Blackjack Exponent: Eleanor Dumont
When Twenty-One hit the shores of the United States in the 1800's, there was not much patronage for it. Holding the top spot were Faro, the Mexican Monte, and Poker. It was not, however, without an evangelist, who appeared in 1854, in the form of a posh lovely French lady in her mid-twenties, named Eleanor Dumont.
Occupying a vacant storefront on Nevada City's Broad Street, she opened a gambling hall and began dealing Vingt-et-Un. Unusual as it was during this time for men to see a woman entrepreneur, they curiously flocked to it. There, they had a taste of European class. Upon entering, the rowdy behavior that characterized the other places was prohibited: from cussing, loud belting conversations, arguments, and even to smoking and chewing. Those who lost in the games were treated to a free drink of champagne. With such a treatment, players were always heard saying that it was better to lose to Madame Moustache than win against anyone else. The men who wanted to sit with her at her table were expected to take off their hats, and patiently stand and wait quietly to be seated. Her gambling hall accented Nevada City in its time, and soon became among the earliest to establish the state's gambling renown.
Madame Dumont, having all the propriety of a French aristocrat, also possessed the appeal that seemed to command luck to her side. She was a gambling lady, and her skill later brought her fame and notoriety throughout the Northwestern gambling circuit.
After two years more, however, her life of glamour was earmarked to fall. She decided to relocate business. But to where? While deciding this, she traveled throughout the gambling belt - Nevada, California, Colorado - as a professional gambler, until finally settling at Bodie, California.
In this city, she opened her two-floor establishment: gambling on the first floor (which, just like in Nevada, began by dealing Vingt-et-Un), and prostitution on the second. Another thing she learned on the gambling road was the profitability gained from prostitution. In Bodie, Vingt-et-Un did not catch on very well. This may have been a factor in driving her to occasional sexual liaisons with unscrupulous partners, which ended miserably.
Twenty years later, the charm that commanded luck and opportunities was gone. On September 1879, heavily in debt, she borrowed $300 from a friend, hoping to win big on a faro game. Nothing was heard of her again except that she lost her entire bankroll on that game. On September 8th, her body was discovered several miles from Bodie, grasping a vial of poison. Her story ends in an unmarked grave, in a cemetery for outcasts.
Madame Dumont was surrounded by a mysterious aura that covers her legend to this day. She is not forgotten; she had done her part. Vingt-et-Un soon became known as Blackjack, and made it to the big leagues as one of the most loved card games of all time.
