Do Go On - 354 - The Controversial History of Monopoly

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

Monopoly is one of the best selling board games of all time, but it has a controversial history. The game’s inventor was an unemployed salesman named Charles B. Darrow who was struggling to put food on the table during the great depression - at least that was the commonly held belief for a long time. But actually, that’s only a tiny part of the story, tune in to hear more!Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: dogoonpod.com or patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/ Check out our new merch! : https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/ Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader Thomas REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:The Monopolists by Mary Pilon: https://www.marypilon.com/monopolyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/business/behind-monopoly-an-inventor-who-didnt-pass-go.htmlhttps://www.henrygeorge.org/dodson_on_monopoly.htmhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-originshttps://www.britannica.com/sports/Monopoly-board-gamehttps://www.thoughtco.com/monopoly-monopoly-charles-darrow-4079786https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Monopoly_(1999).pdfhttps://www.monopolyland.com/monopoly-pieces/https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/02/13/who-really-invented-monopoly.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20070716173348/http://tt.tf/gamehist/articles/eugene-raiford_ltr_02jan64.pdf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just jumping in really quickly at the start of today's episode to tell you about some upcoming opportunities to see us live in the flesh. And you can see us live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2024. We are doing three live podcasts on Sundays at 3.30 at Basement Comedy Club, April 7, 14 and 21. You can get tickets at dogo1pod.com. Matt, you're also doing some shows around the country. That's right. I'm doing shows with Saren Jayamana, who's been on the show before. We're going to be in Perth in January, Adelaide in February, Melbourne through the festival in April, and then Brisbane after that. I'm also doing Who Knew It's in Perth and Adelaide. Details for all that stuff at mattstuartcomedy.com.

It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls? Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials.

Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy respons essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On.

My name is Jess Perkins and I'm joined as always by Matt Stewart. Matt, hello. Hey Jess, thanks so much for having me here at Sands Pants Studios. That's right, it's a pleasure to be here. And I'm doing the intro, poorly, because Dave isn't here. That's right, it's a pleasure to be here and I'm doing the intro, poorly, because Dave isn't here. Who's here instead, Matt? Oh my god, I'm so excited. He hasn't been on this show but he has been on our Do Go D&D, I can't remember what it's called, but it was a D&D spin-off podcast. I think it was called Do Go on D&D. He's the dungeon master himself.

Please make him welcome. It's Adam Carnivalet. You say please make him welcome and it's just me. So it's like, yes. Well, I'm picturing people at home doing it as well. Thank you so much for having me. I was just sitting here in the studio when you two sat down, so it was inevitable, but thank you nonetheless.

Yeah, I'm sorry that we hit record before you had the chance to leave and get on with your day, but now you get to sit here and chat to us for a couple of hours. And hey, what more? Just scooched her chair just in front of the door. There is no way out now. I did hear, yeah, as the door closed, I did hear it lock as well. So I don't think there was ever an option, yeah.

Did you know these doors locked? I didn't, no. Discovered just now. So people might know you from the D&D episodes. They might also know you from Prime Mates and, of course, Getting Fruity with Matt and the Boys. Main host of Getting Fruity

with Matty and the Boys. Yeah, Matty and the Boys. Yeah, that's what the real fans call it. Yeah, yeah. And, of course, also the Ape Titty Slide Saga. You're one of the key investigators. Yes. We broke that case. We busted it wide open. It is so open. I still want to do one last

episode on it. Yes, absolutely. But we've really got to find something that will bust the case open even further if possible. It's guaranteed that we will not do the episode until there is concrete hard-hitting evidence for further Ape titty slide adventure

totally and the other thing well i mean one of the many other things you do is host a dnd podcast here at sans pants that is correct yes and if so if people like dnd i mean obviously check out our dnd uh series on patreon.com slash gongpod but also come across for the I mean, if you go to sanspants.com and you close your eyes and you click on any of the podcasts, you'll probably find Adam Carnavale. That's a decent chance, yeah. Basically you'd throw a dart at the

website. You're guaranteed to break your computer screen and hit a podcast I'm on. Yeah. Double fun. Double trouble. Hey Jess, how does this podcast work for new listeners? I reckon Carnivale, if the Carnivale Massive is here, you know, and they're listening to the podcast for the first time. Well, first of all, welcome.

And thank you so much for giving us a go. How this works is one of the three of us goes away, researches a topic usually suggested by a listener. We bring back that research, that information, and we present it to the other two who listen quietly and politely and never interrupt or go on silly little riffs. Oh, thank God that was said jokingly. At first I wasn't sure.

Imagine it's like, Adam, actually I'm just going to need you to pipe down. Okay, Matt's telling us something incredibly interesting. He keeps banging on the sky kind of way. You're not here to talk. You're here to listen. You're here for Matt to talk to you. It just makes me feel more comfortable about telling a story if there's other people in the room.

Matt can't talk into a microphone in an empty room. He can't do it. We've tried, and so we just have to sit here. Feel free to go on your phone. You and I could play a card game. We could do almost anything, but as long as we're in the room and not making too much noise, Matt can do the report. And Matt, we always get onto the topic with a question.

That's right. And this week's question is, and there is a listener, or there was at some point, who was keeping track of the scores. So you could be on this famous scoreboard if you get this right. And Jess, you could probably continue. I could remain on the scoreboard. You could probably continue to be on the scoreboard. Yes. My question is, jump in whenever you're ready. Which famous board game features Atlantic City streets

such as Mediterranean Avenue, St. Charles Place and Marvin Gardens? A board game. Mm-hmm. Okay. Or the English version, Old Kent Road, Pal-Mal and Piccadilly. No way! No way! Your whole body, it was like your toes knew the answer first and it went all the way up your body and your arms shot out.

You were so excited then. My toes are typically the first thing that comes to mind. My lovely. That was very good. Yeah, I wasn't sure how well known here the American names were because I hadn't heard of them either. So was that the original version? Yes.

So this is going to be the story of the original version. And the English version came out soon after the American one. But yeah, the American one. So this is the story of how it came to be. Quite controversial, this story. Very quickly at the top. Favourite piece, Battleship? I would go The Little Car.

I always went The Little Horse. The Horse and Rider. Yes. I don't know this piece. Well, that's interesting. At the very end, I've got a, if we have time and if we're not bored of Monopoly, I've got like a brief history of the pieces. And it's so funny that they delete them and add new ones and then bring some back.

I would go car or little dog. Car, also a good option. Yes. Yeah, I like car. No, I could never get bored of Monopoly. Whenever I, any moment, any time, any day I think I have a spare, eight hours, I love to play half a game of Monopoly. And then how does it end? Flipping a table?

It always ends in flipping a table. It typically ends when everyone else has walked away and I'm the only one standing. Because no one else wants to play. Everyone else is like, I've got to go to bed, man. It's 3am. So this topic has only been suggested by a couple of people. It's interesting because Jess Adam has done a report in the past about the McDonald's Monopoly.

That's right. Which was this big dodgy thing. Oh, no, I've heard of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a pretty wild story. I'd go give it a listen. If I were you. I might.

I want to know. Heaps of people suggested that, but only two people have suggested Monopoly the game. That's Jonathan McGee from Gathersburg in Maryland, I reckon, and Joff from LOL Radio in Colac. Joff. Joff suggested it as part of a mini triptych with Trivial Pursuit and another board game. But I've just found enough to do it all on Monopoly. Great.

Yeah, I was surprised. I didn't know anything about the origin story. So if you're ready, physically and emotionally prepared, are your toes feeling good? Toes warming up? Yep. And that's the best state for listening for my toes okay great that's a good sign uh so this is the origin story of monopoly according to britannica monopoly which is the best-selling privately patented board game in history is a real estate board game for two to

eight players in which the player's goal is to remain financially solvent while forcing opponents into bankruptcy by buying and developing pieces of property. What fun. It truly is the game of life. When you hear it broken down to that, trying to make your friends bankrupt, you're like, all right, we're in for a good time here. This is going to be fun for everyone. Oh, whenever you hear the word solvent in a description of a game, I'm like, oh, we hit a party.

The game gained widespread popularity in the United States after Parker Brothers started manufacturing it in 1935. The game's inventor was an unemployed salesman named Charles B. Darrow, who was struggling to put food on the table during the Great Depression. Darrow, who was struggling to put food on the table during the Great Depression. The story goes that he went down into his basement when he was suddenly struck by inspiration. On a piece of cloth, he drew a board game which featured Atlantic City

streets and buildings. He created the game almost fully formed out of thin air. His family loved it and he decided to start selling it. At least, that was the commonly held belief. Ah, yes, good, yes. For a long time.

I know a little bit about Monopoly. Yes, oh my God, yes. I was about to be like, what? But the truth is, that's only a tiny part of the story. Okay. According to Mary Pilon, who seems to be the key source, the big brain on the history of Monopoly. The expert.

The key, the person you would ask about it because they have knowledge about the topic more than others. That's not a good sign early. about the topic more than others. That's not a good sign early. So, yeah, so she's written a book which I've read and listened to, which I've been doing on recent reports. I've been buying the e-book and the audio book so I can listen at night and then read in the day.

So I've been doing that with her book, which came out in 2015. It's a great book. Sorry, just a quick little side note, and I suppose just an opportunity to thank you, Matt, because you have been doing this for a while and you keep talking about I listen to the book and then I – because I haven't read a book for such a long time because I don't have time to sit down and read and I can't sit still. So I just finished my first audio book because I could listen to it in the car, doing dishes,

doing, like I'd go to bed and I'd listen to my book for a bit. I'd be like, okay, I'm going to bed to read, but I'm just lying there listening. It's so good. Reading with your eyes closed is the best. Big fan. Can I ask what was the audio book? It was the latest book from Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You? Something like that.

And it was pretty good. And the person reading it was Irish, so that was just nice to listen to. Yeah, if you get the right, like the married pylon doesn't read this book on the audiobook. It's a guy who sort of sounds like Neil Hamburger. Okay. The comedy character, sort of like theurger, the comedy character, sort of like the anti-comedy character, but only without the comedy. Like there's no comedy part to the voice, but it's,

wow, he sort of talks like this. So it took me a while to get used to it. You do get used to it, but yeah, initially sometimes you're like, and I didn't really love how this narrator did male characters. It just sounded – I was like, you know, I don't think you have to do voices for all of them, but she'd sort of go, all the men sounded the same and they were a bit lower. And I was like, this is very distracting actually because –

That's it. Because, yeah, there's some where they'll do accents and stuff and I'm like, oh, you're not nailing that. Yeah. And some are pretty good. Like all the Bill Bryson books, someone else reads them and their. And some are pretty good. Like all the Bill Bronson books that someone else reads them and their Australian accents like pretty good. Okay.

But it's also, it's still a bit distracting. Still not an Australian. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know that because you're hearing their voice for the rest of the time. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, it would be hard. Like especially with that, books where there's heaps of different accents.

Anyway, we're getting sidetracked very early. I just wanted to say thanks for getting me onto audiobooks. And if anybody else wants to give them a try, they're new, but I think they're going to catch on. I think Dave would now probably, if he was here, plug Book Cheat as an audible code. Yeah, you're right. If you do want to get involved.

If you're listening to this, surely an audiobook is right up your alley as well. 100%, yeah. It's literally the same thing, a bit longer, I would assume, unless this is going to go for about eight hours. And there's genuinely no people interrupting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It's one voice. Apart from them doing an accent. Yeah. And now, ooh, there's someone else in the room now. And I was like, oh, you've taken me out of it actually a little bit now that all the men sound the same and it's just you doing a slightly deeper voice so i'm so i'm going to be uh referencing uh mary pylon's work her book she also wrote a piece for new york times and one for the guardian and a few others so i'm i'll just refer to it as

mary palm but yeah she's written a lot about this story. According to Pilon, it turns out that Monopoly's origin began not with Darrow in the 1930s, but decades before with a bold progressive woman named Lizzie McGee, who until recently has largely been lost to history and in some cases deliberately written out of it. Do you know how much I love the surname McGee? It goes with any name. It's got a whim out of it. Do you know how much I love the surname McGee? It goes with any name. It's got a whimsy to it. Love it.

