In 1935, Charles Darrow sold the first edition of Monopoly to Parker Brothers, a deal that quickly made him a very wealthy man at the time. Later, the Parker brothers continued Darrow's story as a so-called self-made phenomenon. They say Darrow was a man of bad luck who rose from the rubble during the Great Depression through hard work and a desire to please friends and family. In the end, he made a fortune with a real estate board game that celebrated the rise and fall of capitalist society.
Monopoly games are one of the most popular board games in history, but their true origins involve a feminist inventor named Elizabeth Magee who was interested in the theory of a single tax system, a board game circulating in different intellectual circles, and a small patent that predates Darrow's sale of Monopoly games 30 years ago.
The purpose of this game is to make players aware of the evils of monopolistic society and land grabbing, and to encourage socialist ideas. However, after the brothers Darrow and Parker repackaged the game and made millions of dollars in the process, Elizabeth Magee's work ironically became a symbol of capitalist greed, land grabs, and unhealthy financial competition.
The true creator of Monopoly was a woman named Elizabeth Magee
Elizabeth Magie (aka Lizy) was born in Macomb, Illinois, in 1866. From an early age, Maggie was surrounded by the atmosphere of intellectuals around him.
Maggie's father, James, a newspaper publisher, even ran in the Illinois antitrust campaign, though he lost. In the 1850s, he accompanied Abraham Lincoln in political debates across the country. According to The New York Times, Maggie looks like her father. She said:
I often refer to it as "a piece of old wood" and I think it's a compliment because I'm proud of my father because he's that kind of "old piece of wood".
In 1903, Maggie filed a patent for The Big Landlord Game
It took Maggie years to perfect The Landlord's Game, and finally filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Office on March 23, 1903. In Magee's original game, players were paid $100 each time they passed Mother Earth Space in recognition of their "labor on Mother Earth," a tribute to antitrust writer Henry George.
The game was inspired by an antitrust book, Progress and Poverty.
James Magee gave his young daughter Elizabeth Magee, a copy of Henry George's book Progress and Poverty, which argues that people should have everything they create and that land belongs to everyone. The article influenced Maggie's understanding of the economy, teaching her the concept of a "land value tax" or a "single tax."
The single tax concept suggests that land should be the only entity taxed by the government. Theoretically, this model would allow the wealthy and landowners to bear most of a region's taxes.
The concept became very popular in the late 19th century, when there was a stark contrast between mega-wealthy families like Rockefeller and many ordinary Americans living in poverty.
Originally, Monopoly had two sets of rules, "monopoly" and "antitrust."
Over the course of several years in the late 1890s, Maggie created a tabletop game called The Big Landlord Game, designed to tell players about the ills of land grabs and monopolies. There are two ways to play this game, "Monopoly" and "Antitrust".
The monopoly version relies on the human desire to compete and destroy the plot of the opponent, while the anti-monopoly version is that all players will be rewarded as long as they get wealth. Arguably, Maggie wants players to understand the two sides of economic coins. She wrote in the political magazine Single Tax Review:
This is a practical demonstration of the existing system of land grabbing, and all its usual results and consequences ... It can also be called a "game of life" because it encompasses all the factors of success and failure in the real world, with the same goal as the average human being seems to have, namely the accumulation of wealth.
This one was a success among university students and Quakers
Once Big Landlord Game left Maggie's hand, it had a life of its own. It became popular on college campuses and left-wing intellectuals in the northeastern United States, giving players the opportunity to experience a life of free finances that they had never had before.
The Quaker community in Atlantic City, New Jersey, also particularly enjoyed Maggie's game, and they even renamed the rectangular squares on the board with street names and properties in Atlantic City.
Before Monopoly appeared, Charles Darrow played a version of the big landlord game at a friend's house
Years later, when the Germantown Bulletin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, asked Charles Darrow how he invented the Monopoly game, Darrow said it was "a completely unexpected and illogical accident." Later history shows that Darrow's ambiguity was motivated by evil intentions.
When Maggie was interested in the theory of the single tax and opposed monopoly, Darrow was an unemployed businessman during the Great Depression, and in 1932 he played a version of Maggie's game at a friend's house in Philadelphia.
Soon, Darrow became obsessed with the game, asking for handwritten rules of the game, developing his own version, and using Quaker's adaptation of Atlantic City's property space. Unlike Maggie, Darrow was said to have wanted to entertain his friends and family, and had no intention of teaching the antitrust theory that the original author wanted to provide.
Big Landlord Game wasn't Maggie's first patent
Maggie was well versed in the intellectual and economic conversations of her time. In addition to being well-read, she is also a gifted inventor and engineer. At the age of 26, Maggie worked as a stenographer and typist. In 1893, she patented the invention of an ingenious device that made it easier to move paper on a typewriter.
At the time, more than 99 percent of patents came from men.
