Nicola Owen

monopoly

“The most commonly known story of the invention of Monopoly centers around Charles Darrow, an unemployed engineer from Germantown, Pennsylvania. As the legend goes, Darrow created the game on an oil cloth on his kitchen table, all the while dreaming of fame, fortune, and summers spent on the Jersey shore, which explains the game's Atlantic City street names. It is true that Charles Darrow presented the game to Parker Brothers in 1934, but was turned down because the company felt the game, which they said had "fifty-two fundamental design errors," was too complicated and would take too long to play. In 1935, after Darrow had some success selling the game on his own, Parker Brothers reconsidered and bought the rights to Monopoly for an undisclosed sum.


Most people don't know, however, that Monopoly is related very closely to a game called The Landlord's Game which was created and patented in 1904 by Elizabeth (Lizzie) J. Magie, from Virginia. Magie developed the game, which, like Monopoly, had forty spaces, four railroads, two utilities, twenty-two rental properties, and spaces for Jail, Go to Jail, Luxury Tax, and Parking, as a way to teach the single-tax theory. Magie, a Quaker, was a firm believer in the single-tax theory's basic tenet, that a person's taxes should be based on the amount of land that he owned, a popular idea around the turn of the century.




The game spread through word of mouth. Rules were relayed from one group of friends to another and boards and game pieces were homemade. It is believed that Magie's game may have even found its way to the University of Pennsylvania economics department, as well as the campuses of Princeton and Harvard. Magie kept up with the changes that wider play made in her game, by adapting the rules to allow improving properties, naming the properties, and giving players higher rents if they owned a monopoly. In 1924, Magie attempted to interest George Parker in purchasing the rights to her improved game, but was turned town on the basis that her game was too political. Although there is much speculation about how Darrow happened upon the idea for his game, it is no myth that Monopoly has enjoyed tremendous success since its 1935 Toy Fair debut. Approximately 100 million games have been sold, making it one of the best-selling games in the world. It is sold in more than eighty countries and has been translated into twenty-six languages, including Braille. “

Quote from: http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/toys/monopoly.html

posted by monkeynic @ 4:36 pm