January 10, 2025 • 24 mins
Monopoly is one of the biggest games ever, a cutthroat competition of capitalism often inspiring family rules and bans. But the history of its originator, and its feminist creator, has long been buried. SMNTY passes go and delves into The Landlord's Game, created by feminist Lizzie Magie.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff.
I never told you a protection of iHeartRadio, and today
we are talking about Monopoly, the game, which will be
(00:28):
elucidated throughout. But I have recently run into a lot
of instances of Monopoly in my life, which sounds very bizarre.
Somebody gave me a version of Star Wars Monopoly for Christmas,
and then I recently saw the movie Heretic, which has
(00:48):
a whole Monopoly based monologue in it. So I was
just thinking about it. And we have briefly talked about
Monopoly in the past and about the history of it.
We talked about miss Monopoly, which is missus Monopoly excuse me,
(01:11):
was not so great, which was an addition that came
out a couple of years ago. Let's so yeah. I
thought we would just do a quick run through of
the history of Monopoly, which I promise you is related
to feminism. So, Samantha, what, I am very excited to
hear your update about Monopoly. But have you played the
(01:31):
board game? What were your experiences with the board game?
If you have any, I.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Have a feeling it's similar to most other people's, especially
if you played with family if you ever played that game,
it ended up with a lot of fighting and a
lot of shouting, and then your father coming and ripping
the game out from underneath. You say, he's going to
burn this because he's tired of this BS, and then
hides it for six months, and then you come back
(01:56):
and play it by yourself because you can't play with
your family anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
That's my opinion.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, no, no, I think that is a lot of
people's experience some version of that. I have said it before.
I I won't say I hate Monopoly. I feel like
a lot of people really hate Monopoly. I think it
is a game that brings out a lot of tension.
And I have infamously in my family cheated at Monopoly
(02:26):
and still lost, and I think that says something about
the game. I did have a Monopoly computer game that
was Star Wars based, and I have really fond memories
of that, but that you were playing with the computer,
you weren't playing with other people. And I do kind
of love a lot of the very strange versions of
(02:49):
Monopoly that are available. I have a lot of the
Star Wars ones, but there are some very obscure pop
culture versions of Monopoly. You can get. But yes, I
did want to ask you, Samantha about you said you've
gotten back into the Monopoly mobile game.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yes, I want to shout out first one of my
favorite k dramas actually has their version of Monopoly. It's Monopoly,
but it's Korean version, and it's super interesting to see.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
So if you know, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
But I love that it was like cross Culturally, it
exists and it still makes everybody fight. Yes, as in fact,
so I stopped playing it for a while because my
addiction was too hardcore. I never actually mentioned it. I
remember like being very like elusive about it when we
were talking about mobile gaming, just because I didn't want
to advertise it. Obviously, they are not a sponsor. They
don't care about us. They sponsor big names like Marvel people.
(03:42):
That's fine, I'm fine. But all of that to say
is that, you know, I didn't want it to give
any more creed to it because it is such a
popular game and it's such a time suck. But they
are also very smart and getting everybody's money. It is
like one of the top money makers now and it
flew to that top spot the way like people are
addicted to it, and I get it, like I said,
(04:03):
And I stopped for a long while because I'm like,
this is obsessive, Like I had it on three mobile
devices so I can give myself cards.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yes, I was very I was sitting next to you
once said you were it was like you were like
a secret agent. You're picking up different phones.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I had burner phones. I had burner phones for my
Monopoly game. And I'm not the only one. I'm not
the only one. Uh. There's a big Facebook community of
people and it's absurd. The amount of like trolling and
targeting in that game is so wild, Like people have
been banned for selling things, I mean hundreds of dollars
(04:39):
of like black market Monopoly, dice Go game market, like
this is an odd, odd thing phenomenon.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
But yees.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So I stopped it because I was like, this is
too much. I'm doing too much. I've spent a little
bit money and this makes me mad. I don't want
to do this anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But recently one of my good friends in real life
posted and was like, hey, I'm playing this. You want
playing I was like, well, damn, let's be friends, because
now I want to steal your money.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That's the whole game. I get so mad.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
People get mad on here because people target so once
they see that you are a weak, like if you've
lost all your shields or you haven't played for a while,
and they can come after you.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
They come after you, and it's mean.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I am loving this, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And they get you any they get you. They know
