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Monopoly is America's favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. But behind the myth of the game's creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing.
Director: Stephen Ives
Director: Stephen Ives
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00:28I'll see you next time.
00:35We played on vacation, and it never ended well.
00:38I mean, it would always end in a fight.
00:41It was either somebody was cheating, these weren't the rules, right?
00:44There were always house rules that we were applying.
00:47So it was a very intense series of games growing up.
00:51We always played Monopoly at Christmas Eve.
00:53That was our family tradition, still is.
00:55As a kid, it wasn't just exciting to win at a game,
00:58but also seeing my brother get destroyed as the little sister
01:01was, like, a very exciting feeling, if I had to be honest about it.
01:05It's America's game, right?
01:07It's all of our games.
01:08It's the games of our childhood.
01:10But there's a dark side, too.
01:12It's not all, you know, rainbows and unicorns.
01:16It's a cutthroat game.
01:17I only win when you lose.
01:21In America, we've created a myth that capitalists like competition,
01:26but no capitalist wants competition.
01:29What all companies want is monopoly.
01:33This story about monopoly is filled with ironies.
01:36I mean, this is one of the things that makes it so compelling,
01:38is not just the twists and turns,
01:40but the fact that it is a game about capitalism
01:43that was created to teach people about something completely different.
01:47The dynamics written into the rules of this game
01:50were never intended to be the rules.
01:52It should come with a health warning like a packet of cigarettes.
01:55You are playing a twisted version of this game.
01:58It was supposed to be a critique of capitalism,
02:00but it turned out to be a celebration of it.
02:04And so it's a story that teaches us,
02:06compete, acquire, be ruthless,
02:08and you will go on to conquer the world.
02:11It's monopoly through and through.
02:21You want to be property manager?
02:23Maybe.
02:27Read the instructions.
02:29I think you pass the card right here.
02:31Pass me all the instructions.
02:35What piece do you guys want to be?
02:37Okay.
02:38I'll be the car.
02:39I want to be the head.
02:40Server be the banker.
02:41I want to be the banker.
02:42Okay, so how much money do we get out?
02:45I think like 500.
02:46Yeah, 500.
02:47No, no.
02:48Two of each 500s, everybody gets two 500s.
02:51That's a lot of money.
02:52The game goes on.
02:53So weird.
02:55And 620s.
02:56Okay, this is a lot of money.
02:58I know.
02:59So my goal in life is to win and beat you all.
03:02Wow.
03:14Once upon a time, in the Great, Great Depression, there's this man named Charles Darrow.
03:19He's unemployed, as are millions of Americans.
03:22He has this big light bulb moment, this big eureka moment.
03:26And out comes Monopoly.
03:28He's told no one will buy this game.
03:30The game about property and money at a time when Americans are so desperately lacking exactly
03:36those things.
03:37But undeterred, he ultimately ends up at Parker Brothers.
03:41They decide to sell the game.
03:42It becomes a massive bestseller.
03:45And it saves him and Parker Brothers from the brink of destruction.
03:49Everybody lives happily ever after.
03:53There's just one problem with that story.
03:56And it's that it's not true.
04:09In the early 1970s, Ralph Anspach is an economics professor at San Francisco State University.
04:17Ralph is an impassioned anti-monopolist.
04:19He thinks that monopolies are at the root of all that is wrong in this country and create
04:24power imbalances.
04:26His ideas aren't getting across.
04:28And he's frustrated because at this point, the OPEC oil cartels are dominating headlines.
04:34OPEC, the Arab oil monopoly, controls the oil supply.
04:39They've just hiked up prices.
04:41There are queues at the petrol pumps.
04:43The economy's in tatters.
04:45It's a crisis, an absolute crisis in 1973.
04:52Ralph believes that monopolies were one of the major forces holding back the optimal version
04:59of American capitalism.
05:00And so what better way to teach people about those complex systems than having them play
05:05and experience a board game?
05:07Ralph, tell me about the board game that you invented.
05:10And how did it come about?
05:12It was a very hot day.
05:13Chaos on the roads.
05:15Took me about four hours rather than one hour to get home.
05:19And when I finally sat down at the dinner table, I was X-rated, cussing out the oil monopolists.
05:28And suddenly my 80-year-old son says, Dad, you're a really poor loser.
05:35I said, why, William?
05:38Why am I a poor loser?
05:39He said, yesterday we played Monopoly.
05:41I won the game.
05:42Now you're such a poor loser, you're attacking my victory.
05:46I tried to explain to them, shouldn't take it personal.
05:48And I started looking for a game that would show the anti-monopoly side.
05:53Unfortunately, there was no such game.
05:56I began to think about that, and that's what happened.
05:58I invented anti-monopoly.
06:08Anti-monopoly becomes a hit in the Bay Area.
06:11It's sold at local stores.
06:13Patty Hearst reportedly plays a version of the game.
06:15And it becomes kind of this countercultural icon.
06:19The point of anti-monopoly was to retain all the fun of monopoly,
06:24but at the same time make it very clear that the monopolists are the bad guys when they play.
06:33Anti-monopoly has a message.
06:36Monopolies are not a nice thing in capitalism.
06:38It's the dark underside of capitalism.
06:42Anti-monopoly is there to basically turn the tables on the Parker Brothers game.
06:48Instead of trying to build a monopoly, you try to break them up.
06:52So there will be steel monopolies to smash, oil monopolies to smash.
06:57So, you know, it's about busting these giant corporations.
07:01Anti-monopoly takes off.
07:03It starts selling all over the country, and it looks like it's going to be a huge hit.
07:08And then one day, Ralph receives a letter.
07:12It is from attorneys who represent General Mills, which at that point owned Parker Brothers.
07:16And they say, you cannot sell anti-monopoly.
07:20You are infringing upon our right to sell our game.
07:22The letter said, take the game off the market immediately.
07:26Destroy all games you have.
07:28And also, we want you to put an ad in newspapers saying that you're sorry that you attacked us, and
07:36so on and so forth.
07:37That's how it began.
07:37It was enough to frighten anybody out of their wits.
07:41But I get mad about things like that when some big company attacks a little guy for what I consider
07:48to be no valid reason.
07:51So I got ready to fight.
07:55Ralph's a very cause-driven guy, and I think some of that's from his childhood.
