History
The origin is not known but there exist references from at least as long ago as the 12th century to the game being played in Normandy (northern France) or the Channel Islands (English Channel, United Kingdom). Others also mention fur trappers from the Hudson's Bay Company. The game grew popular among sailors and fishermen.
Evidence of the game exists in England from the middle of the 20th century, but it is possible that it did not originate there. Timothy Finn writes in Pub Games of England that it came from the Channel Islands in 1958 with a Mr. 'Chalky' Towbridge. It is said that versions have also been played in Barotseland (Zambia, central Africa). The game is also popular in the beer bars of Thailand using special rules.
Shut the Box is also the basis of the popular TV quiz show High Rollers, which ran from 1974–76 and 1978-80 on NBC with Alex Trebek as the host. The show resurfaced from 1987 to 1988, this time hosted by Wink Martindale.
Read more about this topic: Shut The Box
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)