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Preview: Season 35 Episode 3 | 1m 15s | Video has closed captioning.
Monopoly is America’s favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. But behind the myth of the game’s creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing.
Aired: 02/20/23
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How much money do we give out?
Everybody gets two 500'’’s.
And six 20'’’s.
This is a lot of money.
I know.
It's America's game.
It's the game of our childhood.
It's the biggest success the board game industry has ever seen.
It was supposed to be a critique of capitalism that turned out to be a celebration of it.
The story about Monopoly is filled with ironies.
When you look at Lizzie Magie'’’s Landlord's game, you see the origins of Monopoly in it.
In 1904, Lizzie Magie receives the patents, the first patent by a woman for a board game in U.S. history.
So how Charles Darrow was able to go in at 1935 and get a patent for Monopoly with his name on it is mysterious.
And ultimately, Parker Brothers comes in and monopolizes Monopoly.
They erase her from the history of the game for good.
It is a zero sum game.
And so, the kind of rhetoric there is that there can be only one victor.
American Experience.
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