Page A3 The Joan De Arc Crusader / Monday, July 4, 2005

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Monopoly rules at 70

by J. Bueker

     The most logical and beloved summer pastime on Joan De Arc Avenue over the years has been the peerless game of Monopoly, the most popular and famous board game in the history of the universe. Logical because of the game’s legendary facility for sheer time consumption, a real plus during the interminably long hot summer days in Phoenix. Beloved because of its ruthlessly greedy, All-American premise – the opportunity to wheel and deal, amass a fortune, and ultimately drive your opponents into bankruptcy and utter personal ruin. What better way to spend one’s summer vacation away from the rigors of matriculation at Sahuaro School? This summer of ‘05, the 70^th anniversary of Monopoly’s original emergence, seems a good opportunity for recalling the game’s Joan De Arc history and folklore.

     The ultimate origins of Monopoly remain in some dispute, but a consensus has emerged that the game’s reputed inventor, Charles Darrow of Philadelphia, actually stole the idea from a real estate board game that had appeared around 1910, passing it off to Parker Brothers as his own baby in the early ‘30s.  Well aware of the subterfuge, the good folks at Parker latched onto Darrow’s story and perpetuated the mythology for many years. The rapid and profound success of Monopoly was a true paradox, arising as it did during the bleakest depths of the Depression. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense that people with little or no money, and lots of time on their hands, would enjoy playing such a game as this.

     My earliest memories of Monopoly actually date to the pre-Joan De Arc era in Michigan. I can remember observing my siblings playing the game on the living room floor of our home on Brookfield Rd. in Livonia, and drawing praise for my ability to read words on the game board like “Go to Jail.” The game was deeply ingrained in my consciousness years before I ever made my first serious attempt to play it.

     John Bueker’s collection of old Monopoly games is the stuff of Joan De Arc legend, of course. I began to notice old Monopoly sets for sale at the various thrift stores in Sunnyslope and Glendale that our family frequented for many years beginning in the ‘60s. I had been quite unaware that the game actually dated back to the 1930s, and I quickly became fascinated with these old-fashioned sets from twenty and thirty years in the past, with their dated art work and wooden houses and hotels. My first purchase was a copy of the late ‘50s yellow box edition at the Goodwill store at Hatcher and Central, which cost me all of 20 cents. I remember the precise price thanks to the clueless Goodwill employee who had scrawled it across the top of the box, thereby creating a permanent record of the transaction. The Russells across the street had the very same edition of Monopoly at their house, which I always envied since it was in far better condition than my own.

     Not long after, I acquired the coolest old Monopoly game of all, the beautiful “White Box Edition” from the mid-40s, also known as the “Number 9 Box” edition. This classic set featured gold-embossed “Grand Hotel” hotels, metal tokens, a money tray, and twice as much cash as the standard edition of the game. The elegant white box top had “Monopoly” printed across it in black letters inside a large red banner, and the original cartoon of one game player chasing another down a street, which had appeared on the first hand made editions of Monopoly that Darrow published in the early ‘30s before Parker became interested. Unfortunately, the corners of the White Box Edition box split fairly readily, and it is very rare to find one still completely intact. This has traditionally lead to the thoroughly inadequate solution of trying to repair the box corners with Scotch tape, which usually holds for a good five minutes before spontaneously and permanently detaching.

     An excellent deluxe edition of Monopoly was released in 1964 in a large maroon box with very cool stylized artwork on the box cover, and for the first time a tray for organizing the properties and other game pieces. The game was on sale for years at The Broadway at Chris-Town, and I pleaded for one on a semi-regular basis. By this time, the routine parental response to such requests was some variation of “Why on earth do you need another Monopoly game? Just play with the ones you already have for God’s sake. Good lord.” I was only able to finally purchase one of those 1964 sets in 2001 with the able assistance of ebay. In your face, mom and dad! It’s mine now, all mine.

