Monopoly

Quote directly from the Monopoly website:

Today, it's the best-selling
board game
in the world, sold in 80 countries and produced in 26 languages including Croatian. But where did the
MONOPOLY
game come from? How did this phenomenal pastime get its start?
MR. MONOPOLY
tells the legend best.

It was 1934, the height of the Depression, when Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania, showed what he called the
MONOPOLY game
to the executives at Parker Brothers. Can you believe it, they rejected the game due to "52 design errors"! But Mr. Darrow wasn't daunted. Like many other Americans, he was unemployed at the time, and the game's exciting promise of fame and fortune inspired him to produce it on his own.

With help from a friend who was a printer, Mr. Darrow sold 5,000 handmade sets of the game to a Philadelphia department store. People loved it! But as demand grew, he couldn't keep up with all the orders and came back to talk to
Parker Brothers
again. The rest, as they say, is history! In its first year, 1935, the MONOPOLY game was the best-selling game in America. And over its 65-year history, an estimated 500 million people have played!

* Over 200 million games have been sold worldwide.
* More than five billion little green houses have been "built" since 1935.
* A set made by my friends at Alfred Dunhill, with gold houses and silver hotels, sold for $25,000.
* The longest game in history lasted 70 straight days.
* The longest game in a bathtub lasted 99 hours!

The MONOPOLY game is so much a part of today's popular culture that my lawyers have trademarked many of its graphic elements. The tokens, Railroad,
COMMUNITY CHEST,CHANCE, and Title Deed designs, as well as BOARDWALK
and all four gameboard corners are legally protected.

1933- Charles Darrow starts selling Monopoly
1934- Charles Darrow copyrights the game and submits it to Parker Brothers and is rejected.
1935/36 -Monopoly becomes America's Best selling board game. The set adds 4 wax wood pawns.
1937- Parker Bros produces die cast metal tokens.
1943- Due to metal shortages during the war, tokens are made of wood 1943-47.
1970's - a Braille Edition is made for the visually impaired.
1972- Atlantic City commissioner of Public Works threatens to change the names of the real Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues, Public outcry vetos the change.
1978- Neiman Marcus offers an all chocolate Monopoly set for $600.00.
1983- 50 year anniversary for Monopoly.
1993- 60 year anniversary for Monopoly.
1995- Parker Bros formally apologizes to residents of Marven Gardens for misspelling it "Marvin"Gardens.
1998- The racecar is voted favorite classic token.
1999-Fans vote 'Sack of Money' the new token.
2000- Millennium version is available in collectible tin.
2002- The Amercian Edition is born.
2006- Boardwalk removed- They're fixing to screw it ALL UP!

Monopoly will no longer feature Atlantic City as it's locale:
Listen to the story here

Or read the text version:
KAI RYSSDAL: Now here's an honest to goodness marketing dilemma. You've got what might be the iconic American board game. You've sold bajillions of them. But not too many lately. And so you want to update.

Problem is the original game was based on a place that was the place to be back in the 1930s. And today, it's kinda not. Hasbro has decided to roll the dice on its new Monopoly board. And Atlantic City has come up snake eyes.

The original board, as you might know, was almost entirely modeled on Atlantic City's street and beachfront. The new edition isn't quite as kind to the Jersey Shore. Marketplace's Steve Tripoli has more.
STEVE TRIPOLI: No more Boardwalk? No Park Place? No Ventnor Avenue? . . . No Atlantic City brushoff is intended, says Hasbro's Pat Riso.

PAT RISO: "What we've done is we're re-creating Monopoly for the here and now."

Which is exactly what's wrong here and now, says Jeff Vassar of Atlantic City's Convention and Visitors' Authority.

JEFF VASSAR: "That's the problem we have, is, Atlantic City is a modern-day destination."

Here's Vassar's factual counterattack from Park Place. Atlantic City's still one of the nation's five most-visited destinations. There's $3 billion in new investment. And Reader's Digest last month named the beachfront Boardwalk -- yes, that Boardwalk -- the best in the US. But hey, says Hasbro's Pat Riso, we're just listening to the voice of the people.

RISO: "We asked Monopoly fans what they thought our board would look like if it were created for the here and now. And what they told us was it would be filled with America's top tourist destinations."

Twenty-two cities and 66 destinations in all -- with not one in Atlantic City. Even though you can still vote online for vacation magnets like Houston's Museum District and Pioneer Square in Seattle. Anyway, says Riso, we'll still have the classic version of Monopoly that forever memorialized the Jersey Shore.

RISO: We have very, very warm feelings for the folks in Atlantic City. But for right now the online vote for here and now is not going to change.

Think again. Atlantic City's Jeff Vassar has organized a counterinsurgency. You can go to atlanticcitynj.com and sign a petition to at least keep the Boardwalk