Search This Blog

Sunday 19 June 2016

Monopoly (game)

Monopoly is a board game in which players compete to purchase real estate and wipe out their opponents.

HISTORY

Monopoly was invented in 1934 by Charles Darrow (1889-1967), a Pennsylvania heating engineer who had been reduced to selling stoves.

The original Monopoly board patent

Darrow adapted Monopoly from a similar game, The Landlord's Game, devised in 1903 by Elizabeth Magie of Virginia.

The original Monopoly game was made from materials from Darrow's own home. A piece of oil cloth covered the board, and the cards were handwritten. The original houses and hotels were made from wooden molding scraps.

Charles Darrow first suggested using buttons to identify the different players. His nieces had the idea of using metallic pieces from charm bracelets.

Monopoly was initially rejected by Parker Bros for having "52 fundamental playing errors". The   games manufacturer bought it in 1935 after Darrow enjoyed great success in selling it himself.


Parker Brothers begun selling Monopoly on February 6, 1935. The original version of the game in this format was based on real streets and locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Parker Brothers acquired the forerunner patents for Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie on November 6, 1935.

The metal pieces in the original 1935 edition were lantern, purse, rocking horse, iron, racing car, thimble, shoe, top hat, cannon and battleship.

During World War II, the dice in the United Kingdom were replaced with a spinner because of a lack of materials.

Monopoly spinner

In 1952 Scottie dog, wheelbarrow and horse and rider replaced the lantern, purse and rocking horse pieces.

The gang that committed the 1963 great train robbery (£2.6 million) in England, played Monopoly with real money after looting the train.

Monopoly was once very popular in Cuba; however, Fidel Castro ordered every Monopoly game to be destroyed and banned the playing of it on the island.

2014 U.S. MONOPOLY Box

Charles Darrow made over $1 million from Monopoly but his subsequent invention, Bulls and Bears, was a failure.

A Minnesota man arrested on a drugs charge in 2017 gave the officer a Monopoly “get out of jail free” card. He is said to have carried it “just in case”.

FUN FACTS

When Monopoly was introduced to communist Czechoslovakia, private businesses were illegal and mortgages didn't exist, so they turned it into a horse racing variant.

More Monopoly money is printed in a year than real money printed throughout the world.

There is a 12 per cent chance that a game of Monopoly will go on indefinitely.

The longest game of Monopoly was played at a frat in Pittsburgh, between November 27 and December 2, 1961. When the bank ran out of money they wired Parker Brothers, who sent the players a million dollars of Monopoly, which was delivered by armored car. The last dice were thrown by Parker Brothers Vice President Randolph Barton. After five days and 120 and a half hours, history’s longest Monopoly game was over.


The name of the character that is behind bars in the Monopoly board game is Jake the Jailbird.

The police officer who points players to go directly to jail, is Officer Edgar Mallory.

When James Robert Ringrose, one of FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in 1966, he presented the FBI agents with a "Get out of jail free" card from Monopoly

The space on which a player has the greatest statistical chance of landing in the US edition is Illinois Avenue.

No comments:

Post a Comment