     The Smiths next door had a very cool small box edition of Monopoly (the board was sold separately) from the early ‘50s that Mrs. Smith at one point offered to give me for my collection. I had never encountered this particular edition at any of the thrifts, and thus I prized it very highly. I started hanging out with the Smith family on a regular basis, waiting for them to remember to hand over the game. Sadly, the transfer of ownership never did materialize, probably owing to resistance from other members of the Smith clan. Understandable in hindsight of course, but a bitter disappointment at the time. I do remain quite willing to accept the game into my collection should the Smith family ever change their minds in the matter.    

     Some of the kids on Joan De Arc insisted on adhering to a number of Monopoly rules that are nowhere to be found in the game instructions, but that had developed independently over the years and become fairly popular. One of these rules arose from an apparent frustration with the whimsically purposeless nature of the “Free Parking” space. Nothing happens here of course, which can be either bad or good, depending on the game situation. Free Parking is a nuisance in the early stages of the game, when the object is to land on and purchase as much real estate as possible, but it can be a very endearing sight later on when one is approaching hotels on say New York or Atlantic Avenue. The new rule dictated that all monies paid by players for fines or taxes be added to a kitty in the center of the game board. Whenever a player landed on Free Parking, he or she was awarded the entire current contents of the kitty. This sudden infusion of cash could instantly change the entire complexion of the game, and all due to pure, dumb luck. Another popular renegade rule of the time was to allow the doubling of hotels and thus hotel rent on properties. The Humphries children were particularly fond of these unauthorized innovations. Pure heresy in my book.

      Chris Dickey and I played a memorable series of two man games during the summer of 1968. Chris for some reason favored the orange property group at the end of the second leg on the board – New York Avenue, Tennessee Avenue, and St. James Place.  I on the other hand, like most players, coveted the fabled Boardwalk and Park Place. Therefore each time we played, Chris and I would happily trade properties so that we could each have our favorites each time we played the game.  This put the Dickey lad at a seeming disadvantage, but interestingly he in fact won our matches as often as not. We also occasionally enjoyed playing the infamous “short game” of Monopoly, which is not nearly as fun as the long game, but is at least sanctioned under the official rules.

     My fascination for the game of Monopoly reached its crescendo in the summer of 1969, when I got the idea to write to Parker Brothers and harass them directly for information regarding my favorite board game. The Springfield, Mass. company responded promptly with a polite and detailed letter that outlined the origins and history of the game. Encouraged by this response, I immediately wrote back and requested actual pictures of old Monopoly games, and was answered just a week later with a flat parcel containing black and white photos of the original Monopoly set and Charles Darrow. I was thrilled. My sister Sue found these requests of mine decidedly inappropriate and even offensive, and she related this to me in no uncertain terms. The folks at Parker Brothers had far more important things to do than cater to the whims of an 11-year-old boy living in Arizona, sniffed she. I was chastened but undeterred.

      Our first inkling that there would be big changes in the world of Monopoly came in the late ‘60s when Parker Brothers was acquired by, of all things, a breakfast cereal company. General Mills took control of the Parker game family and started gracing the game boxes with their familiar “G” logo. The makers of Cheerios were now manufacturing plastic houses and hotels and printing Monopoly money. I saw this as a very unfortunate development at the time, although the General Mills Monopoly games are now a very nice collectible. The Parker games did well for General Mills until sales began declining in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with the advent of electronic and video games. Parker Brothers then changed hands once again, becoming part of Kenner Toys. In 1987 the Tonka Corporation acquired Kenner, and in 1991 itself became a division of Hasbro, Inc. Ironically, Hasbro is also the parent company for long time Parker Brothers rival Milton Bradley.

     The format of Monopoly is so deeply ingrained with the American public that an endless series of thematic variations have been created and successfully marketed over the last 10 or 15 years, everything from Pok-e-Mon Monopoly to The Simpsons Monopoly and beyond. The whoring of the Monopoly franchise has been nothing less than breathtaking, and yet perhaps perfectly appropriate for a game that is all about making as much money as humanly possible and destroying your competition in the process. The original Monopoly continues to sell quite well, including state of the art 3-D computer versions of the timeless classic.

     Safely now within the realm of cultural icon, Monopoly promises to be a summertime fixture on Joan De Arc Avenue kitchen tables for many a year to come. Just stick to the real rules, people.  

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________JDA

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