Are you old enough to remember Omar Sharif's Bridge Circus? If not, here's a brief summary. In the late 60s and early 70s Omar Sharif, the very well known film star and less well known Egyptian bridge star, talked the Lancia car company into sponsoring an unusual bridge tournament. A team of international stars including members of the fabeled Italian Blue Team, would travel around the world from major city to major city and play K.O. matches against the local yokels. If said yokels managed to beat the international stars, each yokel would receive a brand new Lancia sports car.
I attended the Chicago version of the Circus in 1970. I seem to recall that the matches were good. They used something called "Bridge-O-Rama" (an early form of ViewGraph), to present the hands to the spectators. I also recall that there were some cheating allegations because some of them happened in Chicago. Several teams managed to beat the international squad and collect a brace of sports cars.
But what I really remember about the Bridge Circus is kibitzing the little Sectional Open Pairs tournament that was held on the Friday afternoon before the big weekend knockout. I'm generally not much of a kibitzer, but with Giorgio Belladona playing, a guy who at that time was on the VERY short list for best player in the world, I decided to make an exception. It was certainly one of the strangest tournaments I've ever seen!