September 2019 - 24

Movie Night
Host your own bridge film festival
BY SUE MUNDAY

J

ohn McAllister has decreed Oct. 2
"Double Dummy" Day.
"Double Dummy" is a bridge documentary John produced that follows
a U.S. Junior team through the 2012
World Youth Team Championships.
The filmmakers show that bridge is
a vibrant game loved and played by
people of all ages.
John pictures the possibilities of a
World Wide Bridge Day: "What if every
bridge club, teacher and player collectively got together and decided, on
this day, that we are going to invite to
a film screening all of our non-bridge
friends whom we think might want
to learn more about the game? What
if the clubs and teachers got together
and agreed to roll out the red carpet for
these prospective players, organized
greetings in the theater lobby, mentor
programs and classes for novices? How
might the bridge community look different a year from now?"
John grew up in a card-playing family. The game of choice was usually
hearts. When John returned home
from college for his grandfather's funeral, the family sat down with a deck
of cards. As John was explaining the
house rules, his Aunt Kathleen interjected, "This is stupid, we should be
playing bridge."
"She was right," John says, "and
that was the last time I played hearts
for about 20 years!" Oct. 2 would have

24 Bridge Bulletin September 2019

been Aunt Kathleen's 75th birthday.
In February, Qing Lu and Michael
Hu organized a screening of "Double
Dummy" for the Silicon Valley
Youth Bridge community. (See Lynn
Johannesen's article about the event
in the March 2019 SiVY newsletter at
siliconvalleyyouthbridge.org.)
Qing says one of the keys to the
success of the event was intensive
marketing.
"We advertised the event at club
games and sectionals with flyers and
announcements. We posted it in SiVY
newspapers and two local club websites. We emailed all kinds of bridge
groups, including local high school
teams."
The organizers also gave some of the
tickets as awards to SiVY pizza party
tournament winners, Qing says. "Tickets sold quickly, exceeding the seats in
the theater assigned to us originally, so
we had to request an upgrade."
The San Francisco Bay/Silicon
Valley area is fortunate to have a
strong bridge community. "After the
movie, we were also lucky to arrange
a heavyweight panel, which included
Michael Rosenberg, Debbie Rosenberg,
Adam Kaplan and Kevin Rosenberg,
which I believe was a selling point,"
Qing says. (Kaplan is in the film.)
Screenings have also been held in
Beaverton OR, Pasadena CA and
Houston TX.
Orman Kimbrough, a friend of
John's, attended a Charlottesville VA
screening of the film in February 2018.
He took his 11-year-old son, Henry,
with him. "Little did I know that this

spur-of-the-moment invitation to my
son would open the door to my family's
pursuit of learning the game of bridge,"
Orman wrote on BridgeWinners.
"For Henry and I, who had no
previous knowledge about the game
of bridge, 'Double Dummy' was an
outstanding introduction to the game.
The film appeals to viewers of all ages
(particularly pre-teens and teens
who can easily identify with the main
characters in the film) and especially
to bridge players from novice to
experienced skill levels."
Orman and Henry stayed for the
question-and-answer session with
John that followed the viewing. "During the Q&A session, John introduced
an audience member who was one of
his first bridge instructors," Orman
says. "The woman spoke about playing
with John back in the day before John
became a top international player, and
then she announced that she would
soon be offering an eight-week Intro to
Bridge class. My son, Henry, immediately looked at me and asked, 'Dad, can
I take that class? I really want to learn
to play bridge.'"
Henry, his father and his grandmother, Susu, enrolled in the class.
"Over the next eight weeks," Orman
says, "Henry, Susu and I began to learn
how to play bridge. The rules and strategy to the game came much quicker to
Henry than to me and his grandmother,
and he was always eager for Monday
night bridge class. Through the class,
Henry became an ACBL member; and
as the year went along, he began to attend playing sessions by himself."
http://www.siliconvalleyyouthbridge.org
September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2019
