A Brief History of the Board Game Monopoly

Monopoly has been a popular board game for some time. And, it basically hasn’t changed during its time on store shelves. Even with this consistency, Monopoly had a rough start. And, there are many ups and downs to the history of the board game Monopoly.

Monopoly’s Beginning

Before you can even talk about Monopoly’s beginning, you need to start with the creation of another board game. That’s right. Monopoly is based on another game.

In 1904, Lizzie Magie patented a board game called The Landlord Game. Now, this game was slightly different from Monopoly. Basically, it was used as an educational tool to teach property tax principals. And, it stayed in the same format until 1924 when Magie revised and re-patented it.

Other Game Models

As Magie’s game became popular, homemade copies of the game were created and spread around. Even though these other games were variations, the basic concept was maintained. For example, Louis and Fred Thurn created a similar game in 1931 that focused on the monopolization of properties. Even more, Dan Layman created a game called Finance in 1932. While Layman’s game was licensed and published, the Thurn’s abandoned their effort for a patent because of Magie’s prior patent.

Interestingly, each new version that was created added additional concepts to the game. Aspects like the railroads and Community Chest were added. In addition to adding new aspects to the game, these additions added to the difficulty of the rules and gameplay.

Darrow and Monopoly

As more people played the game, new versions were created. And, it was in the 1930s that Charles B. Darrow began to play an Atlantic City version. Then, he revised the game and called it Monopoly. He began marketing the handmade game in the Northeast. In time, the game became popular, and he couldn’t keep up with demand. So, he approached Parker Brothers to license the game.