Betty's Attic
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Friday, November 4, 2016
On this date in 1935, Parker Brothers launched their new board game, Monopoly. Who knew that it would go on to become one of the best loved games in the country and the world? Or that dozens of different versions in a myriad of languages would emerge over eight decades of play? And who would have guessed that kids today would love it as much as we did when we were growing up?

Monopoly has been a staple of our family gatherings for as long as I can remember. My grandmother was the champ, gobbling up properties, building hotels and, it seemed, always drawing the best "Chance" cards. My grandfather called her the "Park Place Fat Cat", which always made us laugh. Truth be told, if the game had been played in the real world, my grandma probably would have been a "fat cat" real estate magnate. She just had the head for it.

To celebrate the Monopoly's 81st birthday, I dug up some fun facts about the world's favorite board game:
  • Less than a year after the game's release, Parker Brothers was making 35,000 copies every week.
  • Marvin Gardens is misspelled. It should have been  "Marven Gardens", which is an actual place in Atlantic City.
  • The longest game of Monopoly lasted 70 straight days.
  • The standard amount of money in a Monopoly game is $20,580.
  • Escape maps, compasses, files and real money were inserted into Monopoly games and smuggled into POW camps inside Germany during World War II. 
Now my grandma's game is published in 47 languages, sold in 114 countries and comes in just about every theme you can think of. The new theme games are lots of fun with the different tokens, places, cards, etc. But I still prefer the original because it reminds me of my grandmother, the would-be "Park Place Fat Cat".



Posted by: Betty | 8:00 AM | permalink
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