Lizzie McGee. Are you kidding me? It's so good. Great to put in a rhyme. Oh, yeah. Incredible in a rhyme. Couldn't think of one right now. Think of like, but any, like it goes, Adam McGee.

That's good stuff. Jess McGee. Are you kidding me? Matt McGee. Matt McGee's good. Are you kidding me? I wasn't sure. That's good stuff. Jess McGee. Are you kidding me? Matt McGee. Matt McGee is good. Are you kidding? That's some good alliteration. Often that doesn't work, the double M.

But there I think it does. Matt McGee. Yeah, right. Anything goes with McGee. It's interesting. I think, I don't know if it's in America or whatever, it's spelled slightly differently, but I had to look up how to pronounce it.

And I guess, luckily, the audio book helped there. But it's spelled M-A-G-I-E, which I would have pronounced Magi. Yeah, same. I think I would have thought it was that. But anyway, McGee, it's way better. So good. So Elizabeth McGee was born in Illinois in 1866 to parents Mary and James McGee. Jimmy McGee.

Yeah, Jimmy McGee was her dad. Are you kidding me? Mary McGee and Jimmy McGee. It's so funny. I'm like already was about to go back to pronouncing it Magi. Damn it. So yeah, it's fascinating that she was born exactly 100 years before the Saints won their one and only premiership in the VFL.

But her father, James... It is crazy. Isn't that wild? It's insane, yeah. I wouldn't have thought that. Can you believe? She would have had no idea that day when she was born. Yeah.

No idea. Wouldn't have a clue. Her father, Jimmy McGee, was a newspaper man. Not made out of newspaper. He worked in newspaper. Yes, yes. I thought, yeah, good. And he travelled with Abraham Lincoln in the late 1850s

when Lincoln was on a political debating tour with opponent Stephen Douglas. Apparently they got on quite well. Jimmy McGee, quite politically minded, and he kind of passed that on to his daughter lizzie her dad was an anti-monopolist and she took after him later the game or the uh he was anti-monopolist yeah he really didn't support her on her endeavors that sucks no no he hated like corporate monopolies and she she took after him later saying i've often been called a chip off the old block, which I consider quite a compliment,

for I'm proud of my father for being the kind of old block that he is. Which is a bit of fun. That's nice. Back to Pylon. The seeds of the Monopoly game were planted when Jimmy McGee shared with his daughter a copy of Henry George's best-selling book, Progress and Poverty, written in 1879. As an anti-monopolist, Jimmy McGee, it says James McGee,

but I can't not say Jimmy McGee. You've got to say it. Yeah, don't be an idiot and say James Maggi. It's Jimmy McGee. Jimmy McGee. Jimmy McGee drew from the theories of George, a charismatic politician and economist who believed that individuals should own 100% of what they made or created,

but that everything that was found in nature, particularly land, should belong to everyone. George was a proponent of the land value tax, also known as the single tax. The general idea was to tax land and only land, shifting the tax burden to wealthy landlords. His message resonated with many Americans in the late 1800s when poverty and squalor were on full display in the country's urban centers. Someone smarter than me would have to explain why that's not a good idea.

But just, I'm like, that sounds like a good idea. Yeah. You keep all your pay and people who own stuff, and I guess that means people who are digging out minerals and whatever, they have to pay more tax. That makes some sense to me, but I'm sure someone would be able to explain why it's not a good idea. I'm sure someone with a vested interest has a very strong opinion against it, sure. Back to Pilar. McGee lived a highly unusual life. Unlike most women of her era, she supported herself and didn't marry until the advanced age of 44.

In addition to working as a stenographer and a secretary, she wrote poetry and short stories and did comedic routines on stage. She also spent her time drawing and redrawing, thinking and rethinking the game that she wanted to be based on the theories of George, who died in 1897, the year that the VFL began. And you believe these coincidences? Wouldn't have known. That's so sad. Would never saw it and would have wanted to, I think. It's kind of funny to think back to a time when 44 was seen as an advanced age to get married. Yeah. All right, Nana.

I mean, what's the point at that age? But apparently it was really, really rare. It was seen as being quite odd. She was sort of seen as being a bit eccentric because she supported herself. And she wrote and she did stand up. Got a few out there ideas. Not getting married at 10. What a cook.

I love her. Around the turn of the century, board games were becoming more popular in the middle classes. According to Pylon, changing workspaces gave rise to more leisure time. Electric lighting was becoming common in American homes, reinventing the daily schedule. Games could now be played more safely and enjoyably for longer hours than had been possible during the gaslight era. Safely? Yeah, barely. I guess the gaslights, I guess is it because of the gas and fire?

Oh, okay. I guess they're saying the lighting itself was dangerous, not the games. Yes, that's right. No one's playing hoop and stick and getting decapitated by an eagle or something. It was very common back then. Electric lighting scared off a lot of those decapitating eagles. Which is sad, actually. It is sad.

Yeah, they're extinct now. Well done. Yeah, well done. Well done, guy who invented lights. You idiot. I did a whole episode about lights and I can't. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

It's not important. Keep moving. Keep moving. That's not this episode. They can watch that episode. Newton was involved. Matt, he's responsible for the extinction of decapitating eagles. Yeah, he shouldn't be remembered.

We dare not speak his name. Right. I appreciate it. People are yelling at their iPods. No one cares. speak his name. People are yelling at their iPods. No one cares.

Her game, called The Landlord's Game, wasn't identical to what we now know as Monopoly, but it was pretty close. According to Pylon, the game had a square board with nine rectangular spaces on each side, set between corners labelled Go to Jail and Public Park. Okay. Players circled the board, buying up railroads, collecting money and paying rent. She made up two sets of rules, monopolist and anti-monopolist, but her stated goal was to demonstrate the evils of accruing vast sums of wealth at the expense of others.

I mean, if I just describe that to you, there's nine spaces down each side. There's a jail, there's a go to jail. You go around buying and renting. Yeah. Yeah. You got money. It's Monopoly.

It's Monopoly. Yeah. So it's not exactly the same. The go to jail part is like, I don't know any other games that have that. Very few other games are like. Go to jail. Jail for you. Jail.

It's so funny as well that the original game is kind of it as you're describing it's very similar if not identical to the original game except it's it's the original it's sorry it's the original game is just the modern game but they're like oh and this is bad yeah yeah this is not good that's yeah see it's kind of the opposite yeah it's like the inverted it's the same game but with the opposite message yes yeah yeah so she created two sets of rules for a game so the anti-monopolist set rewarded everyone when wealth was created and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents a dualistic approach was a

teaching tool meant to demonstrate that the first set of rules was morally superior. She might have overestimated humanity there. Describing her game, McGee said, it's a practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. In a short time, I hope a very short time, men and women will discover that they are poor because Carnegie and Rockefeller maybe have more than they know what to do with. Her hope was that it was going to help show that maybe the super rich shouldn't have quite as much as they do. Crazy. Insane.

I don't think she'd love to see today's world. I think she'd be a big Bezos fan, actually. I'll have you know. So, no, he worked hard for that. That's true. Worked very hard. Yeah. He should have it and all of it.

Every time you order something from Amazon, Jeff Bezos himself refuses to piss, packs it, and sends it to you. That's right. I mean, I just plugged one of his businesses with Audible as well. I know. I'm part of the problem. I'm sorry, McGee. Sorry. Sorry, Lizzie McGee.

Yeah. As well as inventing games, Lizzie McGee also had a crack at engineering. In the 1890s, she invented a contraption that let paper pass through the typewriter more easily. Oh. Because she was a stenographer. I've always liked the notion of the job of a stenographer because first off, it's a job that

well, maybe a computer can't do it better than a person, but I think it's still so funny and admirable that we do get a person to write down everything that's happening in a courtroom. But then also, I love the concept of chaos happens in the courtroom. But then also I love the concept of chaos happens

in the courtroom and the stenographer still needs to keep track of all of it. Have you seen their funny little computers that they use? Yes, it's got like three keys. It's incredible. Space bar. Tab. I don't know how they do it.

Caps lock. I wouldn't say those are the important ones either Which is crazy Probably space bar Space bar yeah I once saw a keyboard that someone had made That was It only had 10 keys One for each finger

And you It had the full alphabet But it was Like you could pull or push All 10 letters Yeah all 10 letters No you could pull or push. All ten letters? Yeah, all ten letters. No, you could pull or push or push in. So you could, it had like the full.

So once you learn it, it would be way more efficient. And then what the person could do is if they did it all at the same time, the computer would figure out what letters they had pressed and they would be like, well, this is the word clearly that you wanted. And it was wild watching. It was like out of the Matrix or something. It was incredible to watch. Imagine sort of a steep learning curve once you've got it.

It would just be like unstoppable. Look at them go. I know. They're tapping the shit out of that. I'm excited by stuff like that. Yeah, that's really interesting. If I could take that machine and give it to me as a child, I might have some chance of learning how to use it.

Absolutely Buckley's chance now. Yeah, at your advanced age of 44. McGee was also a feminist, mocking marriage and how it was seen as the only option for women. She put out a newspaper ad selling herself as a wife to the highest bidder as a sort of protest against it. The ad made news around the country and when asked by reporters what she was aiming to do, she told them that it was to shine a light on the subjugation of women saying, we are not machines. Girls have minds, desires, hopes, and ambitions. So yeah, she did a lot of different things. Incredible. Well, when you're not married, you've got so much more time on your hands to do things.

You know what I mean? Marriage takes up a lot of your time. A lot of your time fetching pipes and slippers. You've got to fetch pipes. You've got to make the bed, I guess. Making a martini. You've got to make a martini. Does he want a dirty, extra dirty today?

I don't know. Oh, extra dirty martini. Does he want it dirty? Extra dirty today. I don't know. Oh, extra dirty martini. Oh, no. No. Filthy. Does he want it filthy? Setting your alarm half an hour earlier so you can do makeup before your husband wakes up. So he never sees you as you actually are, you disgusting monster.

So, yeah, she did all these other things. But the game, that was her big passion. Back to Pylon. After years of tinkering, writing, and pondering her new creation, Lizzie entered the US Patent Office on the 23rd of March, 1903 to secure her legal claim to the Landlord's Game.

Coincidentally, this was the same day the Wright Brothers filed their first patent for their flying machine. Coincidence? I think not. Yeah, I'm like, is that a coincidence? It's just, I mean, that's maybe interestingly. We did an episode about the Wright Brothers back in the day. Do you recall it, Jess? Nah.

At least two years later, she published a version of the game through Economic Game Company, a New York-based firm, which I believe was formed by Lizzie and other followers of Henry George. Economic Game Company. Yeah, it's pretty snappy. A lot of pizzazz to that name. EGC? It's not terrible.

But it's not fun. No. But it's not supposed to be. It's an economic game. Yeah. Yeah, no one's meant to have fun playing this game. That was what her ad said. Yeah. This isn't for fun. If you start having fun, you're playing it wrong. You're playing this game. That was what her ad said.

This isn't for fun. If you start having fun, you're playing it wrong. You're playing it wrong if you're having fun. Have some respect. If you're having fun, you're probably not playing the anti-monopoly version. Try that one and learn about morals. At the time she put her application in, fewer than 1% of patents in the US came from women. At that point, women didn't even have the right to vote,

so she was really a pioneer. McGee moved to Chicago looking for more opportunities. There she continued inventing games. One of them, called Mock Trial, was published by Parker Brothers in 1910 and only had very mild success, but got published by one of the big game makers. Yeah. That same year she was married, had the advanced age of 44.

So now she's got no time to do anything. And this might have come as a bit of a shock to some as she was so anti-marriage. Yeah. She said when she did that stunt about selling herself to the highest bidder, she said, who's got time for marriage anyway? Maybe if you could have three days on, four days off. Maybe I could do it then.

She actually said that? Yeah. That is so funny. That is great. That rules. Also, I just don't understand what marriage was back then. Why was it so time consuming? Oh, I think that was.

