Board Games Special Presentation : Episode TOY-S -- More Projects »
Remember The Game of Life? Well, here's how it came to be:Back in the late 1850s, Milton Bradley (yes, there really was a man by that name) went into the printing business. Lithography was the newest technology of the day, and he made some of his early bread and butter from a lithograph of Abraham Lincoln, sans the beard. Once Lincoln grew the beard, Bradley's lithograph lost some of its luster, so Bradley began to tackle other endeavors with his printing device.
He thought up a board game called The Checkered Game of Life (figure A), which sold fairly well. In 1959, Milton Bradley executives asked Reuben Klamer, to come up with an appropriate game for the 100th anniversary of the company. Inspired by a Checkered Game of Life game board he saw in the Milton Bradley archives, Klamer and a co-inventor developed The Game of Life (figure B), which was introduced in 1960.
Figures C and D — Chutes and Ladders started out in England with the name Snakes and Ladders and had a much darker connotation. Instead of chutes, the players tried to avoid the evil snake. It was more of a morality game. It was updated in the States to the more child-like game most of us remember.
Figure E — Twister, the first game in history that used the human body as a full-fledged playing piece, was introduced in 1966. The Milton Bradley Company was a bit skeptical of the game at first, but that fear was squelched after a national-television demonstration by none other than former The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson. When he and guest Eva Gabor splayed out on all fours on the polka-dot vinyl mat, the audience became hysterical. Twister ended up in more than three million homes in that first year alone.
Figure F — Architect Alfred Butts invented Scrabble after he'd lost his job during the Depression of the 1930s. He decided to explore his passion for games and words and came up with the initial idea for a game he originally called Lexico. Combining skill and luck, the idea was to form words, utilizing the highest-scoring letters possible. He came up with the point system by meticulously perusing the front page of The New York Times to see how frequently each letter was used.
Figure G — Monopoly, considered by some to be the mother of all board games, started out as The Landlord's Game in 1903. It was invented by Lizzie Magie as an easy way to teach the evils of land monopolism. Charles B. Darrow came across the game in the 1930s, packaged it and sent it to Parker Brothers, who initially rejected it. He decided to sell it on his own until Parker Brothers changed its mind in 1935. Today, it's the bestselling board game in the world, sold in 80 countries and produced in 26 languages, including Croatian.Fast Fact The longest game of Monopoly ever played was 70 days.
Resources Chutes and Ladders, Game of Life, Monopoly, Scrabble, Twister
Hasbro, Inc. (including Kenner and Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Playskool and Tonka brands)
Website: www.hasbro.com
The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (Third Edition)
Merriam-Webster Mass Market, 1996
Order this title from Amazon.com. The Monopoly Companion: The Player's Guide: The Game from A to Z, Winning Tips, Trivia
by Philip Orbanes
Adams Media Corporation, 1999
Order this title from Amazon.com. Guests Marianne Szymanski
President, Toy Tips, Inc.
E-mail: marianne@toytips.com
Website: www.toytips.com
Also in this Episode
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