how to get you. Whoever's working, there's a whole I
joined a Discord to get the down low. I'm not
on Discord, y'all. I don't know how discord works. I
have an addiction, but that's why I stopped it. But
I am back on and they have revamped it. And yes,
(05:42):
they have now made it full celebrity like you can
do emojis and all of this that are Marvel based
because they are now part of the sponsorship.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Wow mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I really honestly enjoyed hearing about your rival, and because
their user names were kind of comical.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Thoughtful bunny or something along those lines.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It was very funny to me. I'm sorry for any
an anxiety that it caused you, but it did. It
did make me laugh. And also I know you got
your partner kind of involved in helping you out.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
He he's like he was just like, why am I
getting tagged on the social media posts about your game?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And I'm like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Just say yes, yes, no questions asked.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Any You're luck at it? Get you involved, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
No, oh no, I think I told the story. We
were being vague about what game you were talking about
at the time the previous time we talked about it,
but I did tell the story of I was waiting
in line for a ride at Disney World and the
person in front of me, who was a young person,
was playing it on her phone. I'm really curious to
(07:03):
hear from listeners about this, your experiences with Monopoly, but
also young people, because you know, usually we like to
do a definition, and I was like, I feel like
we don't have to do a definition of Monopoly, but
maybe there are some people who don't know what it is.
Not sure, let us know. We'll be discussing it throughout.
You can see our past episodes on tabletop gaming. Yes,
(07:27):
the brief update episode we did on Missus Monopoly, just
any of our episodes on gaming in general. I would say, Okay,
the game most of us know as Monopoly was based
on the Landlord's game which was designed by feminist Elizabeth
(07:50):
Lizzie Maggie. So Lizzie Maggie created the Landlord's Game in
nineteen oh three or nineteen oh four. Her father was
an abolitionist, and she was very progressed in part because
of that. Oh and also she had a whole life,
Like I feel like it could be a female first episode.
We're focusing on the game. But yeah, she did a
(08:10):
bunch of stuff, but.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Her family moved to Washington, DC in the eighteen eighties.
She got work as a snographer and typing for the
Dead Letter Office, which is basically when male that is,
for whatever reason, is undeliverable and employee comes and they
try to find a forwarding address. So she worked for them,
but she was also involved in engineering, comedy, and writing reporting.
(08:38):
When she was twenty six, she got a patent that
involved the rollers on typewriters in like more quickly moving
the paper through. At this time, only one percent of
women received patents. She taught political classes after work. She
was an anomaly of her time in a lot of ways.
(08:58):
She was an older single woman who was able to
buy a house. She did eventually marry, but at this
time she was not married, She spent a lot of
time thinking about issues around monopolies' income, inequality, and corruption.
She was determined to do something to address it, or
at least educate people about it, so she started working
(09:20):
on a board game. She received the patent for the
board game, The Landlord's Game in nineteen oh four, which
was before she was allowed to vote legally. Just by
the way, The game was played on a square board
and players had to pass corners like go to jail
or public park, all while gathering money, paying rents, and
(09:41):
collecting properties like railroads. There were necessity spaces that provided
things like food and shelter utility spaces. Players earned money
through tasks as they progressed around the board. At one
corner of the board was a globe, which was an
homage to her political hero, Henry Jo George, who proposed
(10:01):
that wealthy landowners should be responsible for the bulk of
taxes and so that that space read quote labor upon
mother Earth produces wages. Passing go required players to have
earned one hundred dollars or go to the poorhouse. Trespassing
on land resulted in jail time and a fine. But
(10:23):
here's the interesting thing. There were two sets of rules,
the anti monopolist rules called Prosperity that rewarded everyone when
money was earned, and the monopolist sett of rules called
monopoly that rewarded those who crushed their opponents. And you
can guess which one endured. I do wonder how popular
(10:47):
the original game, the anti monopolist version would be now
with the rise of co op board games. I'm just curious.
I need to look into I think you can still
play it. I think it's sort of hard to get,
but I think you can still play it.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So many games we need to play.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I know we never released our Girl Talk.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's still in the in the world, like I still
have it. But the audio was so bad that I
wanted to hesitate and do a redo.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
But yeah, it was quite funny.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It was quite funny. We recorded it as playing girl Talk.
