01:57 Home. Sleepy. Long day

• 01:57 Home. Sleepy. Long day of Uno facts tomorrow. Must get some sleep. #
• 08:48 Here we go, folks. It's 1971. Merle Robbins, wife Marie, and son Ray, loved playing cards. They decided to design a game of their own. #Uno #
• 09:15 Merle was a barber in Cincinnatti, so spending a lot on production was not easy, but they got together $8K to make the first 5K decks. #Uno #
• 09:19 I am already being accused of not knowing this off the top of my head. Ask anyone who knows me in real life. I know #Uno. Defense ended. #
• 10:20 The original print run was on sub-par cardstock, and the back of the cards had a green tint. I've seen photos. They weren't pretty. #Uno #
• 10:31 Via friends and local businesses, the decks sold throughout Cincinnati. One guy in particular, Robert Tezak, took a shine to the game. #Uno #
• 10:52 Tezak was a funeral parlor owner in Joliet, IL. He offered to buy the game from Merle. IIRC, the sale was $20K + 10 cents/deck sold. #Uno #
• 10:54 Might have been $10K. Memory's a little fuzzy on the number. But what matters is the 10 cents per deck sold. That = a shit ton of cash. #Uno #
• 11:21 So Tezak took the game back to IL and founded International Games. #Uno #
• 11:54 Chances are, if you own any Uno product from before '91, it bears the IG logo. #Uno #
• 12:11 So here's my favorite part. Uno blows up. Boatloads of cash. So Tezak's next logical step, a few years into the 80's? #Uno #
• 12:32 Why, (allegedly) smuggle drugs to China in between decks, of course! #Uno #
• 13:17 So, once the word starts to get out about the drugs, several things happen. The timeline is tough to suss out, but here goes. #Uno #
• 13:18 And this is all ca. '92, I think. #
• 13:22 Tezak sells International Games to Mattel for a buhjillion dollars. #
• 13:28 Tezak completely drops off the map. #Uno #
• 13:31 "Somehow," the building housing the incriminating evidence burns to the ground. #Uno #
• 13:34 Tezak is found and charged with arson. He served, I think, 11 years. He was released in '03 or '04. #Uno #
• 13:36 He has some crazy conspiracy theory, and still maintains his innocence. #Uno #
• 13:58 Unfortunately, it's a fairly bland story once Tezak is behind bars. #Uno #
• 14:38 Mattel went on coming up with shitty variations on the theme and making lots and lots of money. #Uno #
• 14:39 They brought in Sababa Toys, who have created a ton of licensed decks with special cards (Simpsons, MLB teams, Nat'l Parks (yep), etc.) #Uno #
• 14:41 And the Robbins' (RIP, Merle) keep on raking in the dough, I do believe, at about 10 cents per item sold. #Uno #
• 14:42 (Should that have been Robbinses?) #Uno #
• 14:51 So, that's everything I know about Uno. I'm sure I made some date or money errors, but you get the gist. Hope you were enraptured. Bye. #Uno #
• 16:47 @andrewzilch There will be photos. Eventually. #
• 16:58 Oh my god! Black Sheep is a terrible movie! #
• 19:42 Just met Shelly Berman. He's a Mad Men fan. RIDICULOUS. #
• 20:52 twitpic.com/453ui - Mad Men panel at ATAS for the Emmy folk. #
• 21:21 Just heard we're getting scripts for 3.1 tomorrow. I am, ahem, quite excited. #
• 21:56 I am asleep on my feet and I have to socialize. This is the part of my job that I'm really, really bad at. #
• 23:53 Man, I really let you guys have it with Uno facts today. Thanks for not coming to my home and ripping the phone from my hands. #

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Comments

[Smilin' Joe]

Tezak was living in Mesa, Arizona after dropping off the map.  How do I know?  He lived next door to my Grandparents.... Actually a really nice guy, he let us swim in his pool.  At least until he was arrested...