PBS’ ‘American Experience’ explores ‘Monopoly’s Secret History’
It can be argued that Monopoly is the quintessential American board game, a sort of microcosm of capitalism itself.
To win, it requires strategy, shrewdness and luck, but also a certain amount of greed and ruthlessness. Which is how the game itself came to be, as is detailed in the “American Experience” documentary “Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History.”
Premiering Monday, Feb. 20, on PBS (check local listings), the hourlong film separates fact from myth as it explores the real story of how the game was invented and evolved into what we know today.
The mythologized version reads like something out of the American dream: Amateur inventor Charles Darrow came up with a great idea for a board game during the Great Depression, sold it to department stores and eventually Parker Bros. and made millions. A true rags-toriches story.
The real tale is complicated and convoluted but goes something like this: In 1904, a formidable woman named Lizzie Magie invented something called the Landlord’s Game, with rules very similar to today’s Monopoly. It then evolved over the years to become something of a folk game – with the rules and gameplay altered by those who played it.
One version was discovered by Darrow, who was introduced to it by a neighbor. He then claimed inventorship, made his own changes and pedaled it to department stores, where it became a big hit and drew the attention of Parker Bros. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The story got new life during the energy crisis of the early 1970s, when a San Francisco
State University economics professor named Ralph Anspach, fed up with the monopoly of OPEC, invented a trust-busting game called Anti-monopoly and was subsequently sued by General Mills, which owned Parker Bros. And it is around this classic David-versus-goliath tale that the documentary revolves.
“In some ways I think he is a little bit of a hero,” says Stephen Ives, who wrote and directed the film, “because not everybody is going to do what he did when you get a scary letter from the lawyers at a multinational corporation . ... It was an incredible crusade that he went on and because of it, we uncovered one of the great corporate scandals and interesting twists and turns of the story that otherwise we wouldn’t have known anything about.”