I just need a day off from marriage. Well, I think wives, I mean, I don't know, but my impression is wives back then were basically servants. Oh, yeah. You didn't work if you were married. You couldn't work. You weren't allowed to. Because you didn't have any time because you were doing the, you were basically the housemaid. It just wasn't appropriate.

Like, why would you, why would you be at work when there's a house to be looked after? It would also be quite emasculating to the husband. Oh, yeah, imagine. Imagine if your wife worked. Oh, that'd be so embarrassing. Everyone would know you had a little wiener. Yeah. That's what people would think and say.

That's what people would think and say if your wife worked. Nothing else, though. There'd be nothing. No other repercussions, but that's pretty bad. Yeah, that's bad enough. Sorry, toots. You're not going back to work. I got a big dick.

And I want everyone to know. Don't tell him the truth. Don't tell him, please. Please. What was that? He's giving her a little kiss. Oh, I see. Yeah, he was sucking.

I thought one of them was calling the other one over like they were a cat. Come here. Come on. the other one over like they were a cat. Come here. Come on. I really only bring up the marriage because of this one fact about a husband. Because it's a huge part of a woman's life. Yes, and that.

And it's the most important part. Well, it takes up a lot of time. It takes so much time. Yes. Thank you so much for saying it. Yeah, it does. Bread to bake. Well, I mean, since Dave's been married,

he's been missing so many episodes of this show. That's true. He's probably off right now doing marriage. Marriage stuff. He's doing it. That's true. Well, not doing it. He's definitely not doing it. He could be. We don't know. I mean, we don't know for sure, but we know.

We know. Adam, that's very kind, but we know. All right, fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. So her husband was a businessman named Albert Phillips, and he was involved in a scandal in 1889. He was taken to court over his saucy publication named Climax, which featured photos of curvaceous women with sultry faces and exposed arms and knees.

Oh my gosh. Arms and knees. Are you kidding me? So he's a pervert. Yes. Is what you're telling me. She's married a perv. She married a perv.

She could have done so much better. Yeah. Did he, okay, yeah, now I'm going to just let you keep talking. Well, I mean, that's all I know about him. But did she continue? But, I mean, I think it's a worthy thing to know. Do we need to know anything else? Climax.

Shut up. You can't name a magazine Climax. You can't name it Climax. I can't. Call it orgasm or something. Just a monthly. God, I'd have a subscription to that. And just knees Does that mean

Then the The shins are covered Yeah Socks Sort of ripped jeans Is what the models were wearing Shorts High socks

Yeah That's what we're talking about The sexiest combo You shouldn't be saying that In polite company Adam The sexy clothes window As it's often referred to Get a peek of my Sexy clothes window, as it's often referred to.

Get a peek of my sexy clothes window. Yeah. Knee cleavage. Kneevage? Yeah, kneevage. Yeah. And it's equivalent, sorry, it's equivalent elbowage. Oh, elbows.

Elbowage. Check out those elbows. check out the elbows of the arms no the boobs of the arms sorry the elbows of the arms they are

yeah that one made sense yeah I think of the wrist as the elbow of the arm yeah yeah

I see that I see that her game sold to Britain under the name confusingly to me Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit with slightly different rules.

Okay. What? Yeah, it was made in Scotland. Okay. Yeah, is Fox and Br'er Rabbit like a book series or something? Yeah. Br'er Fox or something, I think. Yeah, vaguely rings a bell.

Anyway, yeah, that's a strange reworking of it. Okay. I think it was, you know, not super successful, but. Yeah. According to Pylon, on April the 28th, 1923, Lizzie, now in her 50s and known professionally as E.M. Phillips, filed to update her landlord's game patent. She used the opportunity to revise some of the game's features, though the core of the game remained the same.

Lizzie added Chicago-based spaces to the board, including Lakeshore Drive and The Loop. She also added small numbers on the outside perimeter, denoting separate property groupings. Now that's done by colour, but so even that she'd already done. I mean, she didn't make it colour though, which is probably certainly more aesthetically pleasing than numbers. I don't think they had, it was all black and white back then.

Like the world was black and white. Yes. Isn't there actually a thing where it was considered odd, like something that you would actually see a doctor about if you dreamed in color? Because I think it was especially during the advent of black and white television, early television, because people saw things in black and white so often. If you dreamed in color, that would be a reason to go to the doctor. Wow. They forgot that they could see color. Yeah, I know, which is crazy because everything aside, you look slightly left or right to the TV and you can see color.

Wow. That's amazing. That's bonkers. Humans really shouldn't exist, should we? Like some of the dumb stuff we've done, it's like, oh, we shouldn't be here. I like the idea that

Monopoly was invented by Darrow, not Lizzie McGee. It was colours instead of numbers and stuff. Does that mean, is there something we can do here by taking, you know, like Amazon and just changing something slightly and then owning our own huge empire?

I wonder. If you want to create a competitor to Amazon, you are welcome to do so. Okay. I wish you the best of luck. Okay. You're right. I think I want to be involved. Sounds like a bit of work.

Yeah. Who has the time? And I'm not even married. I know. You know, at this age. People are talking. Yeah. The things people say to me.

They say, is he okay? I said, no. Of course not. At that advanced age? Unmarried? Scandalous. Must have a tiny penis. He must have a tiny penis.

Wait, doesn't this mean I have a huge... No, you're right. It is a... Well, actually, I guess it's not been confirmed. Yes. To be decided. Yeah. Schrodinger's cock.

Yeah. While the game was commercially available, it was also being passed around from friend to friend with homemade boards. As the game spread, it became a favorite of academics and intellectuals being played at universities including Harvard and Columbia. Harvard. Harvard. Scott Nearing, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School,

was one of many university professors who used it as a teaching tool. Another one was Columbia teacher with a fantastic name, Rexford Tugwell. Get the fuck out. Rexford Tugwell. Uh-huh. Rexford Tugwell. Uh-huh. Rex Tugwell. Rexford Tugwell. Rex Tugwell. Yeah.

And he's a professor. Yeah, he's teaching it up. But by night, he's like an explorer. Yeah. He's an Indiana Jones. Yeah, that's right. By night, he features in Climax Magazine. That's right.

Rexford Tugwell. Holy shit. Yeah, one of the greats. Yes. Rexford Tugwell. Holy shit. Yeah, one of the greats. That is a name you see in a movie and go, bloody hell, they had some fun making up that name. But this is a person's actual name. Yeah, his parents had fun making that up.

Rexford Tugwell. See, that's why marriage is so time consuming because as a wife you spend a lot of time coming up with incredible names. They don't just happen. because as a wife, you spend a lot of time coming up with incredible names. Yeah. They don't just happen. And I guess it's like you take forever to pick a husband as well because you're trying to find the tugwells of this world. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You want to get a good – Can't take too long though. You don't want to get to your late teens and not be married. Oh, my God. How embarrassing. Yeah. Ugh. According to pile on the Neerings, so this is Scott Neering and his partner,

the professor from the University of Pennsylvania. They're among those who started calling the Landlord's Game Monopoly or the Monopoly Game, shorthand for what they felt was the game's core message. So that just sort of started happening organically as the game was being passed around. It's also possible that Nearing didn't even realize that McGee had invented the game because, you know, it'd been passed on. People were just hand-making their own game. You know, it's different times. People are able to, they're better at craft back then. So people crafting their own versions.

It's kind of fun. I don't think that really happens anymore that people pass around a homemade version. Like word of mouth games. It's really interesting. So people, they'd have a games night or something and the guests would be like, oh, we love this game. And then they'd make it before they go home, I guess. That's very cool to imagine. I quite like that.

Yeah, I think it's really, really nice as well. And I think McGee, I don't know how much you knew about it, but the vibe I get is she wouldn't have minded that. Yeah, I don't think so either. She was happy for the game and the message to be being spread. No one's making money out of it. It's just like this sort of nice organic thing. I can imagine other people would be like, hey, whoa, go to the shop and buy it. You dogs. As the game was passed around, it slowly evolved. In the late 1920s, a college student in

Indianapolis named Ruth Hoskins was taught the game by her friend Pete and James Daggett, her friends Pete and James Daggett, her friends Pete and James Daggett, who referred to it as Monopoly as well. The Daggett brothers taught Hoskins how to play, and according to Pylon, showed her how to make her own handmade board complete with residential properties, railroads, and utilities. All the board's property names referenced Midwestern and Northeastern locales. Among them were Grosse Pointe in Michigan and the Bowery in New York City.

The board had jail and go-to-jail spaces and players received $200 every time they passed go. So a lot of these things that you're still familiar with. Obviously the locations were different. They were being changed as the game moved around different places. I guess that's kind of always been a tradition of Monopoly to change the places to being more local names. Yeah.

Yeah. I think now there's even like a Melbourne version, a Sydney version. Pokemon version, a Star Wars version. Yeah. I think, yeah, pretty much any niche interest you have, there's probably a Monopoly version of it. Yeah. Then in 1929, when Ruth moved to Atlantic City to become a teacher at a Quaker school,

she brought the game with her. She introduced it to other Quakers, including her teaching colleagues Cyril and Ruth Harvey. Ruth was a big name back then, apparently. Bit of Ruth on Ruth, actually. Love a Ruth. Yeah. Ruth's good. Oh, yeah.

The Harveys loved the game and started hosting popular Monopoly nights at their house. I love it. These Quakers are going to have a party. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't fully know what a Quaker is apart from they make oats. I think it's like a... Actually, no.

They were never involved in that. Oh, never involved in that? And very upset that they... Oh. Yeah, yeah. Used as branding. Yeah, because the... That is a weird choice.

I don't know the name of the person who owns the company or whatever, but when he was designing the brand, he was like, well, people trust Quakers, so I'll call it Quaker Oats. And the Quaker community were very upset. That's such a weird choice. Yeah. I should before- I mean, I'm going to mention Quakers a little bit,

and I didn't look up what it actually means. I should probably- It's like a denomination of Christianity. Right. Kind of. I mean, let's just check in with this great resource I've just done called wikipedia.org. I think I've heard of them.

Yeah, I guess it's sort of like a Quaker compendium of Quaker knowledge. I thought it was like a encyclopedia Britannica dot com dot au sort of

thing. Oh maybe. Yeah. Yeah I'm not sure. I mean I've only just stumbled upon

it now so I couldn't tell you. Yeah. But all I've seen of it is that it's got Quaker

stuff. That's fair enough. That's fair enough. Yeah. I don't want to jump to conclusions.

We shouldn't. It says Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Yeah, isn't that cute? Oh, that's nice.

Oh my God. That was funny. Oh my gosh. Sorry, keep going. Members of these movements are generally united by the belief in each human's ability to experience the light within or see that of God in everyone. All right. So, yes, the Harveys and these Quakers. I think one of the Harveys is a principal at the school,

the Friends School. That makes sense because the schools are called the Friends School. Yeah, okay. But instead I wrote down Quaker School because I'm like, no one's going to know what Friends School means. According to Pylon, Ruth Harvey created copies of the game for her friends on a long sheet of oil cloth that covered the entire dining room table. Using a small paintbrush, she drew thick lines to separate the board's properties. At some point, a corner space on the board that had originally been a community park had evolved into free parking.

Atlantic City Hotels had started using that phrase in their marketing materials, as more and more travellers were now arriving by car rather than by rail. As a kid, that always confused me, the free parking skirt. Like, what does that mean? Free parking, I guess. Yeah, it's just, there's a picture of a car. I probably should have put it together. Huh, yeah.

Jesse Rayford, a real estate agent and friend of the Harveys, assisted Ruth by making little wooden boxes to use as the game's houses. Jesse then experimented with using colour sequences on the board, finally deciding to divide the properties into groups of three. Closely familiar with Atlantic City property values, he also affixed prices to the board game. The Quaker community were also responsible for adding local Atlantic City street names to the game.

According to Ruth Hoskins' friend Ruth Harvey's daughter Ruth Mavronolos... What? Why so many Ruths? Do we just not know this person's name? Can we not just name them? Well, I just really wanted to let you know that it was... Her name is Ruth Mavronikoulos. That's an incredible name.

