Monopoly turns 85 and incredibly it’s.. STILL GO - ING
MONOPOLY turns 85 this week – and it has been voted the best board game of all time.
The legendary trading game was first launched in the US by Parker Brothers on November 5, 1935, and it has gone on to sell more than 275 million sets around the globe. Here passes GO to reveals 15 fascinating facts about it…
Now the ultimate game for b budding capitalists, is its roots are a actually in an antimonopoly m pastime ti called The L Landlord’s Game in invented by US w writer Lizzie M Magie in 1903. It was adapted into the version we know today by heater salesman Charles Darrow of Philadelphia. Magie was eventually paid $ 500 for her role. Darrow’s “Monopoly”, hand- drawn on cloth, featured the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Game giants Parker Brothers originally turned down his idea on the grounds the format had “52 fundamental errors” – but later snapped it up after Darrow’s own sets flew off shelves.
First sold for two dollars a set, it was soon selling 20,000 a week. Darrow would become the world’s first millionaire board game designer.
TWIST: Version for losers
Original houses and hotels were wooden, with six metal playing pieces – an iron, shoe, top hat, battleship, thimble and cannon. There have since been more than 20 pieces including a cat, elephant and wheelbarrow. The Scottie dog has been voted the most popular.
The game’s Mr Monopoly character, originally known as “Rich Uncle Pennybags”, was modelled on real US banker JP Morgan. There are 40 spaces on the game board and 28 properties. More than six billion houses and two billion hotels have been made.
When games company Waddington’s got the UK licence, they used London locations. Park
Lane is the leastlanded on square, Trafalgar Square the most – but the orange set is the best money maker. During World War Two, MI6 sent British Prisoners of War sets that secretly contained compasses, maps and real cash to use in escapes. Monopoly has been translated into 47 languages and sold in 114 countries. There are more than 300 themed sets including local towns and cities, football clubs, Elf, and space. There is also a For Sore Losers version which celebrates losing. In 1978 US department store Neiman Marcus sold an all- chocolate version for Christmas.
The Great Train Robbers played it while hiding out after their 1963 crime, while celeb fan Stormzy was given a personalised set from current makers Hasbro.