The Darrow Cinderella story, which is still told today, often, actually, it turns out Monopoly had a history long before that started with a woman in 1904.
And Darrow asks Todd, hey, would you mind typing up the rules for the game for me?
So Darrow and Barton strike up this deal.
And Darrow , I think of, was kind of one of the first people to do that.
And Darrow -- and this letter exchange is in the book-- kind of waffles.
After Darrow sold the game, Parker Brothers started getting all these pitches from people wanting to become the next Darrow .
Some people believe that Darrow himself was the inspiration for the Mr. Monopoly character, which you see up there.
And Todd teaches Darrow the game.
And he buys Darrow 's game for, we believe, $7,000 plus residuals.
And the Darrow story becomes a big part of the marketing tale, that this game actually came from an unemployed guy himself.
But the Darrow creation story perpetuated.
So Magie and Darrow die.
This is Darrow 's obituary in the "New York Times" hailing him as an All-American hero who had created this game.
So the Darrow board has Marvin with an "-in."
We love the Darrow story because it's so romantic.
So the Darrows and the Todds live in Philadelphia.
we see the character Ann Darrow , who is also trying to rise out of the ashes and make something of herself in the world.
A version of this story about Darrow inventing the game and selling it to Parker Brothers is still on versions of Hasbro's website.
And so Barton writes to Darrow and says, would you mind writing up a history of the game and your invention of it?
And they're giving out the Darrow cup.
Jeff you hold up a Jeff Darrow picture and oh okay that's what it's going to
And he had gone to school with Ester Darrow .
So why did the patent office grant the Parker-Darrow group its patent when Magie to had two similar ones before it?
And nobody ever really gotten rich off of a game like Darrow had.
And of course, if you think about Ann Darrow in 1933, she was a screaming blonde.
I went to fill the kettle from the tap on the landing and found Jill Darrow coming up the stairs.
Charlie said, 'Ah, Darrow ,' and half stood up, then dropped back into his chair with an informality that might or might not have been flattering.
And the story for years was that the game was invented by this man, Charles Darrow , who, during the darkest hours of the Great Depression,
So Parker Brothers, once they realized that this game wasn't invented by Darrow , goes about acquiring all these other games.
This would have been kind of at the height of the Monopoly craze, right after Darrow and the game were booming.
He thinks this is outrageous, because Darrow didn't originate the game.
And he and his wife, Olive, invite the Darrows over for dinner and a Monopoly night.
I'm going to go with-- he may not be the nicest character in the world necessarily, but William Peterson plays a character named Darrow
She created a game that was called The Landord's Game, soon thereafter called The Monopoly Game but its early players in 1904, long before Parker Brothers, long before Darrow .
So Barton, through his wife, hears about this Monopoly game, which Darrow is selling at Wannamaker's.
But it's not long before Parker and Barton realize that they have a problem, which is that Darrow didn't actually invent the game.
And so, this is a builder named Brian Darrow out of Indianapolis who has a 33-foot display called the "Blacktron Intelligence Agency."
So Charles Todd plays this game, and he runs into two old friends on the street, the Darrows .