17 Things You Don't Know About Monopoly
1. The first edition of Monopoly was released on November 5, 1935.
2. In 1903, Elizabeth Magie created a board game which would explain Henry George's single tax theory. (Economic value derived from natural resources and natural opportunities should belong equally to all residents of a community, but that people should own the value they would create themselves.) "The Landlord's Game" came out in 1906. Variants were developed between 1906 and 1935, which buying and selling of land.
3. Charles Darrow was credited as the final developer of the game. He was in the business of buying and selling of products for years. After doing odd jobs (for many years), a chance encounter with neighbors playing buying and selling of properties gave him an idea. The rest was history.
4. Since 1935, the game had been available in 111 countries, in 43 dialects. More than 274 million games have been sold worldwide.
5. More than six billion little green houses and 2.25 billion red hotels have been constructed since 1935.
6. In the early 1950s, the lantern, purse and rocking horse were removed from the game. They were replaced by the dog, horse and rider, and wheelbarrow.
7. The most expensive version of the game was produced by Sidney Mobell, a celebrated jeweller from San Francisco. The set featured a 23-carat gold board and diamond-studded dice, which was valued at two million US dollars.
8. The old fellow behind the jail bars was Milburn Pennybags, more known as Rich Uncle Pennybags. His whereabouts were unknown, as well as Edgar Mallory. He sent Pennybags to jail.
9. In the 1970's, a Braille edition of the game was created for the visually-impaired players.
10. The most commonly landed square was Illinois Avenue, followed by New York Avenue. (This is not counting Jail and Go.) On the other hand, Mediterranean Avenue was the least-likely square to land.
11. Illinois Avenue was changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. during the 1980s. Yes, it was real.
12. The game became popular, such that there have been many variants. They would include Anti-Monopoly, Business, and Ghettopoly.
13. This board game helped some Allied prisoners to escape from their Nazi captors, as the box contained escape tools. The British Secret Service figured out its usefulness.
14. Lee Bayrd of the US was the first winner of the Monopoly World Championship, which was held in Liberty, New York in 1973. Norway's Bjørn Halvard Knappskog was the most recent winner, besting 40 competitors in Las Vegas in 2009.
15. ABC aired the first Monopoly TV game show in June 16, 1990, but it was cancelled three months later.
16. There were plans for a film version, as Ridley Scott and Universal Pictures were once attached to the project. The studio passed it up. Hasbro's new partnership with Emmett/Furla put Scott in the role of producer.
17. In "Zombieland" (2009), Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Bill Murray played Monopoly using real money.