The technology was great.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
The technology was very quiet. That was one of the
pst that was the problem.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
But it was fun.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
But like the overall, well, first of all, for going
down memory lane for me, wow.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Hm wow.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I got the guy at the end.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Did she want him? No? But she got him.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I got him. Anyway, back to Monopoly. The goal. Her
goal was to create a game that demonstrated the cruelty
of hoarding wealth while others were suffering. She said in
nineteen oh six quotquote in a short time, I hope
a very short time men and women will discover that
(12:05):
they are poor, because Carnegie and Rockefeller maybe have more
than they know what to do with. She also said
of it, quote, it is a practical demonstration of the
present system of land grabbing, with all its usual outcomes
and consequences. It might well have been called the game
of life, as it contains all the elements of success
and failure in the real world, and the object is
(12:28):
the same as the human race in general seems to have,
i e. The accumulation of wealth. It was sold for
a short time by a publisher in New York, but
it was mostly word of mouth that helped spread it
along the East Coast. People would play on things like
handkerchiefs like they would make their own version of it
(12:48):
based on what they'd heard. And then in nineteen thirty two,
Charles Darrow played what was called the Monopoly game. That's
how it was introduced to him, a game that wasn't
sold in a box. He allegedly played a version the
Quakers of Atlantic City had customized with the names of
(13:09):
their own neighbors, which I kind of love. Darrel loved it,
He fell in love with it. He sold the game
as his own, that's how much he loved it to
Parker Brothers in nineteen thirty five with some changes, obviously
leaving out the anti monopoly rules, and it was a
(13:31):
huge success. He played it off as like this idea
that he had one day, not crediting Maggie at all.
He made millions off of it, and it's often referred
to as the first board game designer to become a millionaire.
And the tale has definitely been spun by Parker Brothers
(13:52):
and now Hasborough, which owns Monopoly, and also Darrow himself,
a man struggling during the Great Depression, comes up with
this game and it's a smashing success. They're still really
cagy about mentioning her at all. Sometimes they'll be like,
she exists, but no either, she didn't, no, no, no.
(14:16):
Maggie did sell the patent to the game to Parker
Brothers in nineteen thirty five. She thought that more people
having access to it would be a good thing in
terms of her intended message and more people receiving that
intended message. However, sort of the opposite happened, and instead
became a symbol of cutthroat greed, of laughing when someone
(14:36):
lost their properties and went bankrupt, of perhaps joining discord
groups taking people down.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I'm just saying, I get it.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It's about revenge against other landlords. Okay, okay, I like that.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I like that. At first, Maggie was quite happy after
the sale, but within a year of it she was
doing angry interviews with major publications. You can read them.
She was not happy, and in a nineteen forty census
she listed her career as maker of games and her
(15:20):
income as zero. Oh. She died in nineteen forty eight,
with no children and never being recognized for what she did.
(15:41):
And this game was hugely impactful, just to say. Her
design had a lasting impact on board games, especially when
it came to the circular design. So many games after
that took inspiration from this game. And of course these
days it's all over pop culture. You can play it
in numerous versions based on numerous franchises, played on your
(16:04):
phone with McDonald's. According to the company, billions of people
have played Monopoly. Hasbro the current owner as I said,
still doesn't credit her as I said, but that has
started to change. In nineteen seventy three, a liberal man
named Ralph Ensbach started looking into the history of Monopoly
(16:27):
after he was sued by Barker Brothers for his anti
Monopoly game, and he learned all about her story and
he started to share it. It took a long time,
but Unspock eventually won his case. And yeah, now I
feel more people are aware, but still pretty small number.
But it was a big part of the movie. Heretic.
(16:53):
It's more people know, but it's still pretty obscure. You
have to look for it. Maybe I do want to
play it. I'm really interested to see because it's very similar.
But I want to play with the anti Monopoly rules.
Let's see what that is.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
What's the point you always lose?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, it's supposed to be build each other up. Oh,
we all come together?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Oh did you have that one person?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well, I think that's why Monopoly happened. I think that's
why that version took off. But you know a lot.
