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Monopoly is a board game published by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single entity.
History For more details on this topic, see History of the board game Monopoly.
The history of Monopoly can be traced back to 1903, when a Quaker woman named Elizabeth (Lizzie) J. Magie Phillips created a game through which she hoped to be able to explain the single tax theory of Henry George (it was intended to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies). Her game, The Landlord’s Game, was commercially published in 1924. Other interested game players redeveloped the game, some changing its name to Auction Monopoly and later to plain Monopoly, and many making their own sets customized for their own cities. Several people, mostly in the U.S. Midwest and near the U.S. East Coast, contributed to the American version of the game’s design and evolution. Phillips herself patented a revised edition of the game in 1923, and similar games of this nature were published commercially. Charles Darrow is credited with making the US Atlantic City variation of Monopoly that is commonly used today. It is debated as to whether or not it was created by his friends, the Todds, who lived in Philadelphia, or if he drew it out on his kitchen table after a family trip to Atlantic City. He became unemployed in the 1929 crash and decided to sell copies of the game. He then brought the game to Parker Brothers, but they rejected it due to 52 design errors. So, with the help of one of his friends that was a printer, Darrow was able to sell 5,000 handmade sets of Monopoly. The demand kept growing and growing and the two could not keep up with the orders. So in 1935, Darrow brought the game to Parker Brothers again and they bought the rights from Darrow and started manufacturing a slightly updated version. In the same year, Waddingtons bought the UK rights to the game and made a version based on the streets of London. In 1941, the British Secret Service had John Waddington Ltd., the licensed manufacturer of the game outside the U.S., create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by secret service-created fake charity groups. This was the first "special issue" of the game. By the 1970s, the game’s early history had been lost (at least one historian has argued that it was purposely suppressed), and the idea that it had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore. This was stated in the 1974 book The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World’s Most Popular Game, by Maxine Brady, and in the instructions of the game itself. As Professor Ralph Anspach fought Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills, over the trademarks of the Monopoly board game, much of the early history of the game was "rediscovered". Because of the lengthy court process and appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers’ trademarks on the game was not settled until the late 1970s. Anspach won the case on appeals in 1979, as the 9th District Court determined that the trademark Monopoly was generic, and therefore unenforceable. However, in response to Hasbro’s pressure, the US Congress immediately passed a statute amending the Trademark Act of 1946 to protect longstanding marks against "generic" claims. Thus, the game’s name remains a registered trademark of Parker Brothers, as do its specific design elements. Parker Brothers’ current corporate parent, Hasbro, now acknowledges that Charles Darrow was responsible for the development of the modern Monopoly, but did not invent the original game. Anspach published a book about his research, called The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle (and republished as Monopolygate), in which he makes his case about the purposeful suppression of the game’s early history and development. The Monopoly game board consists of forty spaces containing twenty-eight properties (twenty-two colored streets, four railroads and two utilities), three Chance spaces, three Community Chest spaces, a Luxury Tax space, an Income Tax space, and the four corner squares: GO, Jail, Free Parking, and Go to Jail For more details on this topic, see History of the board game Monopoly.
The history of Monopoly can be traced back to 1903, when a Quaker woman named Elizabeth (Lizzie) J. Magie Phillips created a game through which she hoped to be able to explain the single tax theory of Henry George (it was intended to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies). Her game, The Landlord’s Game, was commercially published in 1924. Other interested game players redeveloped the game, some changing its name to Auction Monopoly and later to plain Monopoly, and many making their own sets customized for their own cities. Several people, mostly in the U.S. Midwest and near the U.S. East Coast, contributed to the American version of the game’s design and evolution. Phillips herself patented a revised edition of the game in 1923, and similar games of this nature were published commercially. Charles Darrow is credited with making the US Atlantic City variation of Monopoly that is commonly used today. It is debated as to whether or not it was created by his friends, the Todds, who lived in Philadelphia, or if he drew it out on his kitchen table after a family trip to Atlantic City. He became unemployed in the 1929 crash and decided to sell copies of the game. He then brought the game to Parker Brothers, but they rejected it due to 52 design errors. So, with the help of one of his friends that was a printer, Darrow was able to sell 5,000 handmade sets of Monopoly. The demand kept growing and growing and the two could not keep up with the orders. So in 1935, Darrow brought the game to Parker Brothers again and they bought the rights from Darrow and started manufacturing a slightly updated version. In the same year, Waddingtons bought the UK rights to the game and made a version based on the streets of London. In 1941, the British Secret Service had John Waddington Ltd., the licensed manufacturer of the game outside the U.S., create a special edition for World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by secret service-created fake charity groups. This was the first "special issue" of the game. By the 1970s, the game’s early history had been lost (at least one historian has argued that it was purposely suppressed), and the idea that it had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore. This was stated in the 1974 book The Monopoly Book: Strategy and Tactics of the World’s Most Popular Game, by Maxine Brady, and in the instructions of the game itself. As Professor Ralph Anspach fought Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills, over the trademarks of the Monopoly board game, much of the early history of the game was "rediscovered". Because of the lengthy court process and appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers’ trademarks on the game was not settled until the late 1970s. Anspach won the case on appeals in 1979, as the 9th District Court determined that the trademark Monopoly was generic, and therefore unenforceable. However, in response to Hasbro’s pressure, the US Congress immediately passed a statute amending the Trademark Act of 1946 to protect longstanding marks against "generic" claims. Thus, the game’s name remains a registered trademark of Parker Brothers, as do its specific design elements. Parker Brothers’ current corporate parent, Hasbro, now acknowledges that Charles Darrow was responsible for the development of the modern Monopoly, but did not invent the original game. Anspach published a book about his research, called The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle (and republished as Monopolygate), in which he makes his case about the purposeful suppression of the game’s early history and development. The Monopoly game board consists of forty spaces containing twenty-eight properties (twenty-two colored streets, four railroads and two utilities), three Chance spaces, three Community Chest spaces, a Luxury Tax space, an Income Tax space, and the four corner squares: GO, Jail, Free Parking, and Go to Jail From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Rental property (not accommodation) |
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