It is popularly thought that Monopoly was invented by an American man named Charles Darrow in 1932, who sold his idea to Parker Brothers.

The game has now sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide.

Darrow received royalties throughout his life and was elevated from among the unemployed to becoming a rich man.

In fact the game had been invented nearly 30 years earlier.

The history can be traced back to 1903 when an American woman Elizabeth (Lizzie) Magie developed a game which was intended as an educational tool.

Lizzie was a woman with many interests.

She even patented in 1892 an invention that made the typewriting process easier by allowing paper to go through the rollers more easily.

An outspoken activist for the feminist movement she was also politically active.

She wanted to reform the American tax system and believed in a system where the Government did not tax income but created a universal land tax based on the usefulness, size, and location of the land.

This belief became the basis for her game known as The Landlord’s Game, which was designed to demonstrate the economic ill effects of land becoming owned by monopolies.

Initially Lizzie played the game with her friends before deciding to patent it, which was granted in January 1904.

She then self-published the game in 1910 but continued to develop it, being granted another American patent in 1923.

In 1932 the second edition of the game was published by a company based in Washington DC.

In that year American Charles Todd bought a copy, which he introduced to his friend Charles Darrow when they met up for dinner at his house in Philadelphia.

Darrow saw the untapped potential in the game, renamed it Monopoly, and took it to market.

In 1935 the large games’ company Parker Brothers bought the game’s copyrights from Darrow.

When they learned that he was not the sole inventor of the game they bought the rights to Lizzie Magie’s patent for 500 dollars.

Parker Bros began licensing the game for sale outside the United States in 1936 and it started to become a phenomenal success story.

It was not until the 21st century that Lizzie Maggie’s role in the invention of Monopoly was properly recognised.

Monopoly in WW2

In 1941 the British Secret Intelligence Service asked John Waddington Ltd, the licensed manufacturer of Monopoly in the UK, to create a special edition of the game for prisoners-of-war held by the Nazi’s.

Hidden inside were maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping.

The games were then distributed to the prisoners by fake charities created by the Secret Service.

In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands the German authorities saw that the Dutch people were using British or American versions of Monopoly so developed a version with Dutch locations.

Since this was not overtly Nazi-influenced it has continued to form the base for Monopoly games used in the Netherlands up to the present.

Variants of the Game

Parker Brothers were acquired by Hasbro in 1991 and they set about seeking input from the general public in varying the game.

These variants began to be introduced in 1994 and since then more than one hundred licensees have been created.

One of the first was Winning Moves Games who were licensed in 1995.

In the UK Winning Moves produce around one hundred different variants of Monopoly, with city or town versions ranging from Aberdeen to York.

A High Wycombe version was launched on October 28 2022 and is now in the shops priced at £34.99.

The Wycombe Monopoly

We now take a look at the history of the Jackie Palmer Stage School, one of the local organisations which helps ‘to put High Wycombe on the map’ and features on the Monopoly board.

A performance by the school was included in the programme for the launch of the High Wycombe Monopoly at the Arts Centre.

The Jackie Palmer Stage School was founded in High Wycombe in 1971, but the origins of the school go back to February 1957.

Then Jackie Palmer and her husband Gilbert (Dick) Hughes, both of whom had had long experience in the world of theatre, established the Jackie Palmer School of Dancing & Agency in Hillingdon.

In the early 1960s the couple moved their family, including daughter Marylyn, to High Wycombe and the school was closed.

From a young age Marylyn had been taught to dance by her mother, then received professional coaching, including acrobatics by an ex-Hungarian circus acrobat.

As a child she won many festivals and appeared in shows all over the country before starting work as a production assistant for BBC Radio in London.

Marylyn and her mother then decided to revive their dream of re-establishing the stage school and did so in December 1971, together with Chris Phillips who Marylyn had married a couple of months earlier.

The first class of the new Jackie Palmer Stage School was held at the Oak Room in the Town Hall with forty pupils.

That venue was only temporary, whilst Newland Hall the school’s home for the next few years was refurbished.

In 1979 Marylyn and Chris acquired the Rye Hotel, formerly Bardon House, at 28 Easton St.

The building required extensive refurbishment before it was ready as a family home and stage school.

Ten years later the school moved to St Augustine’s School in Daws Hill Lane, and Marylyn and Chris set up a new home close by, which also serves as the school’s administration centre.

In 2013 the school moved to its present home in Bridge St, opposite the bus station.

Marylyn explains the ethos of the school “We regard all the pupils as part of a huge family, many of whom still keep in touch and are still part of the school.

For example, the choreographer of the Monopoly piece at the launch event, who has appeared in lead roles in pantomimes at the Wycombe Swan, joined us shortly after graduating, and her youngest daughter, now 18, is taking part in the performance at the Launch Event.

We also have pupils who have become famous, for example James Corden returned to open our new studios in Bridge Street.”

“We like to support local events which is why we are taking part in the switching-on of the Christmas lights, as well as Monopoly launch and several local pantomimes.

Perhaps though most special this year is the 30th anniversary of the Wycombe Swan, in which we have three routines to help the celebration.”

The school now has an international reputation.

Locally pupils from the school can be seen in Matilda the Musical; Matilda the Movie; and shortly in pantomimes at Wycombe Swan, Chesham, and Aylesbury.

At the Swan recently one of our students was in The Osmonds, playing a young Osmond and a former student, now a musician, was in the band.

More Wycombe icons on the Monopoly board

Look out for the history of more of the local icons which feature on the High Wycombe Monopoly board in next week’s Bucks Free Press.