Beauty Contest, or Scandal Corner

A game which will make you laugh, and laugh, and laugh. A new style of Consequences for any number of players up to 23. Collingwood, Vic. : G. N. Raymond Pty. Ltd., [1943?]. Notepad format, 265 x 105 mm, comprising a front cover acting as a rules sheet with title and publisher’s imprint, plus [23] detachable printed sheets with spaces for players to make handwritten entries; light foxing and edge wear to the cover, otherwise in fine condition, intact and never played.

A parlour game in which each player must weigh-up the other players’ answers to a set of pro-forma questions about personal traits and features in order to establish the identity of the mystery person in the room who is being described anonymously. A social icebreaker which no doubt had the potential to be the source, in turn, of much embarrassment, hostility or flirtation.

No other example traced – unsurprisingly, as the game is entirely ephemeral: once played, the players’ completed answer sheets would have been discarded.

The only newspaper advertisement for this game that we can trace on Trove is from 30 September 1943 (The South-Western News, Busselton).