American Experience: Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History

Discover the real story behind America’s most popular board game

• Christina Zeiders
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Christina Zeiders is the Communications Specialist at WITF. She helps get the word out about all of WITF's programs, events and community conversations.

For generations, Monopoly has been America’s favorite board game, a love letter to capitalism and the impulses that make our free-market society tick. But behind the myth of the game’s creation is a tale of theft, obsession, and shady corporate double-dealing.

One part detective story, another part social commentary with a dash of pop-culture celebration, American Experience’s Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History presents the fascinating and true story behind America’s favorite game. Watch the premiere on Monday, February 20 at 9pm on WITF TV or the PBS app.

There are few rituals that are as American as a game of Monopoly. Its iconic board and game pieces – from the diminutive Rich Uncle Pennybags to the Get Out of Jail Free cards to the tiny thimble and top hat – are instantly recognizable. It’s a no-holds-barred competition with the goal of dominating your opponents. It’s a celebration of greed and accumulation of wealth with only one player left standing by the end.

It may be only a game, but its popularity speaks volumes about who we are and what we value.

Contrary to the folksy legend spread by Parker Brothers, Monopoly’s secret history is a saga that features a radical feminist, an Atlantic City Quaker community, America’s greatest game company, and an unemployed Depression-era engineer.

The official origin story names an amateur inventor named Charles Darrow as the inventor of Monopoly. The story goes that, after sketching the board on a piece of oilcloth on his kitchen table, his game became a best-seller, Darrow became a rich man, and Parker Brothers was saved from bankruptcy. A classic American success story.

Except it wasn’t true. The real story might have never come to light had it not been for the determination of an economics professor and an impassioned anti-monopolist named Ralph Anspach.

Fed up with the OPEC oil cartels and gas shortages of the 1970s, Anspach created “Anti-Monopoly,” which retained the fun of the original game but made it clear that monopolists were the bad guys. General Mills, which owned Parker Brothers, sued Anspach, ordering him to cease and desist selling his game.

As part of his defense strategy, he set out to prove that the Monopoly trademark was dubious and investigated the game’s early history. The investigation and a David vs. Goliath legal battle consumed Anspach’s life for over a decade.

Anspach found that Monopoly was invented in 1904 by Lizzie Magie, a feminist, actor, poet, engineer, and follower of the radical theories of Henry George. George believed that a single tax on land would reduce inequality and promote a more just society. Magie wanted to promote his ideas through the power of games and invented “The Landlord Game,” which was designed to show the evils of landlords and monopolistic practices.

After gaining popularity on college campuses, the game found its way to a Quaker community in Atlantic City, where local street names were added to the boards.

Decades later, a Quaker couple invited their friend Charles Darrow and his wife to play the game, and an unemployed Darrow saw a way out of his Depression-era woes. He asked his hosts to make a replica of the board and type up the rules, then he began producing and marketing it himself. In 1935, he sold “his” game to the struggling Parker Brothers.

As Monopoly grew in popularity, Parker Brothers began a frantic campaign to cover up the fact that their game was, in fact, in the public domain. The U.S. Patent Office granted Darrow a patent on his version of the game, even though the Landlord’s Game was clearly the original version.

Parker Brothers sought to buy Magie off by promising to publish two of her other games, then set out to acquire and destroy old folk versions of the game. They managed to keep their secret for decades while racking up millions of dollars in profits.

Until Anspach’s crusade took him to the brink of bankruptcy and all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he was finally vindicated.

Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History celebrates America’s complicated relationship with its favorite board game and gives credit to Lizzie Magie, one of the most creative and outspoken women of the early 20^th century.

Watch American Experience: Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History on WITF TV on Monday, February 20 at 9pm, or stream it on-demand for free until March 21 using the PBS app.