
- At ranked partnership tables there is no typed chat. The phrase book is always open.
The Committee
Where canasta came from
Two friends in Montevideo wanted a game as absorbing as bridge that didn’t take all night. Ten years later New York couldn’t put it down.
- At the table
- Partners across, heads-up, or three-handed. Two packs and four jokers; build canastas of seven and play to 5,000.
- Our room
- Two floors above a restaurant in the West Forties, with a membership from everywhere and nobody telling the whole truth.
- Seats
- Partners, heads-up or three-handed
- 1939Attorney Segundo Santos and architect Alberto Serrato invent canasta in Montevideo, Uruguay.
- 1940sIt takes off at Montevideo’s Jockey Club and spreads through South America. Argentina refines the rules.
- 1949Josefina Artayeta de Viel brings it to New York, where it is sold as “the Argentine rummy game.”
- 1950sA full national craze, with canasta trays, card sets and rulebooks everywhere. Neither inventor ever patented it or saw a royalty.
The clubs and their members are fictional; the games’ histories are not.