It made me think of a lot of the episodes
we've done about creators who are women are non binary
in the gaming space. They often play with our traditional
idea of what a game is, and so like in
(17:43):
Cozy Gaming, we've talked about how so many times a
lot of video games are defined by violence and that's
how you succeed in your goal. But a lot of
women creators are like, no, what if we did something
different or what if we you know, looked at it
this way? And I love that, and so I wonder,
especially like I said, there are there is a rise
(18:05):
of co op games. And I know we played together Wingspan,
and we talked about Wingspan, but that that's an example
of one where you're still competitive, but you're not necessarily
like competing against each other. I don't know, Like I
I wonder if this game would actually be pretty successful
right now, because a lot of articles I read were like, well,
she never managed to really sell it, so too bad
(18:27):
for her. I'm like, well, I think it. I think
it could have been for any successfully.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Mean, typically she did sell it until someone stole it.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, somebody stole it. It's like it's mine, and then
they found the patent, like yeah, take this money.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Right without understanding did she? I wonder if she understood
that that's what they were want intending, or if she
really thought they were going to do it as a whole.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I think I honestly would love to see a movie
about this because, like in my head, what I am
ambitionionous is she really had this idea, this optimistic idea
that a lot of people would see that the Monopoly
version was the bad version, like that was the and
(19:14):
she wanted people to see, Oh, this anti Monopoly one,
it's much better. But instead they only really sold the
Monopoly version, and so that like betrayal and hurt of
her idea being completely misrepresented and then then making all
(19:35):
of this money of the complete misrepresentation of her work.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Interestingly, the mobile game have a lot of events where
you'd have to team up with people, oftentimes in order
to make a successful run or whatever whatnot. And I'm wondering, like,
is that their try and take of being like, no, see,
we got the other side here.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's not just because like.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
The narrative changed, like it went from being coming a
landlord to being like, yeah, we're suspicious and we don't
like landlords because it's really gross and eat the rich
type of conversation. So they're taking that and they also
need the community to foster this competitiveness as well as
encouraging them. Yeah, a friend telling me he's on that
game made me come back and play. But like stuff
(20:21):
like that, And I wonder if that's their flip, because
obviously people do desire.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Some community, not just being alone.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yeah, that's that's that's interesting. I bet. I mean. And
the thing is as many people as they said, have
played Monopoly, which I completely believe. I feel like everyone
I know has that story you kind of opened, like
the Miserable, like I'm banned from playing Monopoly, or my
(20:55):
family isn't allowed to play Monopoly anymore. I wonder if
they were, like, maybe we should try to find a different,
not so heated, that way of playing this game.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Also Less Forever.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That's true for ever and probably.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
One of the longest running games I've ever played. Outside
of like that, I.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Feel like everybody has the story to you of cheating,
like somebody cheating in their family.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Did you you know they have household rules for different things,
you know, a monopoly Like I don't think everyone does this,
but like you have to recognize that someone's landing on
your property. If you want to collect, you don't just
get it, and if you if the person moves on
before you find out, then you can't get it later.
(21:49):
We had that role and that caused a lot of
fights because people would like hurry and like roll the
dice so they didn't have to pay rent to park place.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And then you're suspicious of the banker meantime taking money, yes,
not giving you the right yuh huh.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
One of the reasons this idea came to me is
I saw a bunch of advertisements for the various monopolies
that are not licensed, and I know Hasbro is like
we should see them, and it's just kind of interesting
when it's like you look at the history obviously, it
(22:31):
just kind of my eyebrows are kind of like, I'm
not I don't know, I'm not saying necessarily those unlicensed
monopolies should or shouldn't be out there, but I I
was just like, this is interesting that you don't like
that somebody came in right, is doing taking your what
(22:52):
you see as your property? Okay, cool? But I really
would love listeners. If you write in, if if you
had family rules, if you have memories trauma with Monopoly
or any board games. You know we love board games
over here, Please please please contact us. You can email
(23:16):
us at Stephania mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
can also email us at Hello at Stuff Onever Told
You dot com. Both work, choose your own adventure. You
can find us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff We've Never Told You.
