Monopoly

The most commonly known story of the invention of Monopoly centers around Charles Darrow, an unemployed engineer from Germantown, Pennsylvania. As the legend goes, Darrow created the game on an oil cloth on his kitchen table during the Great Depression, while dreaming of fame, fortune, and summers spent on the Jersey shore (a circumstance that explains the game's Atlantic City street names). Darrow presented the game to Parker Brothers in 1934, but was turned down. The company felt the game not only had 52 fundamental design errors, but that it was too complicated and would take too long to play. In 1935, after Darrow had some success selling the game on his own, Parker Brothers reconsidered and bought the rights to Monopoly for an undisclosed sum. It soon became the company's best-selling game, and has been played by an estimated 480 million people since its debut.

The truth behind Monopoly's creation, however, is a little more complex. Monopoly is related very closely to a game called The Landlord's Game, which was created and patented in 1904 by Elizabeth (Lizzie) J. Magie, from Virginia. Magie developed the game, which, like Monopoly, had 40 spaces, four railroads, two utilities, 22 rental properties, and spaces for Jail, Go to Jail, Luxury Tax, and Parking, as a way to teach the single-tax theory. Magie, a Quaker, was a firm believer in the single-tax theory's basic tenet, that a person's taxes should be based on the amount of land that he owned, which was a popular idea around the turn of the century.

Magie's game spread through word of mouth. Rules were relayed from one group of friends to another and boards and game pieces were homemade. It is believed that Magie's game may have even found its way to the University of Pennsylvania economics department, as well as the campuses of Princeton and Harvard. Magie kept up with the changes that wider play made in her game, by adapting the rules to allow improving properties, naming the properties, and giving players higher rents if they owned a monopoly. In 1924, Magie attempted to interest George Parker in purchasing the rights to her improved game, but was turned town on the basis that her game was too political.

When Parker Brothers decided to begin manufacturing Darrow's game, Magie still held the patent on the Landlord's Game, which encompassed various aspects of Monopoly. In return for the rights to publish Monopoly, Parker Brothers paid $500, and agreed to publish three other games by Magie.

Today, Monopoly is sold in more than 80 countries and has been translated into 26 languages, including Braille. Most foreign editions use their own currency and property names; Boardwalk is Mayfair in England, Schlossallee in Germany, and Rue de la Paix in France. Tournament play is conducted local, national, and international levels, and the first Monopoly World Championship was held in 1973.

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