home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- @
- Unemployed
- during the Great
- Depression,
- Charles Darrow
- dreamed up
- Monopoly to
- while away the
- time. With society
- facing financial
- catastrophe, it
- said much for the
- American dream
- that a game about
- accumulating vast
- wealth should
- have proved so
- instantly popular
- #
- Darrow's first
- Monopoly board
- was painted on a
- piece of linoleum.
- Playing the game
- with neighbors, he
- realized its
- appeal and began
- selling handmade
- sets for $4 each.
- But he failed at
- first to interest
- Parker Brothers,
- who cited 52 basic
- flaws in its design
- #
- Soon after Parker
- Brothers had
- taken over the
- copyright in
- Monopoly in 1935,
- Darrow was rich
- enough to be able
- to live a life of
- leisure. Royalties
- from the game
- soon made
- him a millionaire
- #
- Darrow based the
- design of his
- board on Atlantic
- City. As the game
- spread around the
- world, new boards
- were designed
- featuring the
- capital cities of
- the countries
- where they were
- marketed. Only
- the Japanese
- chose to retain
- Atlantic City
- #
- In the Soviet
- Union Monopoly
- was banned on the
- grounds that
- it glorified
- capitalism. But
- glasnost ushered
- in many new
- freedoms, and
- Parker Brothers
- presented Soviet
- leader Mikhail
- Gorbachev with a
- Russian version
- based on the
- streets and
- buildings of
- Moscow
- @
-