We're also on YouTube. We have a tea pelic store,
and we have a book you can get wherever you
(23:37):
get your books. Thanks as always to our super producer
christinaor executive producing my anti contributor Joey.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Stuff Never Told You, the production of iHeartRadio For more
podcast or my Heart Radio. You can check out the
Heart Radio, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows,
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff.
I never told you a protection of iHeartRadio, and today
we are talking about Monopoly, the game, which will be
(00:28):
elucidated throughout. But I have recently run into a lot
of instances of Monopoly in my life, which sounds very bizarre.
Somebody gave me a version of Star Wars Monopoly for Christmas,
and then I recently saw the movie Heretic, which has
(00:48):
a whole Monopoly based monologue in it. So I was
just thinking about it. And we have briefly talked about
Monopoly in the past and about the history of it.
We talked about miss Monopoly, which is missus Monopoly excuse me,
(01:11):
was not so great, which was an addition that came
out a couple of years ago. Let's so yeah. I
thought we would just do a quick run through of
the history of Monopoly, which I promise you is related
to feminism. So, Samantha, what, I am very excited to
hear your update about Monopoly. But have you played the
(01:31):
board game? What were your experiences with the board game?
If you have any, I.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Have a feeling it's similar to most other people's, especially
if you played with family if you ever played that game,
it ended up with a lot of fighting and a
lot of shouting, and then your father coming and ripping
the game out from underneath. You say, he's going to
burn this because he's tired of this BS, and then
hides it for six months, and then you come back
(01:56):
and play it by yourself because you can't play with
your family anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
That's my opinion.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, no, no, I think that is a lot of
people's experience some version of that. I have said it before.
I I won't say I hate Monopoly. I feel like
a lot of people really hate Monopoly. I think it
is a game that brings out a lot of tension.
And I have infamously in my family cheated at Monopoly
(02:26):
and still lost, and I think that says something about
the game. I did have a Monopoly computer game that
was Star Wars based, and I have really fond memories
of that, but that you were playing with the computer,
you weren't playing with other people. And I do kind
of love a lot of the very strange versions of
(02:49):
Monopoly that are available. I have a lot of the
Star Wars ones, but there are some very obscure pop
culture versions of Monopoly. You can get. But yes, I
did want to ask you, Samantha about you said you've
gotten back into the Monopoly mobile game.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yes, I want to shout out first one of my
favorite k dramas actually has their version of Monopoly. It's Monopoly,
but it's Korean version, and it's super interesting to see.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
So if you know, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
But I love that it was like cross Culturally, it
exists and it still makes everybody fight. Yes, as in fact,
so I stopped playing it for a while because my
addiction was too hardcore. I never actually mentioned it. I
remember like being very like elusive about it when we
were talking about mobile gaming, just because I didn't want
to advertise it. Obviously, they are not a sponsor. They
don't care about us. They sponsor big names like Marvel people.
(03:42):
That's fine, I'm fine. But all of that to say
is that, you know, I didn't want it to give
any more creed to it because it is such a
popular game and it's such a time suck. But they
are also very smart and getting everybody's money. It is
like one of the top money makers now and it
flew to that top spot the way like people are
addicted to it, and I get it, like I said,
(04:03):
And I stopped for a long while because I'm like,
this is obsessive, Like I had it on three mobile
devices so I can give myself cards.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yes, I was very I was sitting next to you
once said you were it was like you were like
a secret agent. You're picking up different phones.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I had burner phones. I had burner phones for my
Monopoly game. And I'm not the only one. I'm not
the only one. Uh. There's a big Facebook community of
people and it's absurd. The amount of like trolling and
targeting in that game is so wild, Like people have
been banned for selling things, I mean hundreds of dollars
(04:39):
of like black market Monopoly, dice Go game market, like
this is an odd, odd thing phenomenon.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
But yees.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So I stopped it because I was like, this is
too much. I'm doing too much. I've spent a little
bit money and this makes me mad. I don't want
to do this anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But recently one of my good friends in real life
posted and was like, hey, I'm playing this. You want
playing I was like, well, damn, let's be friends, because
now I want to steal your money.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That's the whole game. I get so mad.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
People get mad on here because people target so once
they see that you are a weak, like if you've
lost all your shields or you haven't played for a while,
and they can come after you.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
