Milton Bradley Company or simply Milton Bradley (MB) was an American board game manufacturer established by
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with Milton Bradley Company, his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased ...
(1836-1911) in
Springfield,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of
McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States. It was acquired by
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...
in 1984, and merged with their subsidiary
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 ...
in 1998. The brand name continued to be used by Hasbro until 2009.
History
Foundation
left, 150px, Milton Bradley, founder
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with Milton Bradley Company, his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased ...
found success making board games. In 1860, Milton Bradley moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, and set up the state's first color lithography shop. Its graphic design of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
sold well, until Lincoln grew his beard and rendered the likeness out-of-date.
Struggling to find a new way to use his lithography machine, Bradley visited his friend George Tapley. Tapley challenged him to a game, most likely an old English game. Bradley conceived the idea of making a purely American game.
He created ''The Checkered Game of Life'', which had players move along a track from Infancy to Happy Old Age,
in which the point was to avoid Ruin and reach Happy Old Age. Squares were labeled with moral positions from honor and bravery to disgrace and ruin. Players used a spinner instead of dice because of the negative association with gambling.
[
By spring of 1861, over 45,000 copies of ''The Checkered Game of Life'' had been sold. Bradley became convinced board games were his company's future.][
When the ]American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
broke out in early 1861, Milton Bradley temporarily gave up making board games and tried to make new weaponry. However, upon seeing bored soldiers stationed in Springfield, Bradley began producing small games which the soldiers could play during their down time. These are regarded as the first travel games in the country. These games included chess, checkers, backgammon, dominoes, and "The Checkered Game of Life". They were sold for one dollar a piece to soldiers and charitable organizations, which bought them in bulk to distribute.
Kindergarten movement
The Milton Bradley Company took a new direction in 1869 after Milton Bradley went to hear a lecture about the kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
movement by early education pioneer, Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804January 3, 1894) was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic d ...
. Peabody promoted the philosophy of the German scholar Friedrich Froebel. Froebel believed and advocated that children learn and develop through creative activities. Bradley would spend much of the rest of his life promoting the kindergarten movement both personally and through the Milton Bradley Company.
In the late 1860s, Bradley became involved in the kindergarten movement. Deeply invested in the cause, his company began manufacturing educational items such as colored papers and paints. The company was hurt by Bradley's generosity as he gave these materials away free of charge. Due to the Long Depression
The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in Panic of 1873, 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1899, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been e ...
of the late 1870s, his investors told him either his kindergarten work must go or they would go. Bradley chose to keep his kindergarten work. His friend George Tapley bought the interest of the lost investors and took over as president of the Milton Bradley Company.
Springfield's first kindergarten students were Milton Bradley's two daughters, and the first teachers in Springfield were Milton, his wife, and his father. Milton Bradley's company's involvement with kindergartens began with the production of "gifts", the term used by Froebel for the geometric wooden play things that he felt were necessary to properly structure children's creative development. Bradley spent months devising the exact shades in which to produce these materials; his final choice of six pigments of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet would remain the standard colors for children's art supplies through the 20th century.
By the 1870s, the company was producing dozens of games and capitalizing on fads. Milton Bradley became the first manufacturer in America to make croquet
Croquet ( or ) is a sport which involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops (often called Wicket, "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court.
Variations
In all forms of croquet, in ...
sets. The sets included wickets, mallets, balls, stakes, and an authoritative set of rules to play by that Bradley himself had created from oral tradition and his own sense of fair play.[ In 1880, the company began making jigsaw puzzles.
The company's educational supplies turned out to be a large portion of their income at the turn of the century. The company produced supplies that any grade school teacher could use, such as toy money, multiplication sticks, and movable clock dials. Milton Bradley continued producing games, particularly parlor games played by adults. These included ''Visit to the Gypsies'', ''Word Gardening'', ''Happy Days in Old New England'', and ''Fortune Telling''. The company also created jigsaw puzzles of wrecked vehicles, which were popular among young boys.][
]
Later years
When Milton Bradley died in 1911, the company was passed to Robert Ellis, who passed it to Bradley's son-in-law Robert Ingersoll, who eventually passed it to George Tapley's son, William. In 1920, Bradley bought out McLoughlin Brothers, which went out of business after John McLoughlin's death.[
Milton Bradley began to decline in the 1920s and fell dramatically in the 1930s 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 ...
