In fact, it didn’t even have the same name. The $23,000 square set came from the family of Jane Plummer Leimbach of Swarthmore, Pa. The original Monopoly game was released in 1906, and it looked very different from the version on your shelf today. The $71,500 round board (believed to be the first with colored bands atop the properties) descended in the family of Darrow's mother-in-law, Mrs. He places his token on the corner of the game board marked 'GO', throws the 2 dice and moves his MONOPOLY token in the direction of the arrow, the number of spaces indicated by the dice. The player with the highest total starts the play. It's no coincidence that the oilcloth boards sold at Sotheby's came from Philadelphia-area Quaker families, since many Philadelphians vacation in Atlantic City. Game Play in MONOPOLY: Starting with the Banker, each player in turn throws the dice. Choose your token, place it on GO and roll the dice to own it all There can be only one winner in the Monopoly game. The origins of the Monopoly board game go back to the early 1900s and a game called Landlords Game, invented by an American Quaker, Lizzie Magie. This version of the Monopoly game welcomes the Rubber Ducky, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Penguin into its family of tokens. Its rules were typed on the same paper stock, and apparently by the same typist using the (( same typewriter, as the rules accompanying the $71,500 set Forbes purchased last year, which has a circular oilcloth board - probably an earlier version used on Darrow's round dining table. Its the fast-dealing property trading game where players buy, sell, dream and scheme their way to riches.
The set for which Forbes paid $23,000, believed to have been made by Darrow about 1933, has a square, off-white oilcloth board, and came with unpainted houses and hotels cut from pine molding, old chips, scrip, and with typed "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards and deeds. Todd testified that Darrow asked him for the rules, and that his secretary typed a dozen copies for Darrow. The Todds taught Esther and Charles Darrow.
The Raifords and Harveys lent their games to fellow Quakers visiting at Atlantic City hotels, and taught friends and relatives to play they, in turn, taught Olive and Charles Todd. The Harveys played the game with their friends, Jesse and Dorothea Raiford. Harvey then drew the first "Monopoly" game board with Atlantic City street names. She moved East to teach at the Atlantic City Friends School, and in 1930 played the game with a fellow teacher, Cyril Harvey, and his wife.Īccording to game collector Ms.
Testimony from the lawsuit, cited in Sotheby's catalog, revealed how a young woman named Ruth Hoskins had learned to play a version of the "Landlord's Game" called "Finance," in Indianapolis in 1929, from her brother, who had learned it at college.