Did You Know?

MONOPOLY GAME BACKGROUNDER Today, an estimated 480 million players from around the globe have been mesmerized by the MONOPOLY game since its creation in 1935. It remains a classic, passed down from generation to generation, making it the world’s most popular game.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN It was a dream and a piece of oil cloth. In 1933, Charles B. Darrow played a game on oil cloth on his kitchen table, fell in love with the game’s exciting promise of fame and fortune, and produced his own version and sold them one by one to friends and family. When demand for the game grew beyond his ability to fill orders, he brought the game to Parker Brothers who first rejected it on the grounds that the game contained 52 design errors. Undaunted, Darrow continued to produce handmade editions and was highly successful. Parker Brothers caught wind of the success and decided to buy the rights to the game. In 1935, owned by Parker Brothers, the MONOPOLY game became America’s best selling game, and the rest is history!

AN INEXPLICABLE APPEAL There is no accounting for the unrivaled devotion that the MONOPOLY game has garnered over the past sixty years. Some say it is the chance to build a fortune, take a risk, make an acquisition. Others insist it is the drama of competition. Edward P. Parker, former president of Parker Brothers suggested that the magic of the game MONOPOLY is “clobbering your best friend without doing any damage.” With America struggling through the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the MONOPOLY game offered the vicarious thrill of getting rich quick. In every era, the game provides players with the chance to fantasize. A sixth grader controls the railroads. A neighbor goes to prison. A wife seizes all of her husband’s assets. A brother drives his sibling into bankruptcy. Whatever the reason, the MONOPOLY game has inspired not only world-wide popularity, but also a long list of sensational stories and remarkable records.

THE CRAZIEST PLACES While most players are content playing the MONOPOLY game on a card table or their living room floor, others choose more exotic locales for their games. The MONOPOLY game has gone to sea countless times. In 1983, the Buffalo Dive Club played for 1,080 hours — underwater. Some 350 divers took turns to keep play going for 45 consecutive days. The game was even the favorite pastime on board the U.S. submarine Seawolf during a 60-day submersion. The MONOPOLY game has also reached toward the skies — a record has been established for the longest game in a treehouse (240 hours). On a somewhat higher level, the West German MONOPOLY championship was once held on Zugspitze, the highest peak in the German Alps. The game has had its ups and downs — a 10-day game was once played in a moving elevator and a group of the MONOPOLY game fanatics battled the forces of gravity for 36 hours, setting a record for the longest inverted game.

ATLANTIC CITY BLINKED As many true devotees know, the MONOPOLY game properties were named for Atlantic City streets — and not the other way around. When the famous seaside resort tried changing some of the street names made famous by the game, it stirred a passionate national uprising. The year was 1972, and Atlantic City was launching a campaign to improve its image. One element of this campaign was a proposal by the Commissioner of Public Works to change the names of Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues to Fairmont and Melrose. News of the proposed change sent shock waves through the MONOPOLY game playing public. When the Commission met at a public hearing to vote on the issue, they were joined by hundreds of enthusiasts who came to plead for saving the names. Perhaps the argument that moved the Commissioner most was contained in a letter from then Parker Brothers president Edward P. Parker, who wrote, “Would you like to be the man to tell a MONOPOLY fanatic from California that the streets he came to see no longer exist? Would you be willing to take the responsibility for an invasion by hordes of protesting MONOPOLY players, all demanding that you go directly to jail, without even the dignity of passing GO?” The Commissioner had heard enough. A vote was taken and the outcome was unanimous — the names Baltic and Mediterranean would remain on the street signs and roadmaps of Atlantic City, a sweet victory for the MONOPOLY game lovers everywhere.

THE MONOPOLY GAME MAGIC AROUND THE WORLD Many people consider the MONOPOLY game the quintessential American game, as it provides players with the opportunity to make their fortune. However, American it may seem, the game has been embraced by the rest of the world as well. The MONOPOLY game is licensed in more than 45 countries and the list continues to grow. The 26 languages in which the game is printed include Italian, Indian, Arabic, Portuguese, Croatian, Czech, Icelandic and Russian. Most foreign editions adopt their own currency and property names — for example, Boardwalk becomes Mayfair in England, Rue de la Paix in France and Schlossallee in Germany.

REAL AND INCREDIBLE FACTS ABOUT THE MONOPOLY GAME For more than 60 years, over 480 million players from around the globe have played this extraordinary game. But it takes more than just playing an occasional round to keep up on all the facts that surround the world’s most popular game.

Did you now that:
• MR. MONOPOLY is the name of the MONOPOLY man.
• Not convinced the game would have lasting appeal, George Parker issued a memo in 1936 to halt production of the MONOPOLY game. He later withdrew the instruction and the rest is history!
• Parker Brothers rejected the MONOPOLY game when it was first presented to them in 1933, citing 52 fundamental playing flaws.
• Over 5,120,000,000 little green houses have been “constructed” since the MONOPOLY game was introduced in 1935.
• World records are maintained for the longest game in a treehouse (286) hours, underground (100 hours), in a bathtub (99 hours) and upside-down (36 hours).
• The longest MONOPOLY game ever played was 1,680 hours long, that is 70 straight days!
• Escape maps, compasses and files were inserted into MONOPOLY game boards smuggled into POW camps inside Germany during World War II. Real money for escapees was slipped into the packs of MONOPOLY money.
• In Cuba, the game had a strong following until Fidel Castro took power and ordered all known sets destroyed.
• Over 200 million sets of the MONOPOLY game have been sold worldwide.
• The total amount of money in a standard MONOPOLY game is $15,140.
• The MONOPOLY game is published in 26 languages, including Croatian.
• In the 1970s, a Braille edition of the MONOPOLY game was created for the visually impaired.
• Parker Brothers once sent an armored car with one million dollars of the MONOPOLY game money to a marathon game in Pittsburgh that had run out of funds.
• In 1972, the Atlantic City Commissioner of Public Works threatened to change the names of the real Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues, but public outcry vetoed the bill.
• At the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, all six sets of the MONOPOLY game that were on display mysteriously disappeared.
• Over 20 tokens have been cast since the MONOPOLY game was introduced in 1935 such as the horse, dog, car, elephant, purse and lantern.
• A set made by Alfred Dunhill, that included gold and silver houses and hotels, sold for $25,000.
• In 1978, the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog offered a chocolate version of the game priced at $600.
• The three most-landed-on properties are Illinois Avenue, “GO,” and the B&O Railroad.
• The character locked behind the bars is called Jake the Jailbird. Officer Edgar Mallory sent him to jail.
• When a player lands on an unowned property and decides not to buy it, the property goes to auction.
• There are 22 properties that can be built upon.

The MONOPOLY name and logo, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements on the board and the playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. for its property trading game and game equipment. © 2010 Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.