But she's the daughter of Ruth Harvey, who is the friend of Ruth Hoskins. Yeah. I just wanted you to know that we're in Ruth country now. We're in the Ruth of it. Yeah. Thank you. So every space, according to Ruth mavron nicholas uh every space on the board is somewhere that her family lived or their friends had lived or where wealthy people lived so they're all

direct references and they're the ones still on the american version of the board to this day. Oh. In 1932, Jesse Rayford passed on. Sorry. 1932, Jesse Rayford passed on this Atlantic City version of the game to his brother, Eugene, who lived in Philadelphia. Eugene, another great name in my opinion. Love. Big fan of Eugene. Eugene's good.

Not enough Eugenes. Eugene. It'll come back. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, Eugene, the sort of name for someone who works on a train, my opinion. If you work on a train, good chance your name. Eugene. It'll come back. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, Eugene, the sort of name for someone who works on a train, my opinion. If you work on a train, good chance your name is Eugene. Or good chance your name should be Eugene.

And if you're thinking about changing your name, consider Eugene. Yeah. In turn, the Rayfords taught the game to his Philadelphia friends, Charles and Olive Todd. So the game is big in Atlantic City. They have a big game of science and stuff. It's been passed around there. It's evolving. They've put a bit of their mark on it.

And then Jesse Rayford passed it on to his brother, Eugene Rayford, who lived in Philadelphia. Oh, Eugene's wife's name, by the way, was Ruth. Yeah, wasn't this around the time where everyone's name was Ruth? Yes. Like, literally everyone in the world? Yeah. Yeah, I think this would have been around that time.

It was around that brief time period, yeah. Yeah, like a decade between 1922 and 1932, everyone was Ruth. Everyone was Ruth. Yeah, it was a real weird blip. Yeah. Truly coincidental. No one had sort of talked about it. Yeah. Just everyone was Ruth. There was no was a real weird blip. Yeah. Truly coincidental. No one had sort of talked about it. Just everyone was Ruth.

There was no collusion. It was wild. Yeah. The list of popular baby's names was very short. It was just Ruth. Even pets. All the pets were Ruth. They were all Ruth.

Crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Every pigeon you see, Ruth. Yeah. They're all descendant from a Ruth. Yeah. I mean. Ruth. Yep. They're all descendant from a Ruth. Yeah. I mean. That was very good.

Bless. Thank you. So it's been passed via the Rayford brothers. It's now ended up in Philadelphia with Charles and Olive Todd. By this stage, as well as the Atlantic City place names, the game featured Go, free parking, community chess, and chance spaces. All evolutions of concepts McGee had included in her game 30 years earlier. So they're not all brand new things.

They just went from a park to free parking. You can see a direct line. Quick question. Everyone here, when you play Monopoly, is free parking the space? When you land on it, do you get the cash? I haven't played in a long time, but I reckon that's how we used to play. Yeah, I think so. Apparently that's not a real rule. It's not a real rule. It's just the most popular home rule. And it means that the game goes for way longer than it otherwise would. Oh yeah. Which is interesting because people complain about how long it takes.

Yeah. And one of the rules that's not one of the rules is complain about how long it takes. Yeah. And one of the rules that's not one of the rules is one of the reasons it takes so long. It's very funny. That's funny. I didn't know that until this week reading about it. I'm like, no shit. I thought that was the point of it. So people like just don't read the rules, I guess.

People see free parking and they think, oh, yeah, free. Free money. I get money. Yeah. Free, I get money. Yeah. Free, I get money. Yeah. That's what I'm seeing on the board here. It says free, I get money.

So Charles and Olive Todd love the game. Olive is, I'm guessing, a nickname. I assume a real name is Ruth. Yeah. They love the game. They invited their friends over to play. A bit of a double date. Their friends were the couple named Esther and Charles Darrow.

Esther, again, a nickname. Her name is Ruth. Yeah, of course. And also Darrow. And now there's, amongst these four, there's two Charleses as well. So it's all Charles and Ruth. Stop it. Genuinely, though, there seems to be like six names in this story. Do you have any close friends that you hang out with on a regular

basis that have the same name as you? Yeah, but none of them are known as Matt. And I'm probably not known as Matt to them. Yeah, right. Yeah. There's one group of old friends where there's like four or five Matts. That's too many Matts. So everyone's just known by their surname. Yeah. That's wild. There's a lot of Toms at Sant's Pants, and we call them all different things.

But there's no other Adams, or not in any of my friendship groups. Yeah. No, I don't have another Jess. And I won't. I refuse. Yeah, that's not a coincidence. No, no, no. You just refuse to befriend any Jesses. That's right. There's only one, and it is't. I refuse. Yeah, that's not a coincidence. No, no, no. That's my choice.

You just refuse to befriend any Jesses. That's right. There was only one and it is me. Yeah. I'm everyone's Jess. You're in the no Jess club. I don't even like it if my close friends have another Jess. I'm like, I don't feel comfortable with that.

So you cut them off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or you at least give them an ultimatum. Yeah, say it's me or the Jess. Yeah. You're not brutal about it. You give them a choice. Yeah, give them a choice.

It must be confusing if they don't know which Jess you're talking about. Well, yes, if they've got multiple Jesses too. Well, then it's like, well, this is a lost cause. Yeah. See you later. See you never. Better to prune the dying flesh than to, yeah, deal with it. Fair enough.

I won't do it. Yeah, deal with it. Fair enough. I won't do it. So, corner pile on at this little double date with the Daros and the Tods. The two couples sat around the board enthusiastically rolling the dice, buying up properties and moving their tokens around. The Tods were pleased to note that the Daros liked the game. In fact, they were so taken with it,

Charles Todd made them a set of their own and began teaching them some of the more advanced rules. The game didn't have an official name, it wasn't sold in a box, but passed from friend to friend and everyone called it the Monopoly game. Together with other friends, they played many more times. One day, despite all his exposure to the game, Darrow asked Charles Todd for a written copy of the rules. Todd was slightly perplexed. Why do you want them, Todd asked Darrow.

Darrow replied that he'd like to have them to teach other friends the game. Todd did as Darrow had requested and wrote down the rules. He then asked the Rayfords to review them for accuracy before giving a few copies of the rules to Darrow. The Todds version of the game still used all the Atlantic City place names, but they had one of the names written with a slight spelling mistake. Marvin Gardens spelt Marvin with an I instead of the correct Marvin with an E. Embarrassing. Marvin Gardens being one of the places that Ruth Harvey lived at one point.

As the Todds weren't from Atlantic City, it was an easy spelling mistake for them to make. Charles and Esther Darrow were struggling financially. Charles had lost his job as a salesman in the Great Depression. This is when Darrow had the idea of a new game, Monopoly. Well, yep. He had the idea of a new game. Yep.

He went down to his basement and it just came to him. This is the story he told. I've just had an idea of a network of podcasts, for example. And I'm going to call it Sans Pants. Wow. That's great. That's pretty good. Yeah. And I'm going to call it Sans Pants. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. That's pretty good.

Yeah, pretty... Do you need a DM? Do you need someone to do dungeon mastering? It's very unique and different and new. Yeah. It came to me. I went downstairs and this new game came to me. I was just reading this little... I guess you'd call it a rule book, I suppose.

I was reading through it and I was like monopoly yeah a new game yeah that i've just thought of me alone isn't amazing just when he needed it the most he came up with a million dollar idea wow uh before selling it he went about improving the design he got an an artist friend named Franklin Alexander to help with this. Over the following weeks, the two played the game regularly with Alexander slowly adding illustrations. So Alexander was like a political cartoonist and stuff. I don't think it's exactly known what elements Alexander added to the game, but it does sound like he jazzed it up a lot.

Pizazz. Yeah, he added pizzazz. He gave it a certain, how do you say? Oh, how do you say? Je ne sais quoi. Yes, je ne sais quoi. A certain specific, a little something, something, a legally distinct.

Yes. Yeah, he added that, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, he got it looking even more like the game we're familiar with now, even though Darrow's initial version of the game was circular. I guess that was him going, no, no, this is different. That one's square. It's not a pyramid scheme.

It's an upside down pyramid. It's completely the opposite. Yeah. Down pyramid. It's completely the opposite. Yeah. But apparently, so Alexander, yeah, it's unclear which bits he did, but he might have done, you know, like it sounds like maybe the prison guard and those sort of things might have been his drawings.

But he never saw any money from it. And he apparently wasn't really upset about it. Apparently he remained friends with Darrow for the rest of their lives. But, yeah, he never really got any credit or money. Darrow took his creation and stole it? Well, you know. We have no evidence of this ever happening before from Darrow.

According to Pylon, it's unclear whether the early Mr. Monopoly was Alexander's creation, but the original character, which is stylized and drawn in thick black lines, bears a strong resemblance to his cartoon work. Can I say, this might be, this is neither really here nor there, but I assume the thick black lines is something that the original source material keeps saying. It's just weird that they keep describing things as being thick black lines. The lines in between all of the different spaces were thick black lines as well.

The drawings are thick black lines. I think at one point thick black lines are what the names of the places are written as as well. I just think it's really, really, all right, we get it. They're lines. They're lines. Distinct. We can see them. You know, Ruth wrote her name in thick black lines as well.

Which one? Yeah, which Ruth? Ruth is also a plural for Ruth. Oh, yes, of course. It's like the collective noun of Ruth. Yeah. We've got a Ruth of Ruths right now. Inside the game were more illustrated figures,

including a scolding police officer and a criminal sulking behind bars in the jail space. Yep. The go-to-jail and railway property cards were virtually identical to the cards found inside Monopoly games today, but the chance and community chess cards were still devoid of illustration.

Property cards were printed on assorted colours of paper and paper money, including a $500 bill. The new art and elegant packaging of Darrow's game elevated it to something approaching a work of art, a game people would want to bring into their homes, present to their families and friends, and play for hours. So that's Pylon's words there. I think people do want to give Darrow some credit for adding,

like a lot of other people have before. He added something as he had it, but he just took credit for all of it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So even though Darrow fully ripped off the game, he did add a bit to it as well, at least with the help of his friend Alexander. Darrow found a local printer

and started selling his version of the game independently, but it was selling quite well, so he wanted to look into getting it sold through one of the big players. He contacted two of the big guns, Milton Bradley, who I think was around for longer. I mean, these were the two big guns when I was a kid. I don't know, Parker Brothers maybe wasn't as big at the time,

but they were still pretty big. So he sent letters to Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley going, check out this brand new game I've invented. Yeah, it's incredible. How did it come to me? I don't know. I was in the basement. And I know it's going to do incredibly well

because heaps of people are already playing. I mean, people are just going to love it. Okay. I don't know why, but I know it's got a captive audience. You can't ask any follow-up questions. But trust me on this one. A winky blinky. He's written that out. Winky blinky.

I'm reading it going, this is a very unprofessional letter. But I do remember playing this game. Yeah. So I know it's good. I love this game. Well, it turns out the Parker brothers and Milton Bradley weren't familiar with the game, and they both sent rejection letters. Oh.

As it turned out, both companies were also doing it pretty tough. It was a great depression time. It was a good time to have depression, baby. It was a great. It was a great depression time. Shush. Absolutely shush. The golden age for Ruth's and depression.

Sorry, Ruth and depression. Ruth and depression. So, yeah, both companies had pretty disastrous sales figures um and maybe for that reason they just weren't in a position to take on new games so instead he continued producing it and selling it independently and before long sales started really taking off it was now being sold in many stores including amer America's oldest toy store, FAO Schwartz. Side note, I'm like, oh, that vaguely rings a bell. And I looked it up, and it's maybe best known, or at least to me, for its giant floor piano, which was featured in the 1988 film Big, where Tom Hanks played chopsticks and another old-timey

song, sort of dancing around on the board. Or the parody version in The Simpsons. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I think it's one of those scenes that's been parodied a bunch because it was pretty iconic. Yeah. Yeah. Being featured in the FAO Schwartz catalogue

brought the game back to the attention of Parker Brothers. In 1933, while Parker Brothers was struggling financially, founder George Parker stepped down to let his son-in-law, Robert Barton, take over the running of his company. Apparently, he said to Robert Barton, so I guess George Parker had two sons and a daughter, and his two sons had worked for the company, didn't want to take on the main role. He asked Robert Barton and apparently said, I've run out of sons. Do you want to do it? And Robert Barton's like, okay.