08:00Ralph was born in the city of Danzig.
08:03He was Jewish.
08:05So around the age of 12, his family moved to New York to escape the coming Nazi threat.
08:11He's a scrappy kid in New York City.
08:14He doesn't know the language.
08:16And then works his way through school, eventually to getting his doctorate.
08:20I think this gave him a kind of attitude of, I need to stand up to believe.
08:24You know, if someone's trying to push him into a corner, he's going to hit back.
08:28We've sold a half a million anti-monopolies.
08:30And not a single consumer has complained to us or the Parker Brothers.
08:35Complained about confusion, you mean?
08:36That's right.
08:36Not a single person claimed that they had bought the anti-monopoly and they thought it was a General Mills
08:41game or something like that.
08:42Now, he lawyers up and he serves a counterpunch.
08:48He actually sues Parker Brothers first.
08:50So that way he can claim jurisdiction in California.
08:54Part of Ralph's strategy is to prove that the Monopoly trademark is dubious.
08:59So Ralph is on a mission to piece together Monopoly's early history, trying to find out what happened with the
09:06game before Parker Brothers started to sell it.
09:10And then one day, Ralph is working at home and his son Mark comes running into his office.
09:15He says, Dad, Dad, there's this book I've been reading and it says that Monopoly was invented by a woman.
09:22This woman, Lizzie McGee.
09:24Ralph is like, wait, who's Lizzie McGee?
09:33Elizabeth McGee was born in 1866 in Maycomb, Illinois.
09:38Her family was very political.
09:40Her father was a very influential newspaper owner.
09:43He was one of the early founders of the Republican Party.
09:47He had traveled with Abraham Lincoln during the Stephen Douglas debates.
09:51She was exposed to a lot of big ideas.
09:54And at a time when women were not afforded many opportunities to be in the public space, she took every
10:00single one that she could.
10:02She was an actress.
10:04She was politically very active.
10:06She is a writer and she produced plays and she also invented a way for typewriters to move paper more
10:14efficiently.
10:16I think of Lizzie McGee as a performance artist in some ways.
10:21I'm serious.
10:22I mean, how do you classify her, right?
10:24I mean, she's an engineer.
10:25She's a poet.
10:27She's a writer.
10:28She's an activist.
10:30She's a staunch feminist.
10:32She is doing all of these things that a lot of women in that time were not allowed to do
10:39or able to do.
10:42She was really pushing boundaries.
10:51In 1906, she's living in Chicago and she puts out a newspaper ad describing herself as a young woman American
11:01slave.
11:03The idea is that she's selling herself to the highest bidder.
11:07And to her dismay, people actually put forward offers.
11:11But the idea of this is completely performance art.
11:14And so she was trying to show how poorly women are paid relative to men and how difficult it is
11:20in particular to be an unmarried woman in America.
11:26She was a social rebel on many fronts and she used shocking performance and play to throw counterintuitive ideas.
11:38Into society.
11:40During the Gilded Age in the 1890s or early 1900s, when capitalism was highly unregulated, if you had a dominant
11:49position in the marketplace, you could dictate price and availability.
11:53These big industrialist millionaires dominated industries in the U.S. and they became monopolists in their field.
12:03And so people who had it made, the wealthy,
12:07employed lots of servants, had lavish homes,
12:10and everybody else struggled to get by.
12:13Lizzie McGee, even in the early 20th century,
12:16before the Great Depression,
12:17is seeing poverty and inequality everywhere.
12:20And so much of that poverty is organized around land monopoly,
12:24the idea of people being able to own land
12:27and extract immense amounts of profits from the working class.
12:33Lizzie McGee sees this income inequality,
12:36the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,
12:38and she becomes an impassioned follower of Henry George.
12:44Henry George was a hugely influential public speaker
12:47and thinker of his time.
12:49He published a book called Progress in Poverty
12:51that was a massive, massive bestseller.
12:54There's an estimate that as many as 5 million of his books
12:58are sold during his lifetime.
12:59He was really interested in land, landlords, property, ownership,
13:04and how should that be taxed.
13:06George, like many people before and after him, say,
13:08land's not something anyone's ever made.
13:11It's a gift of God, and it belongs to all of us.
13:15We think of the American dream as owning a home.
13:18Well, it was back in the 1890s,
13:19but it was out of the reach of most people.
13:21They had to rent.
13:22And the landlord, according to Henry George, was the devil.
13:26He sees rent and growing property values
13:31as a source of inequality.
13:33His solution is what his supporters eventually call
13:37the single tax.
13:39The single tax.
13:40The single tax.
13:40The single tax.
13:42This is the George-ist idea
13:44that you would tax land at such a high level
13:47that it would essentially be communal,
13:49and nothing else would have to be taxed.
13:51For George, this wasn't like an anti-capitalist statement.
13:54This was more about fairness.
13:56This was more about leveling the playing field.
14:01Lizzie McGee wanted to make Henry George's point clear.
14:05Not everybody's going to read a political tract.
14:07She had a genius idea.
14:10She wanted to make it visible
14:11through the dynamics of a game.
14:15In 1904, Lizzie McGee receives the patent,
14:20the first patent by a woman for a board game
14:22in U.S. history for the Landlord's Game.
14:25The Landlord's Game is making a piercing political point
14:28and with humor.
14:30So she's got Lord Blueblood's estate.
14:33No trespassing, go to jail.
14:35We've got a poor house.
14:37Begaman's Court.
14:39Gee Whiz Railroad.
14:40Slam-bang trolley.
14:42Labor upon Mother Earth produces wages.
14:46One of the interesting things about the Landlord's Game
14:49is that it has two sets of rules.
14:52One was to show how evil monopolies were.
14:55And in this version,
14:57players would compete to be the last person standing,
15:00just like present-day monopoly.
15:02But she introduced, along with it,
15:04a second set of rules.
15:05Instead of paying rent to the landlord
15:07whose property you've just landed on,
15:08the rent actually goes into the public treasury,
15:10reinvested in the community
15:12to create more public goods,
15:14public utilities, public education.
15:16And of course, this changes everything.
15:18It perhaps de-emphasized our traditional pleasures,
15:22dominating other players, coming out ahead,
15:25being the winner,
15:25in favor of critical points
15:28about how economy and the social fabric is structured
15:32and might be structured differently.
