Philip E. Orbanes

I picked up this book after reading Orbanes' earlier biography on Parker Bros. as a whole, The Game Makers. That book had an extremely compelling first half - focusing on Parker as a family business run by George S. Parker, creating employment for a significant portion of Salem, Mass., at the turn of the century. Shortly after Parker's death in the early 1950s, though, the book slides away into an endless parade of corporate takeovers and endless executives. Examining that book's strengths, show more I thought Orbanes might do well with a more constrained subject: one game, over a shorter period of time. Hence - this second volume.

And it is better. At least somewhat.

I think Orbanes himself was aware of the flaw in The Game Makers because here, he works actively to avoid backing himself into the same corner. In Monopoly, he positions each chapter around a specific figure or figures - sometimes obvious motivators like Elizabeth Magie (who invented the game's progenitor, The Landlord's Game), Charles Darrow (who sold his version to Parker Bros.), or George S. Parker, and sometimes indirect participants like Ronald Reagan or the GIs returning from WWII. This allows him to tell a whole series of "mini-stories" that, when put together, lead up to a cultural history of Monopoly.

To be fair, the first half of the book is still the most interesting. Orbanes is able to go far more into depth about Elizabeth Magie and the Quaker communities that kept The Landlord's Game going than he was in The Game Makers, and that adds considerably more dimension to the famous story. He is also able to contextualize the famed story of the Monopoly sets sent to POWs with files and maps inside from the perspective of Victor and Norman Watson, the father/son leaders of Waddingtons (the British licensee of the game). Along the way we get to see photos of many of the handmade editions of both The Landlord's Game and Monopoly that led to the game we know so well today - although, sadly, not in color, the one true step down from The Game Makers.

Following the General Mills buyout of Parker Brothers in 1968, the book shifts from the game's origin and initial cultural impact to its existence as a legacy property, focusing on the development of Monopoly tournaments, the production of foreign, luxury and modified editions, and finally, the people who are now Monopoly historians. This material will probably be of lesser interest to most of the book's audience, but Orbanes is still able to form meaningful stories out of most of it, especially his own key involvement in judging tournaments. Sadly, the final chapter - focusing on collectors and historians - is now pretty much totally out of date (15 years after publication), and the various websites Orbanes recommends are now defunct.

The slim book (shorter than 200 pages of narrative) includes George S. Parker's 1936 rules for Monopoly, Elizabeth Magie's 1904 and revised 1924 rules for The Landlord's Game, and the rules for 1913's Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit (a rare UK publication of The Landlord's Game). There are also checklists of various Monopoly and USAopoly editions, some of which have obviously been superseded.

The book is obviously recommended for any Monopoly or classic board games buff, but also for those interested in the cultural history of play in the 20th century, generally. Orbanes does a lot of work to tie the development and staying power of Monopoly to the public perception of capitalism in the United States, so it may also be of interest to scholars of cultural economics. show less

An interesting but ultimately somewhat tedious company biography of the luminous Parker Brothers, perhaps the single greatest American board game manufacturer of the 20th century.

The star of the book - and you can tell the author knows it - is George S. Parker, the blue-eyed youth who started the company in the 1880s - with the help of his older siblings - and steered it over fifty years. That first half (nearly exactly half, in fact) of the book is sensational, a full-bodied depiction of a show more family business governed by lauded guiding principles, with the origins of a number of notable games including "Rook," "Mah-jongg," "Sorry!" and of course "Monopoly." We also get a good look at a number of forgotten games, including "Pillow-Dex" (an unlikely hit that soared) and "Diabolo" (a surefire hit that flopped). There's a lot of glowing talk about "Parker pride," George's personal approval of every product, and how stable the company was for Salem, Massachusetts. The idealism may be a little exaggerated, but it's hard not to be stirred by it all, especially when our modern conception of business is so much different and far less personal.

Sadly, it doesn't last. Once World War II concludes and George Parker dies, a lot of the personal feeling of the book disappears, too. In large part that's simply due to acceleration, both of technology and American corporate interests. When the second president of Parker Bros., Robert Barton, agrees to be purchased by General Mills on page 150 (in early 1968), the book is essentially over. The remaining 65 pages are a blinding succession of push-pull business strategies, endless faceless executives, and a little of the author's own experience. Good luck getting much meaning out of any of it, unless you're interested in a losers'-eye-view of the nascent electronic games industry. show less

I enjoyed this book very much. Reading it was like a trip down memory lane as I recalled playing Monopoly, Clue (I was ALWAYS Miss Scarlett), Soma et al.

The author has also compiled an interesting history of Parker Brothers. It is an inspiring story about a George Parker, who started the company at 16 years of age, with about $50. Throughout its history, Parker Brothers held to a set of values and principles that served it well. So, this book will interest both game lovers and business show more students. show less

An interesting history on Monopoly and even made me want to play the game (with the actual rules) again. Given the many painful experiences with Monopoly, that's saying something.

However, the high point of the book is the early history. The end of the book lacks a bit of the charm of the beginning. I wish it had ended with the description of contests as the final chapter on Monopoly collectors bored me more than anything else. It's hard to peg exactly why I didn't like it, but it just didn't show more have the nice flow of the earlier book and could really have been describing collectors of anything, not just Monopoly.

In fact, had the last few chapters been removed and it just focused on history and had a better appendix on the statistics behind the game I'd probably like it better and would have probably given it a 4. The parts investigating the contests weren't bad, but also stretched on a bit long. show less