They come after you, and it's mean.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I am loving this, Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And they get you any they get you. They know
how to get you. Whoever's working, there's a whole I
joined a Discord to get the down low. I'm not
on Discord, y'all. I don't know how discord works. I
have an addiction, but that's why I stopped it. But
I am back on and they have revamped it. And yes,
(05:42):
they have now made it full celebrity like you can
do emojis and all of this that are Marvel based
because they are now part of the sponsorship.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Wow mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I really honestly enjoyed hearing about your rival, and because
their user names were kind of comical.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Thoughtful bunny or something along those lines.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It was very funny to me. I'm sorry for any
an anxiety that it caused you, but it did. It
did make me laugh. And also I know you got
your partner kind of involved in helping you out.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
He he's like he was just like, why am I
getting tagged on the social media posts about your game?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
And I'm like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Just say yes, yes, no questions asked.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Any You're luck at it? Get you involved, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
No, oh no, I think I told the story. We
were being vague about what game you were talking about
at the time the previous time we talked about it,
but I did tell the story of I was waiting
in line for a ride at Disney World and the
person in front of me, who was a young person,
was playing it on her phone. I'm really curious to
(07:03):
hear from listeners about this, your experiences with Monopoly, but
also young people, because you know, usually we like to
do a definition, and I was like, I feel like
we don't have to do a definition of Monopoly, but
maybe there are some people who don't know what it is.
Not sure, let us know. We'll be discussing it throughout.
You can see our past episodes on tabletop gaming. Yes,
(07:27):
the brief update episode we did on Missus Monopoly, just
any of our episodes on gaming in general. I would say, Okay,
the game most of us know as Monopoly was based
on the Landlord's game which was designed by feminist Elizabeth
(07:50):
Lizzie Maggie. So Lizzie Maggie created the Landlord's Game in
nineteen oh three or nineteen oh four. Her father was
an abolitionist, and she was very progressed in part because
of that. Oh and also she had a whole life,
Like I feel like it could be a female first episode.
We're focusing on the game. But yeah, she did a
(08:10):
bunch of stuff, but.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Her family moved to Washington, DC in the eighteen eighties.
She got work as a snographer and typing for the
Dead Letter Office, which is basically when male that is,
for whatever reason, is undeliverable and employee comes and they
try to find a forwarding address. So she worked for them,
but she was also involved in engineering, comedy, and writing reporting.
(08:38):
When she was twenty six, she got a patent that
involved the rollers on typewriters in like more quickly moving
the paper through. At this time, only one percent of
women received patents. She taught political classes after work. She
was an anomaly of her time in a lot of ways.
(08:58):
She was an older single woman who was able to
buy a house. She did eventually marry, but at this
time she was not married, She spent a lot of
time thinking about issues around monopolies' income, inequality, and corruption.
She was determined to do something to address it, or
at least educate people about it, so she started working
(09:20):
on a board game. She received the patent for the
board game, The Landlord's Game in nineteen oh four, which
was before she was allowed to vote legally. Just by
the way, The game was played on a square board
and players had to pass corners like go to jail
or public park, all while gathering money, paying rents, and
(09:41):
collecting properties like railroads. There were necessity spaces that provided
things like food and shelter utility spaces. Players earned money
through tasks as they progressed around the board. At one
corner of the board was a globe, which was an
homage to her political hero, Henry Jo George, who proposed
(10:01):
that wealthy landowners should be responsible for the bulk of
taxes and so that that space read quote labor upon
mother Earth produces wages. Passing go required players to have
earned one hundred dollars or go to the poorhouse. Trespassing
on land resulted in jail time and a fine. But
(10:23):
here's the interesting thing. There were two sets of rules,
the anti monopolist rules called Prosperity that rewarded everyone when
money was earned, and the monopolist sett of rules called
monopoly that rewarded those who crushed their opponents. And you
can guess which one endured. I do wonder how popular
(10:47):
the original game, the anti monopolist version would be now
with the rise of co op board games. I'm just curious.
I need to look into I think you can still
play it. I think it's sort of hard to get,
but I think you can still play it.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So many games we need to play.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I know we never released our Girl Talk.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's still in the in the world, like I still
have it. But the audio was so bad that I
wanted to hesitate and do a redo.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
But yeah, it was quite funny.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It was quite funny. We recorded it as playing girl Talk.