15:36I get why Elizabeth McGee would have wanted
15:39to make the Landlord's Game
15:41to teach people about the single tax,
15:43because games are such a powerful way
15:46of internalizing a new set of rules,
15:49of practicing it,
15:50of experiencing it in a hands-on fashion.
15:52One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
15:56What's that?
15:57St. Charles, please.
15:58St. Charles.
15:58I own it.
16:00When we play a game,
16:01we sit down for a couple of hours
16:02and we enter into a different kind of narrative,
16:05a different set of roles,
16:06a different series of rules.
16:08The whole idea in playing a game
16:10is that you get to experiment
16:12with things you may not get to experiment
16:14without cost.
16:15You've been elected chairman of the board.
16:18Pay each player $50.
16:22That's what play is.
16:23Play is playing with these structures.
16:26It's not just what happens
16:28on the board with the pieces.
16:29It's in the players' heads
16:31and in the social space
16:32that kind of ties them all together
16:34as they play.
16:35You need another hundred.
16:36No, I already gave you the other hundred.
16:39I had two hundreds
16:41and then I gave him one
16:42and then I realized I owed three
16:44so I gave him a 500
16:45and he gave me 100 back
16:46and that's 400.
16:48Here.
16:48I passed go.
16:50That relationship to me
16:51is incredibly powerful
16:53that we enter into this system of rules
16:55but then what results
16:57is this experience
16:58that's sort of wildly creative
16:59and social and chaotic
17:02and that's the emotional experience at play.
17:04No!
17:05Yeah!
17:06Oh my God, chill.
17:07It was so cold.
17:09Dang!
17:10And I think that Lizzie McGee,
17:11like many game designers,
17:13recognize the sense of power
17:15in board games
17:15can have on its audience.
17:21The Monopoly board
17:22is an iconic image
17:24and its design is universal
17:26and when you look at Lizzie McGee's
17:27Landlord's Game,
17:28you see the origins of Monopoly in it.
17:31And one of the first things
17:33that Ralph Ansbach finds
17:34when he starts to research
17:35who Lizzie McGee was
17:36is her 1904 patent.
17:38This discovery
17:39completely changes Ralph's case
17:42and he can start to work
17:44from that 1904 date
17:45and see where did this game go
17:47and that kind of starts
17:48the detective story
17:49that ends up taking over
17:51a lot of Ralph's life.
17:55The whole thing
17:56became a little suspicious
17:57but I got even angrier
18:00thinking
18:01here's these guys
18:02who seem to have
18:04stolen this game
18:07and they're attacking me
18:09when I invented my game
18:14and my game was, you know,
18:16was different from their game
18:18and yet they're coming after me.
18:21Ralph is undeterred.
18:22He knows that Lizzie McGee
18:24had a patent
18:25for her Landlord's Game
18:26in 1904
18:27and had one renewed
18:28in 1924.
18:30So how Charles Darrow
18:32was able to go in
18:32in 1935
18:33and get a patent
18:34for Monopoly
18:35with his name on it
18:36is mysterious.
18:46Ralph and his lawyers
18:47put out ads
18:48trying to find people
18:49who can testify in his case
18:50that they played Monopoly
18:52prior to 1935.
18:54He's hoping to discover
18:56how Lizzie McGee's
18:57Landlord's Game
18:58transformed into the game
18:59that we know today
19:00and this has him traveling
19:01all over the country
19:03and talking to all sorts of people.
19:14He goes into people's homes
19:16and they start pulling these boards
19:18out of their closets.
19:19They hoist them up.
19:21This is critical evidence for him.
19:36When I uncovered the folk game
19:38the people that were playing
19:39on homemade boards
19:40and so on
19:41I thought that
19:42that was enough
19:43to win the lawsuit
19:45but my lawyer said
19:47hey Ralph
19:47you're not there yet
19:48because nobody seems
19:51to know
19:52where Parker Brothers
19:54Monopoly came from.
19:56So maybe
19:57Darrow
19:58did invent it from scratch.
20:00You never know.
20:00Sometimes that happens.
20:02They're parallel inventions.
20:03So I had
20:04one more
20:06hurdle to overcome.
20:08Where does Parker Brothers
20:10Darrow's Monopoly
20:11come from?
20:24Till the 1800s
20:26pretty much
20:26all board games
20:27were folk games.
20:28You know
20:28people just passed them down.
20:31No one owned them.
20:32Anyone could do
20:33what they liked with them
20:34just like folk music.
20:42That started to change
20:44in the 19th century
20:44when you had
20:45boxed, packaged
20:46mass-produced games
20:48and Monopoly
20:48in a way
20:50was the very last folk game.
20:55Shortly after
20:56inventing
20:56the landlord's game
20:57Lizzie McGee
20:58was starting to share it
20:59and some of the people
21:00she's sharing it with
21:01are single taxers.
21:02One of them
21:03is Scott Neering
21:04this economics professor
21:05at the University
21:06of Pennsylvania
21:07and the game starts
21:08spreading on college campuses.
21:10People started copying it
21:11and sharing it.
21:12No one's really sure
21:13where it came from.
21:14No one remembers the name
21:15so they call it
21:16names like Monopoly
21:17or Finance
21:18or Business.
21:20A few people actually
21:22market their versions
21:23of the game
21:23in places like
21:24Fort Worth
21:24and Indianapolis
21:25and the folk game
21:27continues to spread
21:27from one community
21:28to the next
21:29up and down
21:30the East Coast.
21:32As it gets spread around
21:33people adapt it
21:35to reflect
21:35their own interests.
21:37One of the first things
21:38that gets lost
21:39is McGee's
21:40kind of single tax rules.
21:42In the single tax
21:43version of the game
21:44again you've got to remember
21:45this was not Monopoly
21:46it was the opposite.
21:48It was about
21:49not putting wealth
21:50in one person
21:51but putting it
21:52in the entire community.
21:53It was boring
21:55of course to players
21:56because players
21:57when you play a game
21:57you want to win.
21:58And so Lizzie's rules
22:00for single tax
22:01George's type play
22:02just didn't really
22:03catch on.