. Fewer people were spending money on board games. The company kept losing money until 1940, when they sank too low and banks demanded payment on loans.[
Desperate to avoid bankruptcy, the board of directors persuaded James J. Shea, a Springfield businessman, to take over presidency of the company. Shea immediately moved to decrease the company's debt. He began a major renovation of the Milton Bradley plant by burning old inventory that had been accumulating since the turn of the century.
With the outbreak of ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Milton Bradley started producing a universal joint created by Shea used on the landing gear of fighter planes. They also reproduced a revised version of their game kits for soldiers, which earned the company $2 million.[ Milton Bradley did not stop creating board games, although they did cut their line from 410 titles to 150. New games were introduced during this time, such as the patriotic ''Game of the States'', '' Chutes & Ladders'', and '' Candyland''.][
The advent of the television could have threatened the industry, but Shea used it to his advantage. Various companies acquired licenses to television shows for the purpose of producing all manner of promotional items including games.][ In 1959, Milton Bradley released ''Concentration'', a memory game based on an ]NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
television show of the same name; the game was such a success that editions were issued annually into 1982, long after the show was cancelled in 1973 (similar practices were used for box game adaptations of the game shows ''Password
A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...
'' and ''Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...
'').
Milton Bradley celebrated their centennial in 1960 with the re-release of ''The Checkered Game of Life'', which was modernized. It was now simply called '' The Game of Life'' and the goal was no longer to reach Happy Old Age, but to become a millionaire. ''Twister
Twister most commonly refers to a tornado.
Twister or Twisters may also refer to:
Aviation
* Pipistrel Twister, a Slovenian ultralight trike
* Silence Twister, a German homebuilt aircraft design
* Wings of Change Twister, an Austrian paragli ...
'' made its debut in the 1960s as well. Thanks to Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...
's suggestive comments as Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor ( ; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Gabor voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the Disney animations ''The Aristocats'' (1970), ''The Rescuers'' (1977), and ''The Rescuers Down Under'' ...
played the game on his show, ''Twister'' became a phenomenon.[ In the 1960s, Milton Bradley games were licensed in Australia by John Sands Pty Ltd.
In 1967, James Shea Jr. took over as president of Milton Bradley (becoming CEO in 1968) succeeding his father. During his presidency, Milton Bradley bought Playskool Mfg. Co. and the E.S. Lowe Company, makers of '' Yahtzee'', and '']Body Language
Body language is a type of nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use o ...
''.
During the 1970s and 1980s, electronic games became popular. Milton Bradley released '' Simon'' in 1978, which was fairly late in the movement. By 1980, it was their best-selling item.[
In 1979, Milton Bradley also developed the first hand-held cartridge-based console, the ]Microvision
The Microvision (aka Milton Bradley Microvision or MB Microvision) is the first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges and in that sense is reprogrammable. It was released by the Milton Bradley Company in November 1979 for ...
.
In 1983, seeing the potential in the new Vectrex
The Vectrex is a vector display-based home video game console, the only one ever designed and released for the home market, that was developed by Smith Engineering and manufactured and sold by General Consumer Electronics. It was first released ...
vector-based video game console, the company purchased General Consumer Electronics (GCE). Both the Vectrex and the Microvision were designed by Jay Smith.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Milton Bradley marketed a series of games (such as ''HeroQuest
''HeroQuest'', is an adventure board game created by Milton Bradley Company, Milton Bradley in conjunction with the British company Games Workshop in 1989, and re-released in 2021. The game is loosely based around archetypes of fantasy role-pl ...
'' and '' Battle Masters'') in North America that were developed in the United Kingdom by Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''.
Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...
(GW) that drew heavily from GW's Warhammer Fantasy universe, albeit without explicit reference to the Warhammer product line.
