Elizabeth Magie
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Elizabeth "Lizzie" J. Phillips nee Magie (1866–1948) was the inventor of The Landlord's Game, the precursor to Monopoly.
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[edit] Early life
She was born in Canton, Illinois in 1866, and later became a follower of the economist Henry George.
[edit] 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. On March 23, 1903, Magie applied to the US Patent Office for a patent on her board game, which was designed to demonstrate the evils of land monopolism. She was granted U.S. Patent 748,626 on January 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 and Parker Brothers published her humorous card game "Mock Trial." In 1912, "The Landlord's Game" was adapted in Scotland 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 U.S. Patent 1,509,312. 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.
She sold her rights to "The Landlord's Game" to Parker Brothers for $500 in November 1935, with the understanding that they would promote it. 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.
During the late 1930s, Parker Brothers gave her co-credit along with Charles Darrow as the originators of Monopoly, in contrast to their later claim that he was sole inventor. They called her a "Famous Originator of Games", and in one 1936 magazine article, Darrow even singled her out for credit.
Magie died in Arlington, Virginia in 1948.
[edit] Reference
- Walsh, Tim (2004). The Playmakers: Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys. Keys Publishing. ISBN 0-9646973-4-3.
- Sadowski, David, as "Clarence B. Darwin" (2006). Passing Go: Early Monopoly, 1933-37. Folkopoly Press.
