Honestly, I don’t know what the heck was going on in front of the Gables Beach Club in Santa Monica when this photo was taken some time in the late 1920s. What I can tell is that the Gables Beach Club was the first of its kind built in Santa Monica. It opened in 1926 two blocks north of the California Incline (see yesterday’s post.) Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. My theory is some sort of publicity stunt to promote the club, which would explain the mandatory line of bathing beauties. They weren’t playing Seven Card Stud because that game doesn’t use the joker, but with four queens and two aces, I’d say somebody won that hand.

** UPDATE** Here is a “Human Card Game” article from The Fresno Bee dated April 15, 1927:

I tried the auto-colorizer on this one to see what it would come up with. A few too many pinks and purples, but otherwise pretty good, I’d say.