The technology was great.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
The technology was very quiet. That was one of the
pst that was the problem.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
But it was fun.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
But like the overall, well, first of all, for going
down memory lane for me, wow.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Hm wow.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I got the guy at the end.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Did she want him? No? But she got him.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I got him. Anyway, back to Monopoly. The goal. Her
goal was to create a game that demonstrated the cruelty
of hoarding wealth while others were suffering. She said in
nineteen oh six quotquote in a short time, I hope
a very short time men and women will discover that
(12:05):
they are poor, because Carnegie and Rockefeller maybe have more
than they know what to do with. She also said
of it, quote, it is a practical demonstration of the
present system of land grabbing, with all its usual outcomes
and consequences. It might well have been called the game
of life, as it contains all the elements of success
and failure in the real world, and the object is
(12:28):
the same as the human race in general seems to have,
i e. The accumulation of wealth. It was sold for
a short time by a publisher in New York, but
it was mostly word of mouth that helped spread it
along the East Coast. People would play on things like
handkerchiefs like they would make their own version of it
(12:48):
based on what they'd heard. And then in nineteen thirty two,
Charles Darrow played what was called the Monopoly game. That's
how it was introduced to him, a game that wasn't
sold in a box. He allegedly played a version the
Quakers of Atlantic City had customized with the names of
(13:09):
their own neighbors, which I kind of love. Darrel loved it,
He fell in love with it. He sold the game
as his own, that's how much he loved it to
Parker Brothers in nineteen thirty five with some changes, obviously
leaving out the anti monopoly rules, and it was a
(13:31):
huge success. He played it off as like this idea
that he had one day, not crediting Maggie at all.
He made millions off of it, and it's often referred
to as the first board game designer to become a millionaire.
And the tale has definitely been spun by Parker Brothers
(13:52):
and now Hasborough, which owns Monopoly, and also Darrow himself,
a man struggling during the Great Depression, comes up with
this game and it's a smashing success. They're still really
cagy about mentioning her at all. Sometimes they'll be like,
she exists, but no either, she didn't, no, no, no.
(14:16):
Maggie did sell the patent to the game to Parker
Brothers in nineteen thirty five. She thought that more people
having access to it would be a good thing in
terms of her intended message and more people receiving that
intended message. However, sort of the opposite happened, and instead
became a symbol of cutthroat greed, of laughing when someone
(14:36):
lost their properties and went bankrupt, of perhaps joining discord
groups taking people down.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I'm just saying, I get it.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It's about revenge against other landlords. Okay, okay, I like that.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I like that. At first, Maggie was quite happy after
the sale, but within a year of it she was
doing angry interviews with major publications. You can read them.
She was not happy, and in a nineteen forty census
she listed her career as maker of games and her
(15:20):
income as zero. Oh. She died in nineteen forty eight,
with no children and never being recognized for what she did.
(15:41):
And this game was hugely impactful, just to say. Her
design had a lasting impact on board games, especially when
it came to the circular design. So many games after
that took inspiration from this game. And of course these
days it's all over pop culture. You can play it
in numerous versions based on numerous franchises, played on your
(16:04):
phone with McDonald's. According to the company, billions of people
have played Monopoly. Hasbro the current owner as I said,
still doesn't credit her as I said, but that has
started to change. In nineteen seventy three, a liberal man
named Ralph Ensbach started looking into the history of Monopoly
(16:27):
after he was sued by Barker Brothers for his anti
Monopoly game, and he learned all about her story and
he started to share it. It took a long time,
but Unspock eventually won his case. And yeah, now I
feel more people are aware, but still pretty small number.
But it was a big part of the movie. Heretic.
(16:53):
It's more people know, but it's still pretty obscure. You
have to look for it. Maybe I do want to
play it. I'm really interested to see because it's very similar.
But I want to play with the anti Monopoly rules.
Let's see what that is.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
What's the point you always lose?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, it's supposed to be build each other up. Oh,
we all come together?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Oh did you have that one person?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well, I think that's why Monopoly happened. I think that's
why that version took off. But you know a lot.
