Who Really Invented Monopoly?

In January 1936, a woman in Washington, D.C. told reporters that the hit board game sweeping the country was hers. She had patented it in 1904 as the Landlord's Game, and she said she didn't care if she never made a dime from it, as long as the idea behind it spread. Her name was Lizzie Magie. She was a stenographer, an inventor and a follower of the economist Henry George, and she built her game to show how the landlord has the upper hand. The story most people know says an out-of-work salesman invented Monopoly in his basement during the Great Depression and got rich. A federal court later called the finding that he invented it "clearly erroneous." What this covers: Lizzie Magie, the Dead Letter Office, and U.S. patent 748,626 for the Landlord's Game (January 1904) Henry George, the single tax, and a board with a Go to Jail corner and a Public Park Two sets of rules: one for grabbing everything, and one later called Prosperity How the game spread by hand on oilcloth through Reading, college campuses, Indianapolis and the Quakers of Atlantic City Charles Darrow, Charles Todd's handmade board, and the misspelled Marvin Gardens Parker Brothers, 278,000 copies in the first year, and the purchase of Magie's patent in 1934 or thereabouts (reportedly for $500, with no royalties) Magie's 1936 interviews and her 1940 census line: "maker of games," income zero Ralph Anspach, Anti-Monopoly, and the 1982 ruling that "Monopoly" had become generic, followed by the 1984 change in the law and the 1985 settlement Mary Pilon's 2015 book, and Hasbro's 2019 statement A game built to show the harm of owning everything became the most famous celebration of it. Every winner proves her right. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❤️ It's just me making these. If this one was worth your time, a like helps more than you'd think. If not, all good. See you in the next one. Wren ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ S O U R C E S ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE PATENTS Magie, Lizzie J., "Game-board," U.S. Patent 748,626, filed March 23, 1903, granted January 5, 1904. The Landlord's Game, the square board and the wealth goal. Phillips, Elizabeth Magie, "Game-board," U.S. Patent 1,509,312, filed April 28, 1923, granted September 23, 1924. Her own statement of purpose: the landlord's advantage and the single tax. THE COURT RECORD Anti-Monopoly, Inc. v. General Mills Fun Group, Inc., 684 F.2d 1316 (9th Cir. 1982). The campuses, Atlantic City "in 1931 or thereabouts," Darrow's handmade board, the patent purchase, "generic" and "clearly erroneous." Anti-Monopoly, Inc. v. General Mills Fun Group, 611 F.2d 296 (9th Cir. 1979). The first appeal and the March 1935 sale. Gottlieb, Rackman & Reisman, "MONOPOLY Trademark: Hasbro's Monopoly?" The 1984 change to trademark law and the 1985 settlement. Mental Floss, "The Board Game Trial of the Century." Anspach's search for the Todds and the buried copies of Anti-Monopoly (reported). LIZZIE MAGIE'S STORY Pilon, Mary, "Monopoly Was Designed to Teach the 99% About Income Inequality," Smithsonian Magazine, January 2015. The two rule sets, the 1906 interview, the oilcloth copies, first-year sales, the $500 and the 1940 census. Pilon, Mary, The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game, Bloomsbury, 2015. The book that brought the story back. Peterson, Britt, review of The Monopolists, Slate, February 3, 2015. The $500 and no royalties, and the two sets of rules. Wikipedia, "Lizzie Magie" and "History of Monopoly" (citing Parlett, Board Game Studies Journal, 2019). The Prosperity rules, the 1936 interviews, later editions, Darrow's admission and the Marvin Gardens spelling. DARROW AND PARKER BROTHERS Lough, Alexandra W., "Monopoly," Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2015. The unemployed Philadelphia salesman and how the company credited him. Library of Congress, "The Game of Monopoly is Patented," This Month in Business History. The single-tax purpose and Darrow's December 31, 1935 patent. CBS News, "The scandalous history of Monopoly." The March 1935 sale. TODAY Philadelphia Inquirer, on Ms. Monopoly and Elizabeth Magie, September 11, 2019. Hasbro's statement crediting Darrow and calling Magie a pioneer, and Darrow's fortune. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #history #monopoly #boardgames #documentary #economics