22:04But the game
22:05is spreading
22:06people keep changing
22:07the rules around
22:08to suit themselves
22:09and so it actually
22:10spent 30 years
22:11evolving just like
22:12folk games
22:13used to do.
22:14Eventually
22:15a Quaker teacher
22:17moves to
22:18Atlantic City
22:19and she introduces
22:21it to local
22:22Quaker community
22:23there.
22:29In the late 1920s
22:31the Quakers
22:31in Atlantic City
22:32were playing
22:33the folk game
22:34so they put
22:35Atlantic City
22:36properties
22:37onto the game board.
22:41Atlantic City
22:41was a very segregated
22:42city at that point
22:43and the Quakers
22:44reflected that too.
22:47Looking at the
22:48Monopoly board
22:49the first two
22:50properties you confront
22:52Baltic
22:53and Mediterranean
22:54which was the
22:55segregated
22:56black part of town.
22:58And perhaps
22:59it's not surprising
23:00those are the
23:01cheapest properties
23:02on the board.
23:05Go to the
23:07white blue properties
23:08Oriental Avenue
23:09for instance
23:10was an area
23:12of relatively
23:13modest
23:14rooming houses.
23:15Many of them
23:16were places
23:17patronized
23:19by lower
23:20middle class Jews.
23:23But then
23:24as you turn
23:25the board
23:25and you get
23:26to the yellow
23:27properties
23:28and the green
23:29properties
23:29those were
23:30always more
23:31established
23:32more residential
23:34wealthier parts
23:35of town.
23:38And then
23:39the highest end
23:40in Atlantic City
23:41is the boardwalk.
23:42Here's where
23:43first and second
23:44generation immigrants
23:45came to show
23:46off they made
23:47it in America
23:48by having a
23:49black man
23:50push them
23:50down the boardwalk.
23:54We believe
23:55this kind of
23:55illusion
23:56that segregation
23:57was a southern
23:58phenomenon
23:58but Atlantic City
24:00is really a
24:01reflection of
24:01the larger nation
24:03and park place
24:04in the boardwalk
24:05are perfect
24:06examples of it.
24:08The changes
24:09that the Atlantic City
24:10Quaker community
24:11make to the board
24:12they're also creating
24:13inadvertently
24:13this snapshot
24:14of race and class
24:16in one of America's
24:17most popular
24:17vacation destinations
24:19in the 1920s.
24:22Ultimately
24:23as Ralph discovers
24:24this Atlantic City
24:26version of Monopoly
24:27he realizes
24:28there is no way
24:29that Charles Darrow
24:31invented this game.
24:33I got a lot of people
24:34who played the game
24:34before
24:35but no hint
24:37of the missing link
24:40between the folk game
24:41and
24:43Parker Brothers
24:44Monopoly.
24:46Finally
24:46one of these
24:47early players
24:48says you know
24:48who you really
24:49need to talk to
24:49is Charles
24:50and Olive Todd.
24:51A certain
24:52Charles Todd
24:53he was the one
24:55who introduced
24:55a game
24:56that was developed
24:57by Atlantic City
24:59Quakers.
25:00He introduced it
25:01to Charles Darrow.
25:04So I went down
25:05to Augusta, Georgia
25:06and I met
25:08Charles Todd
25:09and his wife
25:11and they told me
25:13that something
25:13very peculiar
25:14happened
25:14because they said
25:16that Darrow's
25:18were real pains
25:19in the neck.
25:22One evening
25:23in the early 1930s
25:24the Todd's invite
25:25Charles and Esther Darrow
25:27to their home
25:27for dinner
25:28and at this point
25:30people would make
25:31their own boards
25:32at home
25:32and you would have
25:33a Monopoly night.
25:34The Todd's introduced
25:35the Darrow's
25:35to this game
25:36they know
25:36called Monopoly
25:37and the Darrow's
25:39love it.
25:41So a few days later
25:42Charles Darrow
25:43gets in touch
25:43and goes
25:44That Monopoly game
25:45was so great
25:46I would love for someone
25:47to write down
25:47the rules for me.
25:48Todd said
25:49he wasn't very enthusiastic
25:50but he did it.
25:51Charles Todd
25:52has his secretary
25:53write up the rules.
25:55So he gave him
25:56the rules
25:56then he didn't
25:57see him for a while.
26:01All contact ceases.
26:03It's a mystery
26:04to the Todds.
26:05They're kind of like
26:06have we done something
26:07to offend them?
26:08And then
26:09one day
26:10Charles Todd
26:11is passing
26:12a local bank.
26:13He saw
26:13an advertisement
26:14in the bank
26:15and it says
26:16come to this event.
26:18Charles Darrow
26:19is introducing
26:19everyone to
26:20his wonderful
26:20new game
26:21Monopoly.
26:23So
26:24Charlie Todd
26:25told me
26:26he was
26:26in a fury
26:28and I asked
26:29did you ever
26:30see the
26:31Darrow's again
26:32after that
26:32and he said
26:33no.
26:33Whenever they
26:34saw me
26:34they would
26:35quickly go
26:35across the street
26:36or walk
26:37someplace else
26:38and that's
26:39how Darrow
26:40got the game.
27:02if you wanted
27:03to publish
27:03a board game
27:03in America
27:04one of the first
27:05places you would
27:05go to
27:06was Parker
27:07Brothers
27:07in Salem
27:08Massachusetts.
27:10In the late
27:1119th century
27:12board games
27:13were all produced
27:14in New England
27:15and games
27:17per se
27:18were seen
27:18as slightly
27:19sinful.
27:20Games
27:21certainly for
27:22children
27:22had to have
27:23a kind of
27:24moral element.
27:25They had to be
27:25a teaching tool.
27:26They couldn't just
27:27be for fun.
27:28The first
27:29significant
27:30board game
27:31published in
27:31America
27:32was The Mansion
27:33of Happiness
27:34and it was
27:35emblematic
27:36of what games
27:37were supposed
27:38to be.
27:39They were
27:40moralistic
27:40and educational.
27:42One of the
27:42big changes
27:43that came along
27:44was a guy
27:44called George
27:45Parker.
27:46He started
27:47his own
27:47game company
27:48Parker Brothers
27:49and his
27:49emphasis was on
27:50this isn't
27:51an educational
27:52tool.
