A Few Things You Didn’t Know About The Monopoly Board Game

Most of us are familiar with Monopoly the classic board game of buying and selling real estate that Parker Brothers has marketed since 1935. Yet there’s a lot of surprising facts about Monopoly that most of us don’t know.

Monopoly may actually be older than the game’s owner Parker Brothers claims. Parker Brothers claims that the game was invented in 1935 by Charles Darrow. Many game historians believe that Monopoly was actually invented in 1903 or 1904 by a woman named Lizzie Magie. Magie created a game she called the Landlord’s Game as an effort to promote the theories of American philosopher Henry George. George taught that the concept of rent impoverished average people but made landowners rich.

Magie’s game was very similar to the board game Parker Brothers markets today. It had streets and used dice and pieces to move around the board. Magie tired to market her game and sell it to Parker Brothers but they weren’t interested. During the 1920s versions of Monopoly in which properties were auctioned off were available in the US. 

There were also many handmade versions of Monopoly often called auction Monopoly. Another version of Monopoly called Finance or the Fascinating Game of Finance was marketed in the 1920s.

The board game we call Monopoly today was patented by Charles Darrow in 1933. Darrow tried to sell the game to both Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers but they rejected it as too complicated. So Darrow marketed the game himself and enjoyed excellent sales. The sales were so good that Parker Brothers bought the rights to the game from Darrow and Lizzie Magie’s original Monopoly patent.

The streets in the classic American Monopoly game are named after real streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The streets in the classic British version of Monopoly introduced by John Waddington Ltd are based on major London thoroughfares such as Piccadilly Circus. Earlier versions of the game used numbered streets or streets in Chicago.

During World War II the British Secret Service had John Waddington Ltd make a special version of the Monopoly board games for prisoners of war held in Nazi Germany. The special version included secret materials that the prisoners could use to escape including cash and maps showing them how to reach allied lines. Also during World War II British Monopoly games contained a spinning wheel similar to a roulette rather than dice because the materials used to make dice were rationed.

Monopoly was banned in Nazi Germany during the 1930s because it promoted capitalism. German language versions of Monopoly were not available until the 1960s. 

During the 1970s it was alleged that Parker Brothers had tried to suppress the true story of Monopoly’s history. It has never been established why this was done. Although it might have been an attempt to protect Parker Brothers’ patent on the game.

The cartoon character on the Monopoly box, the man with the mustache and hat is now called Mr. Monopoly. He was originally called Rich Uncle Pennybags but the character’s name was changed in 1999 because many people called him Mr. Monopoly.

A version of Monopoly was used as a teaching aid at Philadelphia’s Wharton School of Economics during World War I it is an educational games.