Parlor games have come and gone in American culture since there's been an American culture, but the Mah Jong craze of the 1920s may have been the only one to require costumes. An ancient Chinese game played with a set of 144 colored tiles, Mah Jong hit the West Coast in 1922 and soon became immensely fashionable across the nation. Many women refused to play, however, unless they were suitably attired in elaborate Asian robes.

So many sets were being produced at the height of the Mah Jong craze that Chinese manufacturers ran out of the traditional calf shins they made tiles from, and had to send to Chicago slaughterhouses for cow bones. The fad faded after about five years of wild popularity. One possible reason was ennui created by confusion: By mid-decade, more than 20 different sets of rules for the game had been published.