27:52This is
27:53entertainment.
27:54So thanks
27:55to George
27:56Parker's
27:56innovation
27:56Parker Brothers
27:57become the
27:58biggest company
27:59in the industry
27:59but not
28:00without their
28:00share of
28:01mistakes
28:01and he
28:02was haunted
28:03by them.
28:10In the
28:11early 1900s
28:12Parker Brothers
28:13decided to
28:14license ping pong
28:15from London
28:16and they began
28:17to market it
28:18in the country.
28:19And this works
28:20for a few years
28:20and they're able
28:21to market this
28:22as a game
28:23that not only
28:24men but women
28:25can play
28:25so this becomes
28:26a really
28:26generalized
28:27game.
28:28Unfortunately
28:29for Parker Brothers
28:30it didn't stop
28:31anybody else
28:32from selling
28:33the same
28:33equipment under
28:34the generic
28:35name table
28:36tennis.
28:36And this
28:37difference between
28:37ping pong and
28:38table tennis
28:39gets in the way
28:40of their market
28:41and so they
28:42lose a monopoly
28:43over ping pong.
28:45Parker Brothers
28:46loses multiple
28:47times on huge
28:48games.
28:49They lose on
28:49ping pong,
28:50they lose on
28:51tiddlywinks.
28:53Is that what it's
28:53called?
28:53And so you
28:55could not
28:55control ping pong
28:57or tiddlywinks
28:58and worse,
28:59as far as
28:59George Parker
29:00was concerned,
29:01was Mahjong.
29:02Many people
29:03don't know this
29:04but Mahjong
29:05in the 1920s
29:06was the biggest
29:08game fad
29:08ever in America.
29:12And Parker
29:13let that slip
29:14away.
29:21By the
29:22beginning of
29:22the Great
29:22Depression,
29:23Parker Brothers
29:24is not doing
29:24well as a
29:25company.
29:26Robert Barton,
29:27who's the son-in-law
29:28of George Parker,
29:29had just taken
29:29over the firm.
29:30Robert Barton
29:31was a capable
29:32businessman but he
29:33was in circumstances
29:34that were horrendous
29:36for any business.
29:37Parker Brothers
29:38finds themselves
29:39in this really
29:40dire situation.
29:41They're laying
29:41off employees.
29:42They're actually
29:43potentially looking
29:44at going bankrupt.
29:46And Barton hears
29:47about this game
29:48out of Philadelphia
29:49that's doing
29:50actually quite well
29:51invented by this
29:53local guy
29:53named Charles Darrow.
29:56Charles Darrow
29:57in the early
29:581930s
29:59was a heating
30:00repair engineer
30:02which meant
30:03he fixed
30:04steam radiators.
30:05But during
30:06the Depression
30:06he lost his job
30:08like so many
30:09other millions
30:10of Americans.
30:11He has a wife
30:11and these two
30:11children
30:12and one of his
30:13children has
30:13pretty advanced
30:14health problems.
30:15He needs to be
30:16at a special
30:16type of school
30:17and the Darrows
30:18cannot afford it.
30:19So he needs money
30:21and he needs it
30:22very, very fast.
30:24Charles Darrow
30:25begins to make
30:27by hand
30:27copies of Monopoly.
30:29He actually took
30:30a round table
30:31that he had it
30:31and the first
30:32Monopoly board
30:33you see from him
30:34is actually
30:34a gigantic circle.
30:36But then he began
30:38to automate the process
30:39little by little.
30:40Darrow actually
30:42hires a professional
30:43artist to do
30:45the artwork
30:45for his board.
30:46He provided
30:47the everyman's touch
30:51to the appearance
30:52of the game.
30:53A much more
30:53pleasant,
30:55engaging,
30:56simpler look.
30:58And so Charles Darrow
31:00made 500 copies
31:02in the summer
31:02of 1934.
31:05Essentially
31:06he's self-publishing.
31:07he's making a few sets
31:09with the money he has,
31:11selling those,
31:12taking the money
31:12he's earned,
31:13building some more.
31:14Really bootstrapping
31:15to make this business work.
31:20Charles Darrow
31:21does go to
31:22the big game manufacturers
31:24including Parker Brothers
31:25and he gets rejected
31:27first.
31:28They look at the game
31:29and it's a game
31:30about mortgages
31:31and building houses
31:32and building hotels.
31:34It's for the time
31:35a really complicated game.
31:38So, essentially
31:39they all say no.
31:42And eventually
31:43he goes to
31:44Wanamakers
31:45in Philadelphia,
31:46big department store
31:47and he persuades them
31:49to start stocking the game.
31:51And that gives Darrow
31:52the opportunity
31:53to go to a few
31:54other stores
31:55in Philadelphia
31:56and to F.A.O. Schwartz,
31:58the leading toy emporium
32:00here in New York.
32:02By the time
32:04Christmas of 1934
32:05has come and gone,
32:08Darrow has made
32:09a thousand copies,
32:10two print runs,
32:11and they have sold out.
32:13It starts selling
32:14and selling
32:15and selling.
32:16And eventually,
32:17Charles Darrow's
32:18making enough sales there
32:20for Parker Brothers
32:21and other game manufacturers
32:22to take a look at
32:23Philadelphia
32:24and go,
32:25hmm.
32:27Robert Barton
32:28had already turned
32:29Darrow down,
32:30but now
32:31he invites him
32:31to New York City
32:32with the intention
32:33of buying his game.
32:35They negotiate
32:36to buy the game
32:36from him.
32:37And during this negotiation,
32:39Robert Barton
32:40asks Charles Darrow,
32:41you know,
32:42is this your game,
32:43100% yours?
32:44And Charles Darrow goes,
32:45yes, of course.
32:47And so they sign it
32:49and start putting out
32:50Monopoly.
32:54Parker Brothers
32:55acquires Monopoly
32:56in March of 1935
32:57and around June 1st.
33:00They've moved heaven
33:01and earth
33:01and they make
33:02their first 10,000 print run.
33:05And the game
33:06sells pretty well.
33:07But the very fact
33:08that Monopoly
33:09could actually be
33:10the hit they're looking for
33:11actually makes
33:12Barton nervous.
33:14Parker Brothers
33:14didn't want to lose
33:15Monopoly
33:16the way they had
33:17lost Mahjong.