Hasbro ownership
In 1984, Hasbro bought out Milton Bradley, ending 124 years of family ownership. The 1990s saw the release of '' Gator Golf'', ''Crack the Case'', '' Mall Madness'', and '' 1313 Dead End Drive''.[
In 1991, Hasbro acquired ]Tonka
Tonka is an American brand and former manufacturer of toy trucks. The company was founded in 1946 and operated as an independent manufacturer of popular steel toy construction type trucks and machinery, until its sale to Hasbro in 1991.
Histor ...
, which included 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 ...
. In 1998, Milton Bradley merged with Parker Brothers to form Hasbro Games. After the consolidation, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers turned into brands of Hasbro before being dropped in 2009 in favor of the parent company's name, since adjusted to Hasbro Gaming.
Games published
Some of the games published by Milton Bradley were:
Board / card games
* '' 13 Dead End Drive''
* ''Axis & Allies
''Axis & Allies'' is a series of World War II strategy game, strategy board games. The first version was initially published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as ''Axis & Allies: Classic'' was published in 1984. Played on a board de ...
''
* ''Battle Cry
A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group.
Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religio ...
''
* ''Battleship
A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
''
* '' Broadsides and Boarding Parties''
* '' The Checkered Game of Life''
* '' Conquest of the Empire''
* ''Crossfire
A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I.
...
''
* '' Ea$y Money''
* '' Fireball Island''
* '' Fortress America''
* '' Hero Quest''
* ''Hungry Hungry Hippos
Hungry Hungry Hippos (or Hungry Hippos in some UK editions) is a tabletop game made for 2–4 players, produced by Hasbro, under the brand of its subsidiary, Milton Bradley. The idea for the game was published in 1967 by toy inventor Fred Kroll ...
''
* '' Mall Madness''
* '' Go For Broke''
* '' Operation''
* ''Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...
''
* ''Shogun
, officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...
''
* '' Snakes and ladders''
* '' Yahtzee''
Electronic games
* ''Microvision
The Microvision (aka Milton Bradley Microvision or MB Microvision) is the first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges and in that sense is reprogrammable. It was released by the Milton Bradley Company in November 1979 for ...
''
* '' OMNI''
* '' Simon''
Other games
* ''Jenga
''Jenga'' is a Game of skill, game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott (game designer), Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili language, Swahili word "" which means 'to bu ...
''
* ''Knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...
''
* ''Twister
Twister most commonly refers to a tornado.
Twister or Twisters may also refer to:
Aviation
* Pipistrel Twister, a Slovenian ultralight trike
* Silence Twister, a German homebuilt aircraft design
* Wings of Change Twister, an Austrian paragli ...
''
Toys
* '' Mr. Bucket''
* '' Buffalo Bill Gun''
;''Notes''
Gallery
Little folks color kit.jpg, ''Little Folks'' paints
Historiscope panorama 01 frontcover.jpg, ''Historicscope''
Mb uncle raphael puzzle.jpg, ''Mr. Uncle Raphael'' puzzle
Choice thoughts from longfellow.jpg, ''Choice Thoughts''
Mb happy harry ring toss.jpg, ''Happy Harry''
Milton bradley anagrams and other letter.jpg, ''Anagrams''
An account of peter coddles cover.jpg, ''Peter Coddles''
Pirate and traveler game cover.jpg, ''Pirate and Traveler''
Game of india board.jpg, ''Game of India'' board
Model ship puzzle cover.jpg, ''Model Ship'' puzzle
Cryrite box of crayons.jpg, ''Crayrite'' crayons
References
External links
*
Cornell Exhibit on Games with MB Kindergarten Curriculum
Milton Bradley Games
- information and parts at Gamepart.com
MB Portuguese edition Games
- all portuguese list
{{Authority control
American companies established in 1860
American companies disestablished in 1998
1860 establishments in Massachusetts
1998 disestablishments in Massachusetts
Toy companies of the United States
Board game publishing companies
Companies based in Hampden County, Massachusetts
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1998
Manufacturing companies established in 1860
Game manufacturers
Former Hasbro subsidiaries
1984 mergers and acquisitions