Maggie opposed the super-rich Rockefeller family of her time, and the Carnegie family
Mary Piron wrote Monopolists in 2015: Obsession, Rage, and the Scandal Behind the World's Most Popular Board Game, which tells the hidden origin story of Monopoly's game. She claims that Maggie was a fierce rival to the monopoly industries of her time, namely the oil, rail and steel industries. Maggie wanted her game to show how monopolists could gain huge sums of money and wealth at the expense of their fellow human beings (and other players). In 1906, Magee told reporters:
In a very short period of time, I hope that I can find that in a very short period of time, people will find that they are poor because Carnegie and Rockefeller, perhaps, have so many things that they don't know how to spend.
In 1918, oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller had a net worth of $1.2 billion ($21 billion in 2017) and steel monopolist Andrew Carnegie had a net worth of $200 million ($3.5 billion in 2017).
In 1935, Charles Darrow sold Monopoly Games to Parker Brothers
In 1935, the Parker brothers began selling the Monopoly game they bought from Charles Darrow, making it into a round tarpaulin the size of a kitchen table. Initially, though, Parker Brothers refused, arguing that the game about real estate wasn't exciting, too long, and too difficult.
However, after seeing the sales of Darrow's indie-made version of the game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Parker brothers quickly changed their minds and made extensive use of Darrow's so-called self-made story. They promote Darrow's self-made feat, claiming that he invented a game out of thin air.
Magee is an out-and-out feminist who has taught politics lessons
Maggie did not marry and had no children until the age of 44. She had published a satirical advertisement in the newspaper selling herself to the highest bidder as a wife or servant, which also made her famous. In response to the move, she said: "Women are not machines... Women also have brains, desires, hopes and ambitions. ”
Before she got married, Maggie saved up money to buy her own house in Prince George County, Washington, a feat unheard of at the time. And after a few days as a stenographer and typist, she even taught politics lessons in the evenings.
During these lessons, Maggie realized she needed to find a better way to teach the single tax theory, which would force wealthy landlords to pay most of the government's tax revenues. At the time, board games were a very popular form of play in the United States, so she set out to create her own.
In 1936, Maggie realized that the brothers Darrow and Parker had profited greatly from her invention
As the whole country descends into a Monopoly craze, Maggie suddenly realizes that she has been deceived. She was angry and hurt, and after being interviewed by several newspapers, her role in the game, dating back to 1903, should have been taken into account.
Despite Maggie's outcry, the Parker brothers had sold Charles Darrow and his self-made invention story too well. Many people, including many of the media at the time, didn't care what Magee said about the incident. The evening newspaper reporter interviewing Magee wrote:
Big Landlord Game wasn't as popular as Monopoly, which is as popular today. Philadelphia Engineer Charles M. B. Darrow retrieved the game from the forgotten of the patent office and made some modifications to it before it could reappear in public.
The Parker brothers bought Monopoly-related patents, including Maggie's, for $500, without royalties
In the mid-1930s, the Parker brothers purchased the rights to all games related to Monopoly, including the Big Landlord Game patent that Maggie still owns, for $500 and without royalties.
Initially, Maggie enthusiastically thought her game might appeal to a wider range of users, but when the game prototype was delivered to her home, she was soon disappointed.
Charles Darrow became a millionaire, while Maggie became obscure
Charles Darrow became so wealthy because of the royalties and sales of Monopoly games that he could have completely given up his original job. On the other hand, when Maggie died in 1948, her tombstones and obituary contain little mention of her participation in one of the world's most popular board games.
When Maggie spoke to the newspaper in 1936 about the $500 That Monopoly paid for it, the newspaper said, "If you include the attorneys' fees, printing fees, and patent office fees that cost the game, the game probably cost more than she could have earned from it." ”
Decades later, Maggie's Story and the game's social roots surfaced
In 2015, journalist and writer Mary Piron once again introduced Maggie into a conversation between Charles Darrow and his Cinderella, from a Merchant During the Great Depression to today's Millionaire Game Inventor.
Piron found Maggie's 1903 patent record, as well as an interview Maggie gave after the game became a hit in 1936. She then wrote a book called Monopolists: Obsession, Rage, and the Scandal Behind the World's Most Popular Board Game. This new exploration helped bring Maggie's name back to the public and answered the long-standing doubts of many players. Winning the Monopoly game may be a fun experience, but it also shows the more brutal side of the economic land race. In his 1924 updated patent application, Magee explained:
The purpose of this game is not only to entertain players, but also to show them how landlords have an advantage over other businesses under the current or current land tenure system, and how a single tax will stop land speculation.
A game rooted in radical economic, social institutions, and feminist theories, stolen, repackaged, and misinterpreted by a capitalist businessman, further conforms to a game that seeks to teach equality and should become a social reality that promotes the continued development of brutal capitalism, predatory monopolies, at the expense of others.