33:19And Barton realizes
33:20he had to do something.
33:22Parker Brothers
33:22writes a letter
33:24to Charles Darrow
33:25asking him
33:26for his origin story
33:27about how he came up
33:28with Monopoly.
33:31Darrow writes back,
33:33Dear Mr. Barton,
33:34the history of Monopoly
33:35is really quite simple.
33:37Being unemployed
33:38at the time
33:38and badly needing
33:39anything to occupy
33:40my time,
33:41I made by hand
33:42a very crude game
33:43for the sole purpose
33:45of amusing myself.
33:46Later friends called
33:48and we played the game,
33:49unnamed at that time.
33:51One of them asked me
33:52to make a copy for him,
33:53which I did
33:54charging him $4.
33:55Friends of his
33:56wanted copies
33:57and so forth.
33:58So much for the outline
34:00of the history of Monopoly.
34:01That's all we get.
34:02Charles Darrow
34:03is a charlatan.
34:08But for Parker Brothers,
34:10it doesn't matter.
34:10If you can sell
34:12the origin story
34:13to consumers,
34:15they're much more likely
34:16to accept him
34:17as the creator.
34:17And because so many people
34:19could identify
34:19with the Great Depression story
34:21and the movement
34:22from poverty
34:23to riches,
34:25the right origin story
34:26might just be enough
34:28to win
34:28the public imagination.
34:34It's remarkable
34:35that this game
34:35took off
34:36on the back end
34:37of the Great Depression.
34:40Why would people
34:41want to play a game
34:42about accumulating wealth
34:43after most of them
34:44had lived in abject poverty
34:46for years?
34:49I think part of the reason
34:50is wish fulfillment.
34:52What better fantasy
34:54to have
34:55during and after
34:56the Great Depression
34:56than being able
34:58to be in a position
34:58of power
34:59and being able
34:59to accumulate
35:00mass wealth
35:01when you know
35:02you'll never be able
35:02to do that
35:03in your own life.
35:04Monopoly is
35:05a quintessential
35:06American game
35:08by virtue
35:08of how it plays.
35:12Everyone,
35:13regardless of
35:14your race,
35:16religion,
35:17or creed,
35:17starts off
35:18with the same amount
35:18of money.
35:20Everybody has
35:21a fair chance.
35:22Everyone collects
35:23$200 when they pass go.
35:25Everyone has
35:25the opportunity
35:26to purchase.
35:28All of these things
35:29are baked in.
35:30Monopoly creates
35:31a very false sense
35:32of, well,
35:33we all started
35:34off equally
35:35and if I've got a head
35:35it must be my skill,
35:37it must be my hard work.
35:39They got you, John.
35:40That'll be $100.
35:42When actually,
35:43in real life,
35:44we do not start
35:45on that same starting line.
35:49Monopoly makes it
35:50easy to imagine
35:52that you can,
35:53you know,
35:54accomplish your goals,
35:55accomplish your vision,
35:56you can start a business
35:57and you don't have
35:58to think
35:59about what you look like
36:01where you come from,
36:03that you're from
36:04a different class,
36:05from a different race,
36:05have a different gender,
36:07have a different gender expression.
36:08You don't have to think
36:09about any of that at all.
36:10Right?
36:11And that is
36:12the problem
36:13and the myth
36:13that Monopoly
36:15continues
36:15to just push forward.
36:28Monopoly
36:28becomes an instant success.
36:34The order's flooding.
36:36You can't make games
36:37fast enough.
36:37They put on extra shifts
36:38in their factory
36:39and they still can't catch up.
36:41It's one of those games
36:42that just hit
36:43at the right moment
36:44and suddenly
36:45everyone wants one.
36:47In 1936,
36:49the game went from
36:50a quarter of a million
36:52to nearly 1.8 million,
36:55which literally
36:56was the maximum number
36:57of games
36:58that Parker Brothers
36:59could make,
37:00even mobilizing
37:01the entirety
37:02of Salem, Massachusetts
37:03to help.
37:04It's the biggest success
37:05the ball game industry
37:06has ever seen.
37:14And then
37:15one day
37:16Parker Brothers' lawyer
37:17rushes into
37:19Barton's office
37:20and goes,
37:21there's a game
37:22just like Monopoly
37:24called Finance
37:25and actually
37:26there's another game
37:27that's just like it as well
37:28and another game
37:29and suddenly
37:30he's in a position
37:32where he thought
37:33he had the biggest hit ever
37:34and had the rights to it
37:36and now
37:37it's pretty obvious
37:39that Charles Darrow
37:40has copied this game.
37:41Robert Barton
37:42has a problem.
37:43The thing that is
37:44saving his company
37:45from bankruptcy,
37:46Monopoly,
37:46that is this runaway hit
37:48was not invented by Darrow.
37:50He needs to protect
37:51Monopoly at all costs.
37:52And so Robert Barton,
37:54attorney by trade,
37:56decides he has to own
37:58every game
37:59that's remotely similar
38:01to Monopoly.
38:02He needs to get control
38:03of these other competing games,
38:04finance,
38:05easy money,
38:06inflation.
38:08But Barton has another problem
38:10and that is Lizzie McGee.
38:14At this point,
38:15Lizzie McGee is married
38:16and working as a secretary
38:18in Washington, D.C.
38:19We don't know
38:20if she realized
38:21that the landlord's game
38:22had been spreading.
38:23But we do know
38:24by 1935,
38:25the Darrow story
38:26starts to take off.
38:32Lizzie is reading
38:33talking about this inventor,
38:35Charles Darrow,
38:35and she actually goes
38:37to the press
38:37and says,
38:38wait a second,
38:39that's my game,
38:40you know,
38:40that's my invention.
38:41For Parker Brothers,
38:43this is a complete disaster.
38:45And so Parker Brothers
38:47decides it needs
38:48to shut this down.
38:49It needs to preserve
38:50Charles Darrow's story.
38:52So George Parker
38:53comes from retirement
38:54in a very dramatic fashion
38:56and he takes a train
38:57to Washington, D.C.
38:59George Parker
39:00is quite elderly
39:00at this point
39:01and he goes to Lizzie McGee
39:03to sweet talk her
39:04into selling the rights.
