A History of the Monopoly Board Game
Jason A Forthofer
November 02, 2011
According to the Hasbro website, Monopoly is the best-selling board game of all time. It is available in 103 countries and 37 languages. Over 200 million Monopoly game boards have been sold since 1935 and the longest game of Monopoly lasted 70 days straight. However, the history of Monopoly is sketchy at best.
The Monopoly board game can be traced back to 1903 when Elizabeth Magie created a board game based on buying and selling property and land. In 1934, a board game similar to the modern day Parker Brothers Monopoly became available for purchase. Even though several people claimed to have invented the board game, the folklore in the 1970s suggests a different story.
According to the 1974 book "The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World's Most Popular Game" by Maxine Brady as well as the official Monopoly game instructions, the Monopoly game board that we now know today was the brainchild of Charles Darrow. Supposedly, Charles Darrow from Germantown Pennsylvania presented a board game called Monopoly to executives at Parker Brothers in 1934. At the time, the executives were not interested in the game claiming it had 52 design errors. They turned Charles Darrow away. However, Charles Darrow was unemployed, low on funds and would not take no for an answer. With the help of a friend with a printer, he produced the game himself and sold 5,000 units to a department store in Philadelphia. Consumers loved it and the board game quickly flew off the shelves but Mr. Darrow could not keep up with the demand. He turned to Parker Brothers once again enlisting their help. Parker Brothers did not make the same mistake twice and have been producing the game ever since.
However, Professor Ralph Anspach disputed this history and fought Parker Brothers and its parent company General Mills over who exactly created the game. During Professor Ralph Anspach´s research, he unearthed the early history of the board game dating back to 1903 created to Elizabeth Magie. In 1975, Professor Ralph Anspach was able to confront Maxine Brady about the history of Monopoly on the New York City talk show hosted by Barry Farber.
The long legal battle over the trademark did not come to an end until 1985. To this day, Parker Brothers still owns the Monopoly registered trademark as well as the design of the game. Even after the lengthy court battle and the new information Professor Ralph Anspach discovered about the game´s history, Parker Brothers and its parent companies refuse to acknowledge any evidence of the Monopoly´s history earlier than Charles Darrow.
The Monopoly board game can be traced back to 1903 when Elizabeth Magie created a board game based on buying and selling property and land. In 1934, a board game similar to the modern day Parker Brothers Monopoly became available for purchase. Even though several people claimed to have invented the board game, the folklore in the 1970s suggests a different story.
According to the 1974 book "The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World's Most Popular Game" by Maxine Brady as well as the official Monopoly game instructions, the Monopoly game board that we now know today was the brainchild of Charles Darrow. Supposedly, Charles Darrow from Germantown Pennsylvania presented a board game called Monopoly to executives at Parker Brothers in 1934. At the time, the executives were not interested in the game claiming it had 52 design errors. They turned Charles Darrow away. However, Charles Darrow was unemployed, low on funds and would not take no for an answer. With the help of a friend with a printer, he produced the game himself and sold 5,000 units to a department store in Philadelphia. Consumers loved it and the board game quickly flew off the shelves but Mr. Darrow could not keep up with the demand. He turned to Parker Brothers once again enlisting their help. Parker Brothers did not make the same mistake twice and have been producing the game ever since.
However, Professor Ralph Anspach disputed this history and fought Parker Brothers and its parent company General Mills over who exactly created the game. During Professor Ralph Anspach´s research, he unearthed the early history of the board game dating back to 1903 created to Elizabeth Magie. In 1975, Professor Ralph Anspach was able to confront Maxine Brady about the history of Monopoly on the New York City talk show hosted by Barry Farber.
The long legal battle over the trademark did not come to an end until 1985. To this day, Parker Brothers still owns the Monopoly registered trademark as well as the design of the game. Even after the lengthy court battle and the new information Professor Ralph Anspach discovered about the game´s history, Parker Brothers and its parent companies refuse to acknowledge any evidence of the Monopoly´s history earlier than Charles Darrow.
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