I've run out of sons. Oh, God. You just married my daughter. And my daughter's too busy. She's too busy being a wife. God. So, yeah, Barton said he'd do it. He had no experience in the gaming world at all.

His daughter Sally, I guess, had grown up in the industry. Yeah. But she was busy being a wife. I remember the beginning of this, the ad in the newspaper. Yeah, yeah. That was good. That was fun. Anyway, keep going.

Nah, it's a pretty uplifting story for sure. Yeah. Yep. was good that was fun anyway keep going now it's a pretty uplifting story for sure yeah yeah after parker's daughter and barton's wife sally heard about the uh schwartz's new popular new game she told her husband and dad about it so she did play a big role in them getting monopoly she's like she'd heard about she's like we should take another look at this according to pile on parker brothers had rejected darrow's game earlier because it was found to be too complicated and too wonky. And who would want to play a real estate game now anyway

when housing was at the root of so much distress for many American families? I'd love to play a game where I can afford to buy a house. Are you kidding me? Which I think is what turned out to be the truth. Why do you think I play The Sims? You can get a house for like 30 grand. Oh man. That's an expensive house too.

You could type in like five keys as well and just get a 10,000 simoleons or whatever. Yeah. I got a new cheat I learned the other day. You can just type in free real estate and move into any house you want. Whoa. Yeah. Incredible stuff. I remember I used to play SimCity 2000,

and I know you could type F-U-N-D fund, and it would give you $10,000. And I thought that was free. I thought it was a money cheat, but actually it's the shortcut to take out a loan. And you're in a lot of trouble. You're putting yourself in so much debt. I spent years being like, why is it that I do really well,

and then suddenly everything tanks? Because I would type fund 6, 10, 20 times all at once. I would have these incredible loans that I would have to suddenly pay off. Oh man.

I thought the code was fundee. Yeah. So Fargo Brothers had rejected the game because they didn't think people would be keen on it. But with his firm poise for collapse and nothing to lose, Barton decided to listen to his wife and buy Darrow's Monopoly. Travelling from Boston to Manhattan, Barton summoned Darrow to the Parker Brothers showroom. What a cool progressive guy. He listened to his wife. Well, there was nothing else to lose.

Well, I guess we'll give it a go, toots. Listens to his wife? He's a true feminist. Sign me up. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have a man who listens to me. When I read that, I saw a lot of myself in him. I'm like, look, like you, I'm a feminist. Yes.

I say, Tuggington, I had this incredible idea the other day. My wife, I was ignoring her, as I always do. And then the craziest thing struck me. always do. And then the craziest thing struck me. What if and this may sound crazy to you. So he listened to his wife.

He got on a Darrow. They had a meeting and Darrow quickly agreed to the terms. They drew up a contract that allowed Parker Brothers to buy Darrow's version of the game for a reported $7,000, which was quite a lot of money at the time, tens and tens, maybe over $100,000 even. As well as that, he also got residuals,

so he made money with every game sold as well. The version included artwork by Darrow's friend Franklin Alexander, but like I say, Alexander never got credit or cash for it, and all the details that the Quakers had added to the game, including the Atlantic City locations, the hotels, the colour groupings of the properties, the income tax, the 10% space, the Marvin Gardens misspelling that had originated with the Todds. And though Darrow would later claim it was his spelling mistake, it's since been found

that the Todds handmade game featured the same mistake, and that's been proven. And that all helped prove Darrow had ripped it all off. So that spelling mistake was kind of crucial in some ways, proving the true story. That's like, I'm so sorry. I know I keep doing this. But there's a... Interrupting. We said stay white.

I know. I remember that is what I'm supposed to be doing. Make like a 1910s housewife and shut up. He's the feminist of the pod. Anyway, what were you saying? There's like a real life thing where map makers will on purpose insert errors into their maps so that then they can tell if someone's copying their map because they can be like, this street does not exist.

So you have to have copied my map. Amazing. Yes. Oh, that's it. No, we didn't copy yours. We copied the guy who copied yours. Yeah. And there's an incredible example.

Oh, sorry. In that act out, I just realized what I'd done. Ah, I see. Love realizing of what you've done in an act. But there's an incredible example as well of in the United States, I don't know the name of the town, but a fake town was put onto a map. And then because people kept seeing this fake town, just a general store was opened there.

And the person was like, oh, I don't know the name of this area. And he finds the name of the fake town. And so he's like, fake town general store. And then a town builds up around this fake. They all thought that was the name of the town, but it wasn't. That is so good. That's good stuff. It's probably Gary, Indiana. Yeah.

That does sound made up. The only explanation. Yeah, it's got to be made up. Anyway, sorry. Please keep going. That's great. Of course, the city of Gary was named after its founder, Mr. Gary. Mr. Gary.

Mr. Gary Town. Which is true, I believe. Mr. Gary Garrison. All right, everybody. We'll be back after these short messages. Assuming some get put in here. If not, we'll be back really quickly. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

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Or we can learn from Indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Let's go back to the great Mary Pylon Charles Todd didn't hear from There's so much of this, it's so grim There's so many names, I'm struggling a little bit to get up So Charles Todd, he was one of the two who taught the game to the Darrow

Yes, yes, yes, thank you And he wrote up the rules Which were up the rules. Yep. Which were exactly the rules, the exact rules that Darrow put in his game. Yeah, he didn't even change them a little. So Charles Todd didn't hear from Charles Darrow after he handed him the written rules to the Monopoly game. But they were friends. Yeah.

Never heard from him again. He found that strange. He thought they were becoming really good friends, but Darrow seemed to be avoiding him. Then one day, Todd saw Darrow in a most unusual place, on a poster in a local bank, advertising a demonstration of a great new business game

called Monopoly, by Charles Darrow. The sight of the poster infuriated Todd. He was angry not just with Darrow, but also with himself, for being the one who taught the game to Darrow. He tried to confront Darrow, but when either Charles or Esther Darrow saw Todd walking down the street, they crossed the road or ducked into a store.

It's hard to talk to people when they're... On the other side of the road. Yeah, what can you do? What can I do? I can't cross the road. Yeah, it's funny, like the social rules back can I do? I can't cross the road. Yeah, it's funny. Like the social rules back then, well, I can't make a scene. They've crossed the road. I have to let it go.

Todd felt that he couldn't sue Darrow over the game because he himself hadn't invented the game. He just copied it from the Rayfords. He felt like there was nothing he could do. So he just sort of had to let it go. Absolutely heartbreaking. He was heartbroken. I mean, he just thought they were mates. Yeah.

It's so brutal. Soon after buying Darrow's Monopoly, Parker Brothers also contacted Lizzie McGee. So you might be thinking, oh, well, Parker Brothers, they would have had no idea about the original game. It's also quite, people are like, it's weird that Darrow was able to get a patent on Monopoly himself. They should have checked and found that you can't. But yeah, somehow he got one. But obviously Parker Brothers found out about Lizzie McGee and her game because they contacted her right after buying Darrow's Monopoly.

Yes. And they struck a deal with her to purchase the landlord's game patent and two more of her game ideas. And it sounds like she was only paid $500 and no royalties. A much shittier deal than what Darrow got. Also a much shittier deal than, I'm not going to go into it, but there's a few other games that evolved out of Lizzie's game. Yeah.

And Parker Brothers bought them as well for much more money, like $10,000 and stuff like that. I mean, you know, devil's advocate over here. She doesn't need more money than $500. She has a husband. Okay, that's a good point. That's true. That's true, yeah.

So it's like what's she going to do with more money? Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But like the other people that they're buying games off, husbands. So they need more money. That's true. To give to their wives.

Yeah. Well, to give an allowance of the money to the wives to buy, I don't know, vegetables or whatever wives buy. I don't know. Imagine a crazy idea, like a woman having a bank account. Oh, God. Adam. We should or whatever wives buy. I don't know. Imagine a crazy idea like a woman having a bank account. Oh, God. Adam. We should make that a game. Okay.

Like an alternate reality where women can have bank accounts. Yes. That's fun. But, I mean, it's also possible, I guess, that they, I mean, it's definitely true that they took advantage of her. She wanted to make games, so she saw this as an in with them. And she thought she'd make more games, whereas maybe the others, they knew they needed to cash in or whatever.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she was also, like, someone who was, like, actively involved in the greater good. For sure. I don't think she would want to be like, oh, perfect. I've solved this game and I'm a bajillionaire. Yeah.

She didn't like that, the way that the society was going where people were just cashing in big time, I guess. But yes, I'm definitely confident she wouldn't have might have been a little more comfortable. Yeah. She was living paycheck to paycheck. Yeah. She was earning 10 bucks a week doing the yeah she was earning 10 bucks a week with doing the typing gosh 10 bucks a week which so then being paid 500 is like yeah so that was a that was a bit of money you know that was a decent chunk of change yeah i think especially compared to how much money monopoly made yeah yeah 500 is quite a lot compared to how much monopoly made

yeah monopoly didn't make much more than that. No. Did it even cover that cost? No. Yeah. I don't think Parker Brothers made any money on that, to be honest. Well, I forget because I wrote this in the last week. So as I continue reading, maybe we'll find out.

But yeah, I think you're right. Someone should check that. How much? What did you say it was? Monopoly? I don't think I've heard of this. I don't know it. Yeah.

I'm not much of a gamer, though. Yeah. That's what people mean when they say gamer? Yeah, I'm a gamer. I got Pokemon and Star Wars Monopoly. So, yeah. I play Solitaire on the daily. In my man cave.

God. in my man cave. So the way I read it, they bought the patent to bury her game and avoid any legal action. Yeah. Which I think is probably how most people would read it. Yeah. They only produced, I think, 200 copies of the Landlord's Game. So part of the deal was, she said,

but it has to be made exactly like I want it to be made. And they only made 200 copies of it and they didn't really advertise it. Yeah, cool. So it was just like they said they would to get the deal. We made it. Yeah, made the minimum amount. Oh, it didn't really sell, so we're going to delete it.

It's not nice. And they were clearly not open about their motivations in dealing with her because according to Pylon, in a letter to George Parker, McGee expressed high hopes for the future of her Landlord's game after selling it at Parker Brothers and the prospect of having two more games published with the company. Yet there's no evidence that the Parker Brothers share this optimism.

So she was feeling like it was great. This was the start of a great relationship. They were going to make lots of games. But yeah, she didn't realize that they were just using her to avoid legal liability or whatever. Cool. Despite the obvious similarities between the games, there was no mention of McGee on the new Monopoly box, apart from her patent number in tiny print.

So they've clearly admitted that the game's inspired by it. Didn't say that they were taking it. She didn't know about this Monopoly game or Darrow. She didn't know about any of that. So when she realized what had happened, she was, let's say, pissed off. Okay, P.O.'d. P.O.'d. She was P.O.'d. She, P.O.'d. P.O.'d. She was P.O.'d.

She was P.O.'d right O. Well, I mean, you know, probably that time of the month. Women. According. I can say it, Adam. It's okay. Jess and I can say it. Yeah, I know you can say it.

Yeah, of course. I can say it because I'm a feminist. Jess can say it. Yeah. Because I led her. As the dominant male in this situation, it is up to you to ultimately decide what is and isn't acceptable. Well, I don't like to put it in those terms.

I think of myself as the dominant feminist. Being a male has got nothing to do with it, Adam. And that's kind of offensive, actually, to put it in those terms. So according to Pylem, in 1936, she interviewed with the Washington Post and the Evening Star and expressed her anger at Darrow's appropriation of her idea. Then elderly, you know, so by this stage she's in a, I mean, they're saying elderly, but I think she's in her 60s. 60s, yeah.

