Despite their popularity, only one Board Game was ever made about THE BEATLES...(THE BEATLES "FLIP YOUR WIG" GAME)
In these days of mass marketing, and indeed considering how much other stuff was manufactured with their face on it, it is almost inconceivable that no other company besides Milton Bradley could come up with something.
The "man" who invented MONOPOLY, is not the "person" who invented MONOPOLY...
Charles Darrow is generally known to have invented the game. But Parker Brothers knew that MONOPOLY was based on a much earlier game called THE LANDLORD'S GAME that was invented by Elizabeth Magie-Phillips. As a matter of fact, this game influenced other games like FINANCE AND FORTUNE and EASY MONEY. Darrow simply made a few changes to Magie-Phillips' game and brought it to the attention of Parker Brothers, who bought out Magie-Phillips' patents.
The first T.V. personality to generate a Board Game was Hopalong Cassidy..(HOPALONG CASSIDY GAME 1950)
It's generally believed his was the first one, in 1950. Of course, his T.V. shows were movies that were being shown on T.V. So maybe the real first one would be Captain Video, from the early fifties (CAPTAIN VIDEO SPACE GAME early 1950's).
The COLUMBO game features the back of Peter Falk's head...
He refused to allow the licensing of his likeness for the Milton Bradley game, so they put pictures of his car, badge, and a badly drawn man in a raincoat, whose head is turned from the viewer, on the cover.
THE GAME OF DRAGNET and PERRY MASON, CASE OF THE MISSING SUSPECT GAME have identical covers...
Transogram was too cheap to change the artwork. They just put a picture of Jack on one, and Raymond on the other. The PHILIP MARLOWE GAME and THE DETECTIVES GAME also have virtually identical cover artwork. Transogram again.
The game, MOUSETRAP, started out as a toy....
Marvin Glass originally designed it as a Rube Goldberg-ish toy contraption. Ideal didn't like it as a toy, but loved it as a game! It became their best-selling game for many years, and is still being made today.
The game, COOTIE, started out as a fishing lure...
Herb Schaper, the man who invented COOTIE, designed fishing lures in his spare moments. He made one that looked like the COOTIE bug, and built it out of wood. He soon discovered that kids liked to take the thing apart. So, he began making a plastic COOTIE bug as a toy. Eventually it evolved into the game we know and love. He started making COOTIES down in his basement in 1949 with $75 he had saved up, and by 1950 had sold more than 1,200,000 COOTIE games. The COOTIE empire was established.
The oldest known game made in the United States is TRAVELLER'S TOUR THROUGH THE UNITED STATES, made in 1822 by Lockwood....
Despite this beginning, no games have been found from 1823 until 1842. In 1843,
THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS was printed by W. & S.B. Ives. Board games gained
a foothold at this time, and, despite beginnings immersed in Religious and Educational
themes, eventually evolved into the fun pastime we know today.