39:06He says,
39:06we, Parker Brothers,
39:07are going to publish
39:08your landlord's game
39:10and two other games of yours.
39:12We'll put your picture
39:13on the front of these boxes
39:14and talk about you
39:15as an originator
39:16of board games.
39:17And she thinks,
39:18wow,
39:19you know,
39:19my George's teaching tools
39:20are going to be
39:21front and center
39:22with one of the biggest
39:23game companies
39:24in the world.
39:25She kind of figures,
39:26well,
39:27no one paid any attention
39:28to the landlord's game before.
39:30Maybe this is a chance
39:31to revive interest
39:32in single tax.
39:33So for $500,
39:35she signs over the rights.
39:37They pay her $500.
39:38$500.
39:40$500.
39:41And Parker Brothers
39:42acquires the rights
39:43to her game.
39:45This is a great irony of all.
39:47Parker Brothers comes in
39:48and monopolizes Monopoly.
39:51And Lizzie,
39:52she's that kid
39:53sitting on the sideline
39:54of Monopoly
39:55who just got taken
39:56out of the game.
39:59Per the terms
40:00of their agreement,
40:01Parker Brothers
40:02released the landlord's game
40:03and two other
40:04Lizzie McGee titles,
40:05but did little
40:06to publicize them
40:07and they didn't sell well.
40:09Then,
40:10when they released
40:10the new version
40:11of the landlord's game,
40:12it bears no resemblance
40:13to the original.
40:15Even worse,
40:16she discovers
40:16that Parker Brothers
40:17took advantage
40:18of the fine print
40:19in their contract
40:19which gave them
40:20editorial control.
40:21And they published
40:22the game
40:22with only one set
40:23of rules,
40:24omitting the single tax version.
40:27Finally,
40:28two years later
40:29when her patent
40:29expires for good,
40:31they erase her
40:32from the history
40:32of the game
40:33and betray her again.
40:35Any acknowledgement
40:36of her in the press
40:37or that she had
40:38any role in the game
40:39is very, very quickly
40:40lost to history.
40:42She was hanging
40:44on to the belief
40:46that Parker Brothers
40:47would now finally
40:48publish her game.
40:49They would print her face
40:50on the cover
40:51of the board
40:51and so they say,
40:53there you are,
40:53Lizzie,
40:53there's your face,
40:54you see,
40:54we've acknowledged you
40:55as the inventor
40:56of the game
40:56but we'll just let
40:58that edition
40:58quietly slip.
41:00And so they flatter
41:01into insignificance.
41:04McGee makes $500,
41:05Dara makes over
41:06a million dollars.
41:07It's not exactly fair.
41:12One of the last traces
41:13we have of Lizzie McGee's
41:15life is the 1940 U.S. Census.
41:18What's interesting
41:19about that census
41:20is that she died in 1948
41:22so it's the last one
41:23that she would have
41:23been able to participate in
41:26and she lists her occupation
41:28as maker of games
41:32and her income is zero.
41:43By the late 1970s,
41:46the anti-monopoly case
41:48has dragged on for years.
41:49Ralph is on the verge
41:50of ruin.
41:52It's not like he's
41:53a rich man.
41:54He's kind of there
41:55scraping it together,
41:57paying lawyers,
41:57paying court fees,
41:59trying to fight
42:00this Goliath.
42:01It's not just Ralph's case.
42:03His son Mark
42:04had helped him
42:05design the game
42:06and his wife, Ruth,
42:08was busy running
42:09the company.
42:09And so it's really
42:11taking a toll
42:11on his whole family.
42:13We were in real
42:14financial trouble.
42:16We had three mortgages
42:17on our home
42:20and one of the mortgage
42:22holders was about
42:23to foreclose on us.
42:25He takes out loans
42:26on his home,
42:27these second mortgages,
42:28which is,
42:28when you think about
42:29monopoly,
42:29very ironic.
42:30So he's just
42:31completely worn down
42:32in every sense.
42:34And then,
42:34on the eve
42:35of the court case,
42:36lawyers inside
42:37General Mills
42:38and Parker Brothers
42:38make Ralph an offer.
42:40And it's big.
42:40It's a good one.
42:41Equivalent of more
42:42than $2 million.
42:44There's just one catch.
42:45He's not allowed
42:46to talk about
42:46the game's origins.
42:48And Ralph says,
42:48no,
42:49he's come this far.
42:51He's going to see it out.
42:52People said,
42:53you're crazy,
42:53you know,
42:54take the money
42:54and run to the bank.
42:56But I just
42:58can't live with myself
42:59if I cave in.
43:02This was about
43:03something beyond money.
43:04This was about
43:05proving a story,
43:07proving a case.
43:08That was not something
43:09that was up for sale
43:10at any price for him.
43:12Ralph now has the evidence
43:13of how the board game
43:15changed over the years.
43:16And he doesn't just
43:18want to be paid off
43:19and to let Parker Brothers
43:20carry on as before.
43:21He wants to win.
43:27Ralph and his attorneys
43:28are trying to prove
43:29that the Monopoly patent
43:30itself is fraudulent.
43:32And that's a pretty
43:33scandalous thing
43:34to be alleging at this time.
43:35You have to remember
43:36that when this case
43:37was coming about
43:37in the mid-1970s,
43:38the Monopoly story
43:40hadn't really been challenged
43:41and certainly not
43:42to this extent
43:43and where the stakes
43:44were so high.
43:47So for this trial,
43:49Ralph calls upon
43:50nine of the folk game players.
43:52These folk players
43:53testify to playing the game
43:54before 1935.
43:55So it goes from rumor
43:56to record.
43:57Mr. Harvey,
43:59did you ever play
43:59a real estate trading game?
44:02Yes.
44:02In what year did you
44:03first play such a game?
44:05I would say 1931.
44:08I had a Quaker friend
44:09at Smith
44:10and I went to visit
44:12here in the spring
44:12of 1922.
44:14We played it all the time.
44:15I was at MIT.
44:16I copied theirs.
44:17That's the way it went
44:17from one person to another.
44:18Give a name to the game.
44:20It was called Monopoly.
44:22Monopoly.
44:22Monopoly.
44:23They were all playing Monopoly.