Past the best years, her childbearing years. Now useless. So she hoisted her own game boards before a photographer, comparing it with the Monopoly game board, being like, huh? So there's photos of her going, look, it's obviously a ripoff. Yeah. And you'd think that would going, look, it's obviously a ripoff. Yeah. And you'd think that would have, like, just ended Monopoly, but it hardly made a dint in the whole story.

People were lapping up this Darrow story. He just came up with it. It's incredible. Great depression. He was desperate for money, and then he had this million-dollar idea. And it was a million-dollar idea. desperate for money and then he had this million dollar idea. And it was a million dollar idea. Monopoly became a smash

hit pretty much overnight. Selling 278,000 copies in its first year and more than 1,750,000 the next. Saving the Parker brothers business and making Darrow a millionaire. $500 did you say? Yeah, $500.

Yeah, cool. That seems about right. Yeah. She had a husband. It's true. And in one, I think in one interview he did, Darrow did say that he said, I'd like to just say, put on the record that, you know, I couldn't have done this without a game created by Lizzie McGee. But yeah.

Wow. I don't know how he still had the story of him inventing it out of thin air. That is an incredible, a very tall glass of water to drink. I'll tell you that much. Yeah, what's that thing you call when you're like, you know the truth, but you're lying to yourself? Cognitive dissonance. Yeah, I think he had a bit of that going on.

Maybe, maybe, yeah. And all the while, it's booming, but all the while the game lost its connection to McGee and her critique of American greed, and instead came to mean pretty much the opposite of what she'd hoped. It has taught generations to cheer when someone goes into bankruptcy. So it's brutal. Not only did she not get her credit for it for years, she didn't make really any money out of it. Also, the message that, I think if she just got that message out,

that would have been a win for her. I don't think she necessarily was that worried about being the big name or making the big money, but she didn't get any of those things. And unfortunately, there's no happy ending for Lizzie McGee. In the 1940 census, taken eight years before she died, she listed her occupation as maker of games, and in the column for her income, she wrote zero. In 1948, McGee died in relative obscurity a widow without children neither her headstone nor her obituary mentions

her role in the creation of monopoly so grim so brutal so sad but and i and i've been i'm like for a podcast it's meant to be relatively light this is a pretty grim story so i'm just trying to think of what's what's the positive here i think maybe the positive and more hopeful thing is that her story is now being told by by us by us by me the the feminist of do go on that's right. Resident feminists, yeah. Not by us. I mean in generally. He loves to raise women up. And I love when it's convenient to him and when it serves him. He loves to raise women.

Well, you know when it's convenient to me? At any opportunity. That's right. Any opportunity he loves to raise women. Any opportunity I will raise up women. Yeah. He loves it, Adam. I'm not always free to do it, but when I am.

And he's free to do it. He's got the time. I will. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Adam. I'm not always free to do it, but when I am. And he's free to do it when he's got the time. I will. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I pleasure in it. I take pleasure in it. I pleasure in it. I remember you do pleasure in it.

You wrote that article for Climax Magazine. A lot of elbow. No, not the story being told by us. I mean, yeah. Sure, sure, sure. I was just including us in it, that we are heroes. Yes. Yeah.

The fact that there is such a complete story of how the game journeyed and evolved from McGee to Darrow via the university professors and the Quakers of Atlantic City is because of an economics professor named Ralph Ansback. Ralph's wife's name at the time, by the way, of course. Oh my God. No way. It's fucking wild. Go on to pile on. In 1973, Ansback began a decade-long legal battle against Parker Brothers over the creation of his anti-monopoly game. So he also hated monopolies. He was an economics professor and he thought monopolies were bad for society, bad for the economy in general.

And apparently he was talking about this to his son and his son was like we played monopoly last night we had a good time and and ralph was like oh yeah yeah that's right he sort of had he'd sort of separated in his mind and so he's like okay that's a good point and he's like i'm gonna make a game that is about about the key to the game is breaking up monopolies. And he called it anti-monopoly. And then he started selling it. It was getting a bit of traction. And then Parker Brothers sent him a cease and desist.

And he looked into it a bit. And he's like, no. He got advice. He's like, no, anti-monopoly. No one's confusing the two. It says anti at the start. I think the inclusion of the word Monopoly might have been a bit of a downfall there. Well, maybe.

But in researching his case, he uncovered McGee's patents and Monopoly's folk game roots. The folk game roots being passed around, being called Monopoly, basically meant it was public domain domain if he could prove it. And he became consumed with telling the truth of what he calls the Monopoly lie. He's a feminist. Yes. He loves to raise women up. Yes.

He, Ralph. He says that. Me, Ralph Ansback. I like raising women up. In a deposition for the case, Robert Barton, the Parker Brothers president, who oversaw the Monopoly deal, called McGee's game, quote, completely worthless and said that Parker Brothers had published a small run of her games, quote, merely to make her happy.

They were doing it as a favor. We're really nice. It wasn't, it wasn't, like how, what a bald-faced lie. Like it's so obviously not the reason they published the game. They published the game to get the deal that would take legal risk away from them being sued. It took years, but Ansback ended up winning his legal battle. meaning he could keep producing his anti-monopoly game and in the process help the Supreme Court finally vindicate McGee as the game's inventor. One of the key pieces of evidence was the Todd's version of the game with the misspelling of Marvin Gardens.

Marvin Gardens. When Ansback asked if it was possible to use their old board game as evidence, the now elderly Charles Todd replied that he'd been waiting years for the opportunity. He said, go get them. Yeah, he's like, yeah, I've been waiting for this day. Why do you think I kept it? Go, here's your $200, get them. Go, here's your $200 Get on it

The court's decision helped lift the spirits Of many involved in the evolution of the game There's all these people who felt like they were part of the story You know, the Quakers All the intellectuals And the academics Finally, the intellectuals get a win One of them Dorothea Rayford, one of the Atlantic City Quaker crew,

said that after 55 years, she would finally be able to look at a Monopoly board and smile. There was a plaque unveiled in Atlantic City saying, you know, talking about how the Quakers there. It didn't mention Lizzie McGee. They also sort of took the credit for it, but still, you know. Darrow dined out on his story as the inventor of the game for the rest of his life until his death in 1967. And Parker Brothers didn't do much to stop this story being believed.

He'd go around. He appeared on TV and newspapers the rest of his life. Oh yeah, I invented the game, what a great story. Just came to me. It was just widely spread. Everyone believed Darrow was the guy. Amazingly, into the 2000s, boxes of Monopoly were still being sold with a version of Darrow's story inside.

Probably in part because of this, the myth that Darara invented the game has endured, and still people today would believe it. Yeah, this is amazing. This is after that court case. That ended in the 80s. Wow. And the story sort of came out, but still

it's such a powerful bit of mythology. This is changing, and this is what I think is maybe the positive to come out of it. While the makers of Monopoly still don't seem to credit McGee at all, which is now Hasbro. Hasbro bought out Parker Brothers. They also bought out Milton Bradley as well. Also bought out D&D.

Yeah. So funnily enough, they've got a bit of a board game of Monopoly. Oh yeah. So they do. bit of a board game monopoly. Oh, yeah. So they do. But if you search for the inventor of Monopoly Online, Lizzie McGee's name will now come up.

That's something. Monopoly inventor, her name comes up like that's all the results. And I think that is in some part because of Mary Pollan's articles, obviously in a big part because of Ansback's court case. And now a big part because of your work here today. Well, I had a bit of spare time. I thought maybe I could find a woman to raise up. The three big voices revealing the Monopoly story,

Matt, Ansback, and there was some third, Mary? I don't know. Whatever, whoever that third person is.? I don't know. I don't know. Whatever, whoever that third person is. Let's call her Ruth. Yeah. And yeah, so the book she published, Mary Pollan's book, is called The Monopolist's Obsession, Fury,

and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game. And it's worth a read if you want to hear more. It's a great book, but unfortunately Hasbro, the now owners of the game, were not at all forthcoming with information from a pylon when she was making the book. That doesn't sound right. A note in her book says,

My lists of over 200 fact-checking questions and follow-up contact attempts went unanswered. When Hasbro purchased Parker Brothers in 1991, it's likely that it also purchased a trove of George Parker's diaries and neatly organized game library, which it has declined to make available to researchers for decades, as it declined my request to access them. So they have like, well, yeah, because there'd be so much evidence in there that they've ripped so many people off. Yeah, isn't it weird? Because normally people who aren't hiding anything would just release it. So it's strange that they don't.

It would be such an interesting part of history. Yeah, exactly. You'd make a little museum out of it. You would think they'd be super keen to tell the story. Good on them for making 200 requests. Yeah, yeah. Maybe this is the one. Yeah, I feel like after the fifth, I'd be like,

they're probably not going to respond. She goes on to say, Monopoly continues to be among the best-selling commercial board games of all time and lives on in its classic cardboard incarnation as well as on iPhone, iPad, and other digital platforms well over a century after Lizzie McGee drew her original game. Yeah, it's amazing that it's still such an iconic thing. You know, the Monopoly version of it.

It's in all these movies and stuff. They played it on Sopranos. You know, it's been referenced in every bit of pop culture. I feel like, for me at least, a bit of a lesson from this has been that if you want to truly capture the spirit, the original spirit of a game of Monopoly, you should make your own and not purchase one. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, and then you can make whatever you like. You can make your own. You can put your own misspellings in there. You can name the streets after your friend's streets. Whatever colour you want to make the board, make it that colour. It's fun. I think that's a great call. I would make every second tile jail.

Oh, every second, but only one go to jail tile soon? So you get to pick which jail you go to. Call it Monopoly hard mode. I'd love it if a listener put together their own homemade Monopoly and sent us some photos. That would be sick. That would be good. Yeah, apparently, so American trademark law or whatever,

I get confused between trademark, copyright, and patent law. Yeah, right. Apparently, it used to be 50 years after the death of the inventor. That's, I think, for copyright? And now it's moved to 95 since the invention. So apparently now, at the moment, it's moved to 95 since the invention. So apparently now, at the moment, it's going to run out at 2030. But it's been

pushed back a couple of times. American politicians have pushed it back. Big push by Disney, actually. Yeah, that's right. I think it's actually called the Mickey Mouse law or whatever. So yeah, that's pretty much the story. It's a roller roller coaster and it's brutal.

But I just, I'm glad I now know of Lizzie McGee. Yeah. Yeah. Raising her up. No, no, I just, I just think she's great. And I thought maybe, Jess, if you don't mind, I could finish with a few fun facts. Well, well, you can finish with some facts. Well, you can finish with some facts. Okay, I'll finish with some facts.

And I'll decide if they're fun or not. Great. As is my role, Adam. I'm the one who decides if facts are indeed fun facts. That's good to know. All right, so how about this? I'm a fun policeman. Good to not have to worry about, oh, is this going to be a fun fact or not?

Yeah. Oh, you'll tell me. I'll let you know. Yes, yes. Am I having fun with this? Yeah, yeah. It's my, ugh. As I having fun with this? Yeah, yeah. It's my... Ugh. As a...

Keep going. In 1936, Parker Brothers licensed Monopoly for sale outside of the United States. This is one year after they started making it. And British intelligence had special versions made for prisoners of war held by Nazis. The games had maps, compasses, and real money to aid escapes.

So it'd have cash from whatever countries they were being held in. Yeah, I know. How cool is it? I knew this one. Wow, is it fun though? That's a fun fact. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. What if I was like, no. I was so

scared that wasn't going to be a fun fact. That would have ruined your day. I actually feel like I maybe have started with maybe the only fun fact. But here's some other facts. Here's some facts. Yeah, I would have ended on that one. The British rights to the game were acquired by the Leeds firm of Waddingtons and the slightly bizarre choice of London streets was based on a flying visit

to the capital by one of the firm's employees. Which I didn't realise that they're random, but apparently if you're from London, I guess they're like, oh, they picked some weird streets. Ah, that's interesting. Curious. But it was because it was not a local Londoner. Yeah, they just turned up and like wrote down some street names as they had a wander around. So there you go, nailed it, no one will know.

