1282: Winning Monopoly
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | It's late 1932 in a townhouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where a dinner party is underway. |
| 0:15.5 | 43-year-old Charles Darrow opens a bottle of wine and pours it into the glasses of his dining companions. |
| 0:21.3 | Nina's wife had been invited to dinner with friends, and even though Charles is out of work and |
| 0:25.2 | money is tight, he saved up enough for a decent bottle for them all to share. |
| 0:29.9 | Charles raises his glass and joins his friends in a toast to their good health. |
| 0:34.2 | Then the host of the party brings out the after-dinner entertainment. |
| 0:38.5 | They all clear space as he unfolds a square game board and places it in the middle of the table. The host grabs |
| 0:44.1 | dice and some small carved wooden houses from the box as Charles tilts his head to read the words |
| 0:49.7 | emblazoned across the middle of the board. It's called the Landlords game. Charles never played |
| 0:55.5 | it before, but his host explains the rules as he deals out play money to everyone around the |
| 1:00.0 | table. Charles jokes as he's given a handful of fake banknotes, saying he'll keep a hold of them |
| 1:05.0 | for next week's groceries. And then the host of the party hands him one of the dice. As a newcomer |
| 1:10.2 | to the game, Charles can go first. |
| 1:12.2 | So Charles shakes the die in his hand and rolls it across the board. |
| 1:16.8 | Game has begun. |
| 1:21.8 | After playing it for the first time, Charles Darrow becomes obsessed with the Landlords game, |
| 1:29.3 | and not just because he enjoys playing. |
| 1:33.9 | Charles sees the board game as an opportunity to make a few bucks while he's out of work, |
| 1:37.5 | so he soon develops a copycat version of his own to sell. |
| 1:42.2 | But when it's launched, this game won't just give Charles a bit of extra spending money, |
| 1:43.4 | it'll make him a millionaire. |
| 1:45.0 | The Landlord's game was invented as a critique of greed and the excess of capitalism, but its original inventor |
... |
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