44:27We had them,
44:28you know,
44:29we had them over a barrel now
44:31because they were sitting there
44:33with a game
44:35that seemed to have been stolen.
44:38We were really quite confident
44:40we were going to win.
44:43So they go through
44:44this whole trial
44:45and the judge issues a ruling
44:46and it is not good.
44:48But I think we have
44:49to be realistic.
44:50This was a David
44:51versus Goliath story
44:52and Ralph's judge
44:53generally ruled
44:54on Goliath's side.
44:56The judge rules
44:57in Parker Brothers' favor.
44:59It says,
45:00you must not put out
45:01anti-monopoly.
45:02And for Ralph,
45:03this is an absolute disaster.
45:05I mean,
45:05this is ruined.
45:06He's not only lost his game,
45:08he won't get court costs.
45:10He won't get anything.
45:12That was it.
45:13We were finished.
45:14I remember
45:15I was terribly depressed.
45:16We lost the case.
45:18The judge ordered us
45:20to turn over
45:21all our games
45:22to Parker Brothers.
45:25Then Parker Brothers
45:26did something
45:27which is not usually done.
45:29But Parker Brothers
45:31was determined
45:32to teach others a lesson.
45:37Part of the ruling
45:38is that Ralph
45:39has to hand over
45:40his anti-monopoly games.
45:42Parker Brothers
45:43take these games
45:44and they're in Mankato, Minnesota,
45:45which is not far
45:46from where they're
45:47being manufactured.
45:4840,000 of our games
45:50were literally buried
45:53in Minnesota
45:55with a national story
45:57describing this.
45:57This is what happens
45:58to people who challenge
46:00this great company
46:01and this great game.
46:03Ralph later told me
46:04something to the effect of
46:06it felt like they were
46:06dumping me in the trash.
46:09I just couldn't face it.
46:10I couldn't face to see
46:12these games
46:13turned into
46:15trash.
46:15trash, you know.
46:16I couldn't...
46:17I didn't have
46:18the courage
46:20to see that.
46:31Is it your turn
46:32or Louis?
46:33It's Louis.
46:34Four, four, four, four, four, four, four.
46:37I didn't cheer.
46:38Four, four, four, four, four, four, four.
46:40No!
46:41Yes!
46:42Why are you happy?
46:43I think the competition of Monopoly is quintessentially American.
46:47Monopoly might not be the perfect game for teaching people about economics,
46:51but it's a really great way of training people's emotions
46:54to be aligned with competition, wanting competition, wanting victory.
46:59Believe in the dice!
47:02Monopoly claims that there is a sort of right way to win
47:05that means some other people are going to have to lose.
47:08How much is that?
47:091,200.
47:11Well, I don't have enough, so whatever.
47:12You're bankrupt, you're out.
47:14Yeah, I know.
47:14Bye!
47:16Why is this game the game that we remember and loved and wanted to play?
47:20And the traits it brings out are ruthlessness, greed, acquisition, accumulation.
47:28No pity for your opponent.
47:30And the irony is that we're drawn to playing it.
47:33I have the most money!
47:35It is a zero-sum game,
47:37and so the kind of rhetoric there is that there can be only one victor.
47:42And I think that's an interesting metaphor of the way that our capitalist system works in the United States.
47:47You got lucky.
47:52After his defeat, Ralph is determined to keep fighting.
47:56He appeals, and it takes another six years for his case to go through the legal system until there's only
48:01one place left to go.
48:07Ralph gets on a train to Washington, D.C.
48:09He's got all of his legal papers with him, and he walks them himself to the Supreme Court.
48:16And that's kind of an amazing moment, because when you think about, here's Ralph, this guy who ten years ago
48:21was making a game called Anti-Monopoly and gets a cease and desist at his doorstep about a board game.
48:26He now finds himself appealing for his right to make these games at the Supreme Court of the United States.
48:35And when it comes down to the Supreme Court's decision, they back Ralph.
48:40The makers of the popular board game Monopoly today drew a chance card and lost, for real.
48:45They didn't go to jail, they didn't pass Go, but lost their Monopoly on Monopoly.
48:49Ralph pretty much wins it all. He gets a significant lump of money.
48:54Parker Brothers has to repay him for all the copies of the game they destroyed, and cover his court costs,
49:01and pay him damages.
49:02He wins his right to produce Anti-Monopoly and to keep making his games, but he also wins the right
49:08to talk about the game's history and its origins openly.
49:12That, for him, is a huge, huge win, because at this point, he had been talking about the game for
49:17a decade, but he wanted to keep telling the story of Lizzie McGee, Darrow, and what really happened.
49:26Most people thought that I was crazy, and of course, I felt very vindicated.
49:30Because, you know, it was a long struggle, but I was determined to accomplish my goals regardless of all the
49:38opposition and so on.
49:41And maybe the idea that there's something else in the story, namely, the little guy can win out sometimes and
49:54overcome.
49:59Monopoly is more than a game. It's a commentary on both what's great and what's dark about our business empires.
50:09Is anything just a game in American society? When games are one of the most popular cultural forms that we
50:15have, when they train us in so many norms and ideas that we move outside of the game space, can
50:23we say that something is just a game?
50:25Monopoly is tied to so many memories for people that belongs to everybody.
50:32But I think that the myth of monopoly does obscure a lot of realities about this country, about class, about
50:40race, about gender, about how our current, dare I say, game of capitalism is played and has been for centuries.
50:47So it ends up becoming this microcosm of the bigger story of this country and how we perceive it now
50:54and look back on it.
50:56It's an interesting question if monopoly creates a misguided view about the United States.
51:00And maybe the way to think about it is, what if the original game had caught on? Would that have
51:06paved the way for an alternative political vision of America?
51:11That puts a lot on a game. But I think capitalists have always wanted to tell a story about how
51:18in America, some people get ahead and other people fall behind.
51:22And that's either luck, that's the roll of the dice, that's because they didn't play the game the right way.
51:29It's just like monopoly.
52:08You can never go out of your mind.
52:08And as we go away, I'll go back and get to that point in time そして, what if there's going
52:08to happen.
52:08But when you go down in Russia, you're going to be a bit more confident.
52:09You're going to be a bit more confident.
52:13You're going to be a bit quicker, but you're going to be a bit more confident.
52:14You're going to be a bit more confident in you.
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