Board game | accessory:Monopoly Playmaster Electronic Accessory

Monopoly, the most popular game in history, began life as "The Landlord's Game" in 1904. The game's inventor, Elizabeth Magie, a Quaker from Maryland, devised the game to point out the unfair advantages of landlords over tenants. Magie based her game on the economic theories of Henry George, who advocated a single tax system in order to reform the social problems stemming from the inequitable distribution of property. Circulated primarily within Quaker and university circles, the game gained popularity only after Charles Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania, acquired a copy in 1934 and revised it. After Parker Brothers rejected his version of the game, he produced 5,000 copies at his own expense and sold them in a local department store. The game was an immediate popular success. Unable to keep up with demand, Darrow offered the game to Parker Brothers again in 1935. Demand surged to 200,000 copies per week, and Monopoly became the best-selling game in the country. Contrary to Magie's original intent, by the end of the Great Depression, Americans were clearly eager to master the principles of capitalism.