Elizabeth Magic Phillips

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Landlord's Game plan

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie Phillips (* 1866 in Canton , Illinois as Elizabeth J. Magie , † 1948 in Arlington County , Virginia ) invented the game The Landlord's Game , which is the basis of today's Monopoly game.

Elizabeth J. Magie was a Quaker from Virginia. She was a so-called Georgist , an advocate of the ideas of the economist Henry George (1839-1897). In order to be able to convey his economic policy ideas more easily to “ordinary” people, she invented a game: On March 23, 1903, she asked the US patent office for a patent for her board game The Landlord's Game, which was intended as a “ landlord 's game” . It was supposed to show the dangers of monopoly land ownership and the resulting impoverishment of the rural population. Her biographer, Mary Pilon, wrote, "Her stated aim was to show the evil of increasing money at the expense of others."

"I hope that men and women will quickly understand that their poverty stems from Carnegie and Rockefeller having more money than they can spend."

She received US patent 748626 for her game on January 5, 1904, but it was not produced and sold for the first time by the Economic Game Company of New York until 1910 . Previously, through word of mouth, many students and Quaker associations had drawn the game themselves, and played and continued to distribute it. In England it was published in 1913 by the Newbie Game Company of London under the title Bre'r Fox and Bre'r Rabbit .

Elizabeth Magie married Albert W. Phillips on October 27, 1910 in Chicago .

On March 19, 1935, the Parker Brothers bought the patent for The Landlord's Game from her: This day is now known and celebrated by Hasbro as the "birthday of the Monopoly game".

honors and awards

In 2019, an area of ​​the WeiberWirtschaft that arithmetically had no bank debts was named after magic.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d badische-zeitung.de , March 19, 2015, Chris Melzer ( dpa ): The richest wins: Board game Monopoly turns 80
  2. ↑ Lizzie Magie: Weiberwirtschaft. Retrieved December 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Phillips, Elizabeth Magic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Magic, Elizabeth J. (maiden name); Magic, Lizzie (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American game inventor
DATE OF BIRTH 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Canton , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH 1948
Place of death Arlington County , Virginia