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Charles Brace Darrow (August 10, 1889 – August 28, 1967) was an American board game designer who is credited as the inventor of the board game ''Monopoly'' by
Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owne ...
, the game's publisher.


Personal life

Darrow was a domestic
heater Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...
salesman from Germantown, a neighborhood in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
(the part of Germantown he lived in is now called Mount Airy) during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. The house he lived in still stands at 40 Westview Street. While Darrow eventually sold his version of ''Monopoly'' to Parker Brothers, claiming it to be his own invention, modern historians credit Darrow as just one of the game's final developers.


''Monopoly''

Monopoly is a board game which focuses on the acquisition of
fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
real estate titles, with the incorporation of elements of chance. After losing his job at a sales company following the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Darrow worked at various odd jobs. Seeing his neighbors and acquaintances play a board game in which the object was to buy and sell property, he decided to publish his own version of the game, with the help of his first son, William, and his wife Esther. Darrow marketed his version of the game under the name ''Monopoly''. In truth, Darrow was just one of many people in the American
Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
and East Coast who had been playing a game of buying and trading property. The game's direct ancestor was '' The Landlord's Game'', created by Elizabeth Magie. The game was used by college professors and their students, and another variant, called '' The Fascinating Game of Finance'', was published in the Midwest in 1932. From there the game traveled back east, where it had remained popular in Pennsylvania, and became popular with a group of
Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...
in
Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...
. Darrow was taught to play the game by Charles Todd, who had played it in Atlantic City, where it had been customized with that city's street and property names. In 2004 the PBS program '' History Detectives'' investigated a game board owned by Ron Jarrell of Arden, Delaware, which had elements of both ''The Landlord's Game'' and ''Monopoly''. The investigators concluded that this game board had "key elements in it that link the Landlord's Game and the Monopoly Game together". The Darrow family initially made their game sets on flexible, round pieces of oilcloth instead of rigid, square
carton A carton is a box or container usually made of liquid packaging board, paperboard and sometimes of corrugated fiberboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box. Types of cartons Folding cartons ...
. Charles drew the designs of the properties with drafting pens, and his son and wife filled in the spaces with colors and made the title deed cards and Chance and Community Chest cards. On these early round boards, Darrow included some of the icons (actually designed for him by a hired graphic artist) that the later ''
Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
'' made famous, such as the large red arrow for "Go", the black locomotives on the railroad spaces, the faucet on "Water Works" and light bulb on "Electric Company" and the question marks on the "Chance" spaces. Darrow then secured a copyright for the game in 1933. The next known versions he produced had printed "boards" on oilcloth squares with hand colored details.


Commercial sales

By 1934, Darrow started having the game printed on cardboard, and sold copies in long white boxes to Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia. Later that year, Darrow showed his game first to Milton Bradley, who rejected it initially, and later to
Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owne ...
. Darrow reinvested money from the sales into smaller sets, sold in black cardboard boxes, with boards sold separately from the sets. After Darrow started to take orders from other Philadelphia department stores, Parker Brothers reconsidered buying the rights to the game. Parker Brothers negotiated the rights to produce the game in large scale from Darrow. Darrow sought and received on the game in 1935, which Parker Brothers acquired. Within a year, 20,000 sets of the game were being produced every week. ''Monopoly'' became the best-selling board game in America that year, and it made Darrow the first millionaire game designer in history. Parker Brothers also promoted Darrow as the sole inventor of the game, though later research has shown that Magie, Jesse Raiford, Ruth Hoskins, Louis and Ferdinand Thun, and Daniel Layman, among others, were responsible for manyor allof the game's significant elements collectively. Darrow's contribution was the visual appearance of the game and the iconic cartoon-like illustrations on the corner spaces. He also standardized the number of houses and hotels (32 and 12, although in his oilcloth version it was 42 and 10). A posed photograph of and a credit to Charles B. Darrow appear on the
Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owne ...
stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...
game '' Bulls and Bears'' copyrighted in 1936. In this case, Darrow was used as a "celebrity endorser", although he had not created the game.


Later life and death

In 1957, Darrow appeared as a mystery challenger on the TV panel show ''
To Tell the Truth ''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...
''. Darrow died on August 28, 1967, at his home in
Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the List of counties in Pennsylvania, four ...
.


Legacy

In 1970, three years after Darrow's death, Atlantic City placed a
commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...
in his honor on The Boardwalk near the corner of Park Place. In 1973 Ralph Anspach, an economics professor at
San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
, produced '' Anti-Monopoly'', a game similar to ''Monopoly'', for which
Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owne ...
sued him. During the ten-year suit, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Darrow had directly copied the rules (including the misspelling of
Marven Gardens Marven Gardens is a neighborhood in Margate City, New Jersey, United States, located on the Jersey Shore, two miles (3 km) south of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Atlantic City. The name ''Marven Gardens'' is a portmanteau derived from Margat ...
as "Marvin Gardens") from the version Charles Todd had produced.http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1441&context=llr Thomas J. Daly, Anti-Monopoly, Inc. v. General Mills Fun Group, Inc.: Ending the Monopoly on Monopoly, 17 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1021 (1984)


See also

* History of the board game ''Monopoly''


References


External links

* * * – A look at the influence that residents of Berks County, Pennsylvania, had on the early development of the game that became Monopoly. {{DEFAULTSORT:Darrow, Charles 1889 births 1967 deaths American board game designers Monopoly (game) Artists from Philadelphia American salespeople Germantown Academy alumni 20th-century American inventors