Cha-ching! That’s the sound you hear in your head as you round the corner and pass Go! You can now collect Two Hundred Dollars ($200). Or, if you own the new version, that amount would be Two Million Dollars ($2,000,000.00). That’s right, Two Million Dollars. Can you imagine what a night’s stay at the Boardwalk hotel is going to cost? Holding the title of the most popular game board in history, Monopoly has been a part of our popular culture for over the past 70 years.
It all started back in 1934 when a man named Charles B. Darrow from Germantown, Pennsylvania, had been out of work and designed the original board game. (Monopoly: History & Fun Facts, 2010). He showed the idea to Parker Brothers, but they declined the board game. (Monopoly: History & Fun Facts, 2010). Darrow and his friend, who happened to be a printer, went about printing 500 copies of the game and sold them to a local department store. (Monopoly: History & Fun Facts, 2010). They sold quickly, but Darrow couldn’t keep up with demand. (Monopoly: History & Fun Facts, 2010). So he returned to Parker Brothers for another try at selling them the game. (Monopoly: History & Fun Facts, 2010). Parker Brothers ended up buying the rights to the game, and from that point forward, Monopoly has been making history. (Monopoly: History & Fun Facts, 2010).
Today, over 275 million copies of Monopoly have been sold. In 2006, the game underwent several changes to modernize the game board to make it more relevant to the events of today, rather than those of the Great Depression. (Elliott, 2006). This newer version boasts four of America’s busiest airports in place of the previous four railroads. (Elliott, 2006). The tokens have been replaced by tokens of name-brand products. (Elliott, 2006). Hasbro used the name-brand products because it was aware that these products were part of American popular culture and used by people every day. (Elliott, 2006). This was smart marketing on the part of Hasbro.
Monopoly is a game that allows the most novices of players to playact contemporary business, and feels that real estate “moguldom” is attainable. (Poniewozik, 2006). Although for me, this ideal fantasy never happened. I was never to gain access to that powerful, elite world. Years ago, my brother, who is three years older than me, would set the game up at the kitchen table for me to play against him. It was pure torture to sit through an hour of this game, having him sit across from me constantly banking out of his little cardboard box buying up land, and placing houses and hotels one upon another until there was nothing left for me to eat. I would end up sitting in the jail corner because it was easier than trying to come up with money to pay his rental rates. I still, to this day, do not play that game. But it is fun to watch this board game have a “monopoly” on the market over the rest of the game players.
REFERENCES
Elliott, S. (2006, September 12). Would you like fries with the Monopoly game? The New York Times. Retrieved July 25, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/business/media/12adco/html?ref=business.
Monopoly: History & Fun Facts. (2010). Hasbro. Retrieved July 25, 2010 from http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/discovery/history.cfm.
Poniewozik, J. (2006, September 18). The culture complex: Monopoly is us. Time. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1535818,00.html.
Ronda~
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an awesome example of pop culture. I would have never thought of it but this game is so appealing to everyone, even after all these years. It is so appealing that McDonald's even uses the Monopoly board game as a way to get people coming back more often. it is so much fun to see how many properties you can collect ;)
Jackie
Great article. I love Monopoly. Some of my most treasures memories are summer nights playing Monopoly with the neighborhood kids. We would sit at my parents kitchen table and play for hours!
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