- Elizabeth Magie
Elizabeth "Lizzie" J. Phillips nee Magie (1866–1948) was the inventor of
The Landlord's Game , the precursor to Monopoly.Early life
She was born in
Canton, Illinois in 1866, and later became a follower of the economistHenry George .Invention of Monopoly
Magie first made the game, known as "The Landlord's Game", popular with friends while living in
Brentwood, Maryland , and sought her first patent on it while living there. OnMarch 23 ,1903 , Magie applied to theUS Patent Office for a patent on her board game, which was designed to demonstrate the evils of landmonopolism . She was granted US patent|748626 onJanuary 5 ,1904 .In 1906, she moved to
Chicago . That year, she and fellow Georgists formed the Economic Game Co. to self-publish her original edition of "The Landlord's Game." In 1910 she married Albert Phillips andParker Brothers published her humorous card game "Mock Trial." In 1912, "The Landlord's Game" was adapted inScotland by the Newbie Game Co. as "Bre'r Fox and Bre'r Rabbit." Although the instructions claimed it was protected by a British patent, there is no evidence this was actually done.She and her husband moved back to the East Coast and patented a revised version of the game in 1924; it received US patent|1509312. As her original patent had expired in 1921, this is seen as her attempt to reassert control over her game, which was now being played at some colleges, where students made their own copies. In 1932, her second edition of "The Landlord's Game" was published by the Adgame Company of
Washington D. C. , probably another self-publishing effort. This version was two games in one, as there were alternate rules for a game called Prosperity.After a January 1936 interview with her appeared in a Washington D. C. newspaper, in which she was somewhat critical of Parker Brothers, they agreed to publish two more of her games.
They sold her final board game inventions "Bargain Day" and "King's Men" in 1937, and a third version of "The Landlord's Game" in 1939. In Bargain Day, shoppers compete with each other in a department store; King's Men is an abstract strategy game. Few copies of the Parker Brothers version of "The Landlord's Game" are known to exist, but "Bargain Day" and "King's Men" are less rare.
Magie died in
Arlington, Virginia in 1948.Charles Darrow
Charles Darrow is the man given credit for the creation of Monopoly. He changed the rules and some of the layout from Lizzie Magie's version and got a patent put on it. In 1935 he sold it to Parker Bros.References
*
*cite book|last=Sadowski|first=David, as "Clarence B. Darwin"|title=Passing Go: Early Monopoly, 1933-37|publisher=Folkopoly Press|year=2006|External links
* [http://www.adena.com/adena/mo/mo13.htm The story of Lizzie Magie and Parker Brothers]
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