Organization
Parker Brothers
Publisher that acquired rights to Darrow's game and bought Magie's patent; its packaging promoted Darrow as the inventor.
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Background on Parker Brothers
Background
Selected excerpts from Wikipedia. This is general background, not Angle's reporting, and it may have changed since the stories above were published.
Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883.
Parker Brothers remained family owned until bought in 1968, and branched into Nerf toys and media. Among its products were Monopoly, Clue (licensed from the British publisher and known as Cluedo outside of North America), Sorry!, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, Bop It, Scrabble (under a joint partnership with Milton Bradley in the United States and Canada), and Probe. In 2009, the trade name ceased use, with former products being marketed under the "Hasbro Gaming" label, with the logo shown on Monopoly games.
History
Parker Brothers was founded by George Swinnerton Parker. Parker's philosophy deviated from the prevalent theme of board game design; he believed that games should be played for enjoyment and did not need to emphasize morals and values. He created his first game, Banking, in 1883 when he was 16. Banking is a game in which players borrow money from the bank and try to generate wealth by guessing how well they could do. The game includes 160 cards which foretell their failure or success. The game was so popular among family and friends that his brother, Charles Parker, urged him to publish it. George approached two Boston publishers with the idea, but was unsuccessful. Not discouraged, he spent $40 to publish 500 sets of Banking. He eventually sold all but twelve copies, making a profit of $100.
Parker founded his game company, initially called the George S. Parker Company, in his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts in 1883. When George's brother Charles joined the business in 1888, the company's name was changed to its more familiar form. In 1898 a third brother, Edward H. Parker, joined the company. For many years, George designed most of the games himself, and wrote all the rules. Many games were based on important events of the day: Klondike was based on the Klondike Gold Rush, and War in Cuba was based on the impending Spanish–American War.
The game industry was growing, and the company was becoming very profitable. In 1906, Parker Brothers published the game Rook and it became the best-selling game in the country. During the Great Depression, a time when many companies went out of business, Parker Brothers released a new board game called Monopoly. Although the company had originally rejected the game in 1934, they decided to publish it the next year. It was a success, and the company had difficulty keeping up with demand. The company continued to grow throughout the next several decades, producing games including Cluedo (released as Clue in North America), Risk, and Sorry!
Even after George Parker's death, the company remained family-owned until 1968 when General Mills purchased the company. After this, Parker Brothers produced the first Nerf ball. In the UK during the 1970s, Parker Brothers sold the rights of some games to the games division of Palitoy (also a General Mills company), and produced a variety of releases such as Escape from Colditz. …
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