It made me think of a lot of the episodes
we've done about creators who are women are non binary
in the gaming space. They often play with our traditional
idea of what a game is, and so like in
(17:43):
Cozy Gaming, we've talked about how so many times a
lot of video games are defined by violence and that's
how you succeed in your goal. But a lot of
women creators are like, no, what if we did something
different or what if we you know, looked at it
this way? And I love that, and so I wonder,
especially like I said, there are there is a rise
(18:05):
of co op games. And I know we played together Wingspan,
and we talked about Wingspan, but that that's an example
of one where you're still competitive, but you're not necessarily
like competing against each other. I don't know, Like I
I wonder if this game would actually be pretty successful
right now, because a lot of articles I read were like, well,
she never managed to really sell it, so too bad
(18:27):
for her. I'm like, well, I think it. I think
it could have been for any successfully.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Mean, typically she did sell it until someone stole it.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, somebody stole it. It's like it's mine, and then
they found the patent, like yeah, take this money.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Right without understanding did she? I wonder if she understood
that that's what they were want intending, or if she
really thought they were going to do it as a whole.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I think I honestly would love to see a movie
about this because, like in my head, what I am
ambitionionous is she really had this idea, this optimistic idea
that a lot of people would see that the Monopoly
version was the bad version, like that was the and
(19:14):
she wanted people to see, Oh, this anti Monopoly one,
it's much better. But instead they only really sold the
Monopoly version, and so that like betrayal and hurt of
her idea being completely misrepresented and then then making all
(19:35):
of this money of the complete misrepresentation of her work.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Interestingly, the mobile game have a lot of events where
you'd have to team up with people, oftentimes in order
to make a successful run or whatever whatnot. And I'm wondering, like,
is that their try and take of being like, no, see,
we got the other side here.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's not just because like.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
The narrative changed, like it went from being coming a
landlord to being like, yeah, we're suspicious and we don't
like landlords because it's really gross and eat the rich
type of conversation. So they're taking that and they also
need the community to foster this competitiveness as well as
encouraging them. Yeah, a friend telling me he's on that
game made me come back and play. But like stuff
(20:21):
like that, And I wonder if that's their flip, because
obviously people do desire.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Some community, not just being alone.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yeah, that's that's that's interesting. I bet. I mean. And
the thing is as many people as they said, have
played Monopoly, which I completely believe. I feel like everyone
I know has that story you kind of opened, like
the Miserable, like I'm banned from playing Monopoly, or my
(20:55):
family isn't allowed to play Monopoly anymore. I wonder if
they were, like, maybe we should try to find a different,
not so heated, that way of playing this game.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Also Less Forever.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That's true for ever and probably.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
One of the longest running games I've ever played. Outside
of like that, I.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Feel like everybody has the story to you of cheating,
like somebody cheating in their family.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Did you you know they have household rules for different things,
you know, a monopoly Like I don't think everyone does this,
but like you have to recognize that someone's landing on
your property. If you want to collect, you don't just
get it, and if you if the person moves on
before you find out, then you can't get it later.
(21:49):
We had that role and that caused a lot of
fights because people would like hurry and like roll the
dice so they didn't have to pay rent to park place.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
And then you're suspicious of the banker meantime taking money, yes,
not giving you the right yuh huh.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
One of the reasons this idea came to me is
I saw a bunch of advertisements for the various monopolies
that are not licensed, and I know Hasbro is like
we should see them, and it's just kind of interesting
when it's like you look at the history obviously, it
(22:31):
just kind of my eyebrows are kind of like, I'm
not I don't know, I'm not saying necessarily those unlicensed
monopolies should or shouldn't be out there, but I I
was just like, this is interesting that you don't like
that somebody came in right, is doing taking your what
(22:52):
you see as your property? Okay, cool? But I really
would love listeners. If you write in, if if you
had family rules, if you have memories trauma with Monopoly
or any board games. You know we love board games
over here, Please please please contact us. You can email
(23:16):
us at Stephania mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
can also email us at Hello at Stuff Onever Told
You dot com. Both work, choose your own adventure. You
can find us on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff We've Never Told You.
We're also on YouTube. We have a tea pelic store,
and we have a book you can get wherever you
(23:37):
get your books. Thanks as always to our super producer
christinaor executive producing my anti contributor Joey.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Stuff Never Told You, the production of iHeartRadio For more
podcast or my Heart Radio. You can check out the
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