I don't know if that's fun or not. That's somewhat fun. Okay. Yeah, okay. When the character of Mr. Monopoly was first created, he wasn't given a name but was reportedly modelled on J.P. Morgan, some rich guy from the olden days. In the 1940s, he was given the name Rich Uncle Pennybags.

In the 1940s, he was given the name Rich Uncle Pennybags. But since then, Hasbro has officially named him Mr. Monopoly, which I think is a downgrade from Rich Uncle Pennybags. Pennybags? Yeah. That's so good. According to Hasbro, the record for the longest game of Monopoly is 1,680 hours or 70 days. Oh, my God.

Is that a dream of yours, Adam? You know it, yeah. 70 days. Oh, yeah, that sounds so fun. Sounds so good. Yeah. Yeah, so that's, I feel like more of a depressing thing. But, like, are you playing for five minutes a day, like, just to stretch it out? I feel like it must be.

Like, obviously, it can't be the same people playing it that whole time or they would have died. So it must be like a bit of a relay game. Was it hours and then days? No, it was just two versions of the same amount of time, I think. 1,680 hours or 70 days. Right, okay, yeah. I'm reckoning they're not counting. I think they're taking breaks,

and I think they're counting those breaks in time. Yeah, big time. I'm guessing. And the breaks are three weeks at a time. Yeah. Even if they were playing for an hour a day, actually, that's still 70 hours. Imagine how long you can't use the dining table. Oh, my God.

It's like they've started one of those big puzzles that you never finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I made the wrong choice to cook a roast tonight. I'm trying to eat it off my lap. They might have played by Lizzie McGee marriage rules, three days on, four days off. Oh, that would have been nice. That's the dream.

I love four days off marriage. What does that mean? I wrote this one down late last night, and you can tell that because it says accordion to monopolyland.com. Yes, accordion to monopolyland.com. Yes, accordion to monopolyland.com. Accordion to monopolyland.com. When Charles Darrow first developed his version of the game, intended for people to use random household objects as tokens.

And I think maybe that had already been a thing anyway. And it was his niece who suggested including charms from her bracelet instead. And so the eclectic playing pieces took their place in history. That's cool. Yeah. So if you have the stomach

for it. Oh, that was Irish Siri? I didn't get that. I didn't get that. She feels less patronising than the Australian man, so I changed it. I get that. Yeah. I get that. Do you want to try that again?

No, sometimes I would say, hey Siri. Do you want to have another go? And he would go, hmm? And I felt dismissed. Hmm? Like, yeah, what? Enunciate. I'm like, it's your fucking job to listen out for what I'm going to say.

Yeah, your one job. So I made it Irish lady and she's much nicer. So if you've got the stomach for it, I can now give you, and this is also accordion to monopolyland.com, I can give you a brief synopsis of the journey of the tokens over the years. Please. It's like five minutes. Surely we know the journey of the tokens over the years. Please. That's, well, it's like five minutes. Surely the journey's always been,

like, surely we know the journey. You start at one end, you go round, you hit go again. Oh, okay. It's a journey, right? I've been playing it wrong, it seems. All right, well, I can skip that then. So the six original Monopoly pieces in 1935,

I don't know if you have a guess at these. 1935. Yeah. I'm going you have a guess at these. 1935. Yeah. I'm going to guess iron. Iron in it? Iron is there. Top hat? Top hat is there.

Is... I don't think the car's going to be there. You don't reckon? No, I don't think so. Because the car looks too modern, in my eyes at least, for 35. You're right, the car's not there. Okay, well done. Is the battleship there?

Battleship's there. Yes! We're nailing this. You're nailing it. Do you think the dog, well done. Is the battleship there? Battleship's there. Yes. We're nailing this. Oh, my God. Do you think the dog would be in there? Were dogs around back then? There's three more. Three more.

We'll go with dog. Dog's not there. Okay. Trying to think of a charm bracelet as well. Yeah. Think Depression era. Okay. What's the saddest of all of the tokens?

Oh, no. The famous tokens. Poor. Saddest of all... Oh, the boot! The boot, yep. I forgot about the boot. I'm blanking on everything else now.

Was that the sad one? Oh, I was thinking of a different one. I mean, it's not even that sad. Oh, it's a sad one. It just feels like a sad thing to have in a game. Okay. Hmm. It's like a food stamp. It's not even that sad. It just feels like a sad thing to have in a game. Okay. It's like a food stamp. It's something.

A little metal food stamp. Something used in sewing. Oh, a thimble. Thimble, yeah. Yeah, that is. I was just like, oh, how fun. We're having fun now. A thimble is involved.

Also, why did you have a thimble on your charm bracelet? That is a bit strange. And the last one, which maybe I'd, uh, it was the cannon. Remember that? I don't remember the cannon. I don't remember the cannon. I think that my version of the kid, I think had a cannon. Yeah, I think the really old version we had at my grandparents' beach house might have

had a cannon. Yeah. Uh, that's the one, that was the one I had as a child. Yeah. Brand new. That makes sense. Yeah. Uh, later in 1935, the race car was added to the game to make seven.

And shortly afterwards, the purse was added to make eight. Oh, the purse. I remember the purse. Over the next 12 months, two more pieces were added, the lantern and the rocking horse. Don't know those. To make what is considered to be the 10 classic Monopoly pieces. I can't picture the lantern, but I think I can remember the, yeah, the rocking horse to make what is considered to be the 10 classic Monopoly pieces. I can't picture the lantern, but I think I can remember.

Yeah, the rocking horse I remember. The first new piece to be introduced after this was the wheelbarrow in the 1940s. Wheelbarrow! Right, I forgot about that one. Yeah. Along with the horse and rider, which is the one I always used as a kid. I don't remember that one. And this Scottish terrier.

Yeah, the doggie. Little doggie. So that was in the 40s. The car also gained a driver in the 1940s. Oh, yeah. My version did not have a driver. I think mine also was bereft of a driver. Yes.

Yeah. I think, yeah, they were so far ahead of the game, driverless cars, but they went backwards in a lot of ways. But the driver only lasted until 1950 and then they took the driver back out. Okay. In 1946, the cannon was replaced by a similar howitzer, while an airplane was also introduced, but only until 1950. It's amazing how many have come and gone.

Yeah. Three other pieces were retired in 1950, the lantern, the rocking horse, and the purse, which is probably why I don't recall any of those. From 1950 until 1998, the Monopoly game pieces stayed the same. They were the dog, the battleship, the race car, top hat, iron, horse and rider, and howitzer. So that was obviously the version of the game I had came in that time.

Yeah. Yeah, and those eight Monopoly game pieces formed the backbone of the game for many years. In 1998, with Hasbro now in charge, a new playing piece was added. 1.5 million people voted in a competition to decide whether the new token would be a sack of money, a piggy bank, or a biplane. With 51% of the vote, the sack of money won. Oh, God. That's the least interesting one.

I reckon this is exactly what Lizzie McGee would have wanted. Yes. A sack of money. People playing the sack of money. It's good. Putting hotels on my property and charging lots of money. It didn't last that long, though, and was retired in 2007. The sack of money was not the only Monopoly piece to be retired.

Then two other pieces, the horse and rider and the howitzer, were also retired the same year. So that's maybe why you two don't know the horse and rider. Maybe. I'm remembering the rocking horse, but it sounds like that was retired way sooner. So maybe it know the horse and rider. Maybe. I'm remembering the rocking horse, but it sounds like that was retired way sooner, so maybe it was a horse and rider. I feel like my game came from before 2007,

but I definitely don't remember the cannon or the howitzer or the horse and rider. Interesting. I don't remember them. But you were playing the Simpsons version. Yeah, I was, yeah. You always went with the... I was Lisa Simpson, of course.

The inanimate carbon rod. You are also a feminist. I'd choose Maggie because I'm a little baby. That's a good reason. Yeah. No more changes would be made until 2013 when the decision was made to retire the iron. Another vote was held and the cat won out over a diamond ring, toy robot, helicopter and guitar.

I remember that making a bit of news, the cat getting brought in. Although the Monopoly cat didn't have a name at first, she has since been named Hazel. That's cute. She has since been named Ruth. I mean, that's cute. He's since been named Ruth. I mean, that would have been a nice touch. Oh, it would have been great. Should have been Lizzie McGee. Oh, Lizzie would have been.

I just, to me. Do you think Parker Bros or Hasbro are ready to acknowledge that at this point? They own the patent as well. I know. Just come out. It's a great story. Why don't they come out and just give her the props she deserves? Totally.

Put in every game a pamphlet about the whole story. Yeah. I don't understand why they don't do that. Yeah. And they go, oh, these decisions were made by generations past, and we realize it was awful now, and we want to celebrate the actual inventor of the game. I don't understand.

It's a cool story of how it started and how it sort of got passed around. It's way more interesting than a guy had a thought. Yeah, I had a thought one night. Shut up. Who cares? In 2017, the thimble, the wheelbarrow and the boot became the latest retired Monopoly pieces. They were replaced in another popular vote, this time by the penguin, the T-Rex and the rubber ducky. Okay, well, I'm playing T-Rex, that's for sure.

I like penguin. Yeah, penguin's cute. And after another popular vote on the 31st of May, 2022, very recent, Hasbro announced that the thimble was the winner and would be making a comeback. And sadly, Jess, the T-Rex has now been made. Oh, get spanked. I'll find one on eBay. Yeah, you're guaranteed.

I guess if you went to the shops now, you would probably get the last ones with the T-Rex. I love a charm bracelet with all the pieces from a Monopoly board. Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah. That would rule. When I was like 20, it was a big thing for 21st birthdays is you'd get a uh a pandora bracelet with charms

and stuff on it yeah and i was in a pandora recently and they had um i still have a charm bracelet but i haven't worn it in a very long time they had like marvel charms and you could pay so much money to have a little captain america shield and it honestly i mean if you like it good for you. But I was like, and I love Captain America, but I was like, that is the lamest thing I've ever seen. And I want it. That was a rollercoaster.

Yeah, I didn't know where that was going. I was like, that sucks. That's hilarious. That sucks. I love it. I love it. Give me 10. I hate it.

I love it. So, yeah, that's the story of the pieces. I mean, you could go in all sorts of directions talking about Monopoly, about all the different franchise versions of it and all that sort of stuff. For Christmas, I bought my dad a version that's like, it's an express version. You're supposed to be able to play in like 10 minutes or something. Oh. Or like, yeah, a really short period of time.

So you're just like. I think Parker Brothers were really nervous at the start about putting out a game that would take quite a while but apparently we like the common way to play it is takes way longer than the rules actually say and in the original rules and maybe this there's the same rules now there was one that said a briefer version of the game play with a time limit whoever's got the most money at the end of the time, they win. Yeah. That's probably a better way to do it. All right.

Well, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show where we get to thank our great supporters. And if you want to become a supporter, you can sign up at patreon.com slash dogoonpod or dogoonpod.com. And yeah, if you get involved there, you are one of the, what I like to think of as the best people in the world who help keep this show running.

And we really appreciate it very much. That's why we love to spend a little bit of time at the end to give you your Jews. I do recall. Yeah. Outside of the, before we started recording, you did say that you love everyone equally,

but you love some people a little bit more equally. That's right. Yeah. That's how we like to phrase it. Yeah. And I'm about to name a few of them now. Yeah. And yeah, Jess, what are some of the rewards you can get for signing up?

You can get three bonus episodes a month. You can vote on most of the topics that we present on. You get access to a Facebook group, the most beautiful part of the internet. Yeah. You also, as well as the three episodes, you get a month, you get the whole back catalogue of bonus episodes. And there's like 150 plus there now, I think, including a series of D&D, which we did with Adam Cannavale. That's right. That was a lot of fun. Which we're going to, I think we're, you know, hoping to do another series of.

Yeah, we should do another, yeah. Because I loved it. I had such a great time. And if it means sitting in one of these comfy sans pants chairs for an afternoon, I'm down. I'm also, and I still, I'm thrilled by this because quite early in the game, I said something a bit pervy and Adam said, well, we found the Jackson of the group. And I was thrilled by that. Yeah, that's a high compliment.

