The Monopoly Game

The ‘official’ story of the invention of Monopoly, the Landlords game has an interesting history. Charles Darrow and his wife Esther are playing a new real estate game with their friends Charles and Oliver Todd in 1932. Darrow likes the game, so Todd makes him a version. The game didn’t have an official name or written rules but passed on from friend to friend. It was called ‘The Monopoly Game’.

Darrow found himself unemployed and in financial strain so in desperation he wrote up the rules and sold it to Parker Brothers. It became a phenomenal success, making him millions. 

In fact, the rules to the game had been invented in Washington DC in 1903 by a bold, progressive woman named Elizabeth Magie. But her place in the game’s folk history was lost for decades.

At the turn of the 20th century, board games were becoming increasingly commonplace in middle-class homes. In addition, more and more inventors were discovering that the games were not just a pastime but also a means of communication. 

Magie described her Landlord’s Game as “a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.”

Lizzie’s game featured play money, deeds and properties that could be bought and sold. Players borrowed money, either from the bank or from each other, and had to pay taxes. The game unusually featured a path that allowed players to circle the board – in contrast to the linear-path design used by many games at the time. In one corner were the Poor House and the Public Park, and in another corner- the Jail.

Lizzie entered the US Patent Office on 23 March 1903 to secure her legal claim to the Landlord’s Game. Two years later, she published a version of the game through the Economic Game Company. The game eventually caught on with a community of Quakers in Atlantic City, and from there it found its way to Charles Darrow.