Charles Darrow didn’t invent the game of Monopoly — a woman named Elizabeth Magie Phillips made a prototype in 1904, although she called it the Landlord’s Game. But in 1933, Mr. Darrow, an unemployed engineer desperate for money, took Mrs. Phillips’s idea and redesigned it, adding a colorful board and wood game pieces. Initially, Mr. Darrow crafted each game by hand, but as friends told friends about Monopoly, demand increased far beyond the six sets he and his family could produce each day. He decided to offer Monopoly to two of America’s biggest game makers — Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Co.

“After giving…Monopoly our very careful review and consideration, we do not feel we would be interested in adding this item to our line,” a Milton Bradley manager wrote to Mr. Darrow in 1934. Parker Brothers was even harsher, listing “52 fundamental errors” in the game — it was too complicated, it took too long to play, people wouldn’t want to keep circling a board. “The decision to turn it down was unanimous,” Edward Parker later recalled.

Mr. Darrow invested the last of his personal savings in manufacturing 7,500 copies of the game, which quickly sold out at several department stores. Parker Brothers decided Mr. Darrow’s game wasn’t so bad after all and bought it from him. In 1936, the company sold 1.8 million copies of Monopoly. Mr. Darrow retired a millionaire.

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