February 17, 2015 – A new book on the “hidden history” of Monopoly credits a left-wing secretary with inventing the world’s most popular board game. Author Mary Pilon says Elizabeth Magie created her Landlord’s Game in 1903 as a protest against powerful property owners, 30 years before Parker Brothers issued a version of the game that was pro-capitalism.
Magie based her game on the theories of economist and politician Henry George and began self-producing it after being granted a patent in 1904. It became popular among left-wing intellectuals in the Northeast and college students, who made their own boards but used Magie’s rules. Charles Darrow, a salesman left unemployed by the Great Depression, saw homemade versions of the game in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and crafted his own design. Darrow used places and street names in Atlantic City in the version he sold to Parker Brothers.
Darrow and Parker Brothers made millions on Monopoly while Magie, who died in 1948, made only around $500 on her Landlord’s Game.
Link: NYTimes
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