The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-05
Squaring
the Circle
With
THE HOOSIER EDITOR

Il fore the House went into ses-
sion this morning was that the clock
got out Of order Two janitors had
to carry lone ladder and crawl up
it to get it fled meanwhile the
corridors Of the Statehouse were full
OF lost sheep" :. started to count
them but got SO sleepy I had to quit
d. reason they are lost is because
the corridor lunch stand has been
removed. One Representative
went around filching chairs from
the press box and giving them to
lady members of his constituency.
8. Every one seemed to be talking
without saying anything. :. It's a
better show, this getting the legisla-
tive wheels of government under
way, than the theater people have
yet thought up.
THEY say that the current game
Il craze, Monopoly, which has
swept the East and Middle West
and is now Pacific Coast-bound
was born in indianapolis. 1t wasn't
But it spent some of the best
years of its life here, and after much
small talk with lot of people, this
column is now ready to give you
an account-more accurate than
the recent one appearing in a ma
tional magazine.
In 1880, Dan Layman, son of DR..
Daniel Layman, brought the game
home from Williams College, where
he was a student and where he re-
ported it had been played with
home made utensils as early as
1924.
He fooled around with it, and
made some boards and gave a few
to his friends, changing the rules a
good deal from those he had learned
in the East.
Finally, the Electronic Labora-
tories, 122 W. New York-st, decided
to put it o. production basis and
merchandise 1t was called Mo-
nopoly. In 1882 the company sent
shipments to Detroit, Indianapolis,
and other merchants. It did all
right.
TN 1888 a fellow named Darrow
4 started fooling around and eX-
perimenting with the game in Ger
mantown, Pa. He called his Monop-
oily, too In the meantime the In
dianapolis people changed the name
to Finance. Said that people got
mad when they heard the word
monopoly" during the depression
and wouldn't touch the game.
Darrow got a patent on the game
in December, 1885, but persons who
claim to be informed on such things
say that the copyright was invalid.
Then Parker Bros, a firm which
makes a great many games, started
putting it out and advertising it and
it went yer with bang. Depart
ment stores in Chicago and New
York reported sales as high as 1000
a day during last Christmas season.
MOT long ago the local company
~ settled for pretty good sum
with Parker Bros. for its common
law interest in the game, inasmuch
as it was the first to manufacture
and merchandise it.
The game first was patented by
a Miss MCGEE about 1907 under the
name of Landscape. She allowed
her patent to run out. In 1924 she
n oh
it again under her married name
of Phillips, and called it the Land
lords game. She lived in the East
But DR.. Scott Nearing, the Com
munist, says that he and his broth
ers and sisters played it as early
as 1901 with boards and utensils
they made themselves. No one
seems to know who invented it.
There now are Is or 20 games
founded on the same principle.
NTILLIAM HUBER, fo> many
w years manager of the game
and toy department of Charles
Mayer & Co., says it's bigger game
for higher stakes than any of them
to try to figure out how they'll 60.
He pointed out that there's a
game called Camelot that's beer
going pretty we'll for the last two
years. But he said it hung around
on the shelves for 40 years before
that and didn't sell at all. Reason:
They changed the name to Chiv-
airy.
Nine out of ten games that reach
the market are complete flops, he
said. But there is parchessi, which
mas bee non the market for nearly
70 years and is still good, steady
seller. There are now parchessi
clubs in the country, just like there
are bridge clubs.
4 NY fellow" guesses Mr.. Huber,
L n who has time to think in
vents a game"
But Mr.. Huber doesn't. Doesn't
even play them, except pinochle.
When his boys were growing up.
though, he bought them an electric
train.
He'd seen them at the store for
SO long and had always wanted to
play with them. When he got one
home, he did.