I think about it often. I'm like, heh heh heh. I learnt the expression looking for strange. Live on air once, basically. Jackson taught it to me. He truly is to me. He truly is to me. He truly is the an older boy told me to do it. What a great influence he is.

Yeah, that's what you want. Yeah, sure. I just remember, I think it was when Jackson was on last, that someone messaged saying they're still trying to get their heads around how the younger generation of Australians have a bit of an American accent. And I think that might be particularly true with SansPants. I feel like you've got your own accent going in SansPants somehow.

I always attribute it to, because I, as a kid, yeah, I used to get all the time people being like, you, where are you from? And I'd be like, oh, Melbourne. They'd be like, oh, you have a bit of an American accent. And I always attributed it to I watched too much TV as a kid. But my partner is American. And they have told me that I did not, in fact, have an American accent. I have what they determined a nerd accent.

And I've been like, oh. Is that better or worse? I don't. nerd accent. I've been like, oh. Is that better or worse? I don't. Well, it's neither here nor there, I suppose. Wait, so what I think of as the Sandspan's accent is actually a nerd accent. But you wouldn't know that because you're a cool boy. This is only according to my partner.

I have spoken to other Americans and they have been like, no, it does sound kind of a little American. My partner is very firm on the point that no, it is a nerd accent. Because if that's true, that's funny because that means the only nerds I know are Sands Pants people. Or Americans, I guess. All right. So the first thing we like to do is the fat quota question section. And this bit, if you want to get involved in this part in particular, you sign up on the Sydney Schoenberg level or above.

This section also has a little jingle go, something like this. Fact, quote, or question. Ding. Dave usually does a ding there. God, I miss him. Would it be acceptable if I did the ding? Would you love to do the ding? Please.

Okay, I'll go again. Fact, quote, or question. Ding! Oh, my God. That was a great ding. She always remembers the ding. Well, if you want to play all the Dave roles, there's some great fun to be had. There's some stuff coming up for you.

I would love for you to project onto me. Fantastic. All right. Well, first I'm going to read out four facts, quotes or questions. The first one comes from Betsy N and they also get to give themselves a title and Betsy's got the title of Random Fact Trap and Release Specialist. That's good. That's a great title. And Betsy's fact is this might be a little relevant to you, Bob. Okay.

For an upcoming trip. Hawaii is one of the few islands in the Americas that does not have hummingbirds, and it is illegal to import hummingbirds to Hawaii. Oh, Jess, I'm so sorry. Okay, well, first of all, I was going to see the hummingbirds, and then I was also going to bring in some hummingbirds, some extras. So I'm cancelling my holiday. Well, you could cancel some of that luggage requirement I know you put in for...

18 bird cages. That's true. That's true. That could save me some cash. Maybe I could actually stay at a hotel now. Instead of among the birds. Which, to be fair, was your dream. It was going to be beautiful.

The reason it's illegal to import hummingbirds to Hawaii is because they will pollinate the pineapple crop, allowing the pineapples to develop seeds and decreasing their market value. That's sort of a monopoly reason. Yeah. Appropriately. Importing unauthorized animals to Hawaii is punishable by up to three years in prison and or up to $500,000.

Wow. Damn. That's a lot. They're serious. Yeah. Damn. They're not fucking about. What were Sims money called before?

Mazolians? Simoleons. That's a lot of simoleons. Thank you, Betsy. That's a fun fact. Oh, no, sorry. That's a fact. I assumeons. Thank you, Betsy. That's a fun fact. Oh, no, sorry. That's a fact. I assume, actually.

I don't know if it's fun. I don't know if it's a fact. I think it's pretty fun. Okay, great. And great to know. Thank you, Betsy. You saved me a lot of jail time. And cash.

Four half a million dollars. I'm not worried about the money. It's not about the money. It's about the birds. The next one comes from a man I like to call, because it's his name, Gary J from the UK.

And Gary J is offering a suggestion, but Gary's title is Mr. No, wait, that's my dad's name. Just call me Gary J from the UK for short. Is there a pronunciation guide as well that comes along with that? I just have a stab each time.

Okay, fair enough. It's just fun to say. Give it a try. Hang on. You give it to me so I can try and get it. Gaddy J from the UK. Gaddy J from the UK. Oh, that's good.

You did it better than me, I think. I think Adam did do it better. Coming for your spot next. Soon Duga 1 will just be Adam. Glorious. And it'll be, honestly, it'll take it to new heights. And Gary writes, me, Sophie, aka the Swap Queen, and everyone's friend, Siraj. So there's three of the Patreon supporters.

Very active in the Facebook Patreon community there. Active at live shows. Beautiful people. Sophie is called the swap queen because she's organized a bunch of Patreon. Snack swaps and book swaps. Yeah, maybe a magnet swap was there? Maybe at some point, yeah.

Anyway, they're going to see, oh, this would have been so perfect for the last episode we recorded. They're going to see Michelle Brazier and Reece Nicholson at Edinburgh Fringe on the 20th of August. Saying, I just wanted to suggest the shows to others and maybe pack the show out with people in Do Go On merch. Anyway, ta-ta for now. That would be – I think, I mean, we had Michelle Brazier on the episode last week and she said she would absolutely love to see some Do Go On people in the crowd for sure. It would probably be maybe a little bit baffling for Rhys. But, I mean, he would know what it is.

Yeah, well, he was on one of our live shows. Yeah, the quiz show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. on one of our live shows. Yeah, the quiz show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he knows who we are. That's true. But I think it would just be a bit of a baffling coincidence to him that there's a bunch of people in Do Go On merch. I love it.

I love it so much. I love it. If anyone listening can go on the 20th of August to either or both of those shows, get on to Gary J from the UK or tag us in and we can tag him in if you don't know his Twitter handle or whatever. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Great Suggestion. Suggestion. Great Suggestion.

Great Accordion. Good job for going and checking out those shows because they're both award nominated and award winning shows. As we learned last week. It's an honour to be nominated. And Michelle is an award-winning writer. She's an award-winning writer. When you go see the show, don't focus too much on the performance. She didn't win the award for that.

But just listen to the writing. Yeah. Incredible. If you close your eyes and just picture the words on the page. What you need to do is bring the stenographer's typing. Yes. The typographer. The type.

The machine they use. Yeah. And write it down as she's saying it, and then you can go away, and you can properly appreciate it then. Yeah, you read it and go, holy shit, this is well written. Oh, my God. Thank you, Geddy J. The next one comes from Ben Johnson,

aka Elizabethan-era playwright and poet overshadowed by Shakespeare. I know Ben's in England, so maybe he's a good show getting to the shows. It's a small country. Yeah, there's not much to do as well. You'll bump into them eventually. And Ben writes, despite being born in Oxford, England, Stephen Hawking was often mistaken for an American citizen because of the accent of his computerized voice,

aka the nerd accent. Text to speech is nerd accent. After catching pneumonia in 1985, Hawking had to have a tracheoctomy, which left him unable to speak, after which he used a voice synthesizer controlled by facial muscles. Oh, I didn't know it was controlled by facial muscles. Yeah, that's cool. The state-of-the-art text-to-speech system was developed at MIT.

Senior researcher Dennis Klatt created a digital version of his voice called Perfect Paul that was adopted as the default voice of the system. At the start of a public lecture in 1986, Hawking joked, The only problem is that it gives me an American accent, he said to Big Laughs. Despite this, Hawking quickly became attached to his new device.

After a British accent was added as part of an upgrade in 1988, he asked them to replace it with the original, saying his voice had become an iconic trademark of his identity. During a meeting with the Queen in 2014, she jokingly asked Hawking, have you still got that American voice? Hawking replied, yes, it is copyrighted actually. Ultimately, Perfect Paul had to be stimulated in new software to match his iconic voice. Hawking said, my old system worked well and I wrote five books with it, including a brief history of time. Sorry for the long fact.

I tried to cut it down as much as I could, but I hope you found it interesting. P.S. Dave, which I guess is you today, Adam. Yes. Don't worry about covering history of time if it's not going to work. Live your own life. Climb every mountain. Reach for the stars. Follow that rainbow. That's when your. Climb every mountain. Reach for the stars. Follow that rainbow.

That's when your dreams will all come true. I'm glad I don't have to worry about the history of time. Is it the history of time book or is it just a history of time? I don't know if you know this, but there's a lot of it. Yeah, there is a lot. Ben's been suggesting for a while that Dave should do

a book cheat on the history of time. I should do a book cheat. Sorry, yes. You should do a book cheat on the history of time. I should do a book cheat. Sorry, yes. You should do a book cheat on the history of time. But he's released you from that burden now. So now you can go and I guess do what Dave is doing and travel around Italy? Yeah. If that's what you want to do. That sounds nice. Yeah. It does sound really

fucking nice. Especially as it's gotten real cold in Melbourne. Not bitter at all. No. No, no, no No, Jell is not bitter Hey, he's entitled to holidays So he should be, you know Yeah That's all

Yeah Yeah, yeah Definitely don't wish I was spending six weeks In Europe Fucking hell Fucking hell Fucking hell, mate Fucking hell with this one

The last fact, quote or question this week Comes from David Loring, aka pod lexicographer. Is that, how's that? Okay. And David's offered a suggestion,

writing, hey friends, I return with a few more words I feel should be in more common usage. Ooh. Okay, let's try these on for size.

So we've got three suggestions here. Firstly, and David, I really appreciate that you spelling them out phonetically as well as... Oh, that's nice. That is... First up, we have vituperative, which means bitter and abusive, especially in relation to communication between or about people. You might talk about a nasty election campaign becoming increasingly vituperative.

Vituperative. Vituperative. That's great. I like that. Yeah, I can't wait to... Someone's being slightly rude to me. All right, mate. We don't have to be vituperative right now.

Odds of me remembering that word. Pretty slim. Pretty slim. Very slim. Next one is contumelious, which is rude in an obnoxious or spiteful way that shows a real contempt for someone with the added fun that you can deliberately emphasize the first syllable to sound like cunt.

Contumelious. Contumelious. It'd be interesting to find out if I can be bothered bleeping that. Nah, definitely not. It's deep into the episode. Yeah, it's fine. Kids are asleep by now.

It's fine. I've left one in recently. One of mine. I always assume they'll be bleeped. Nah, never assume. Don't say it if you don't. Somebody think of the children. What about defenestrate?

I just like the sound of that. It's the act of throwing someone out of a window. That's good. That's why I like it. This is nice. Saying, please note, nothing about the definition says the window needs to be open before the throwing. Wow. Give me that word again.

The fenestrate. That is good. That is good. That is good stuff. You got to it a lot quicker than me. I already. Oh, you knew that one. I knew that one already. What a nerd.

Yeah. Got the accent, got the vocabulary. So thanks for those great facts, quotes, and questions. The next thing we like to do, Adam, is thank a few of our other great supporters. And we normally give them a little – I normally come up with a little game. Jess normally does based on the topic at hand. Yeah, let's give them what their – like their little – what's their token? Yeah, their little Monopoly token.

It doesn't have to be an – An existing one. Yeah, it can be anything. I love this. All right. Maybe like we did last week, do we go? Yeah, we'll go one. Do you want to go first?

Yes. Thank you so much. I would love to thank. I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for so many things. I would love to thank from Lake Zurich in Illinois, Mariusz Trzczynski. This might be less name,

more Lake Zurich, but I'm thinking Battleship. Ooh, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Gone with the classic. Yeah. A battleship on a lake. Yeah, love that. Mariusz's Battleship. Fantastic. That's good. I like that. Well, Adam, maybe you can come up with all of them.

I think that's great. Jess and I will read out the names. All right. If you're comfortable. Oh, let's do it. Rolling up the sleeves. I mimed. Did not actually.

Because that's gross. It is gross. And not very COVID safe. Yeah, true. Also not very COVID safe. Yeah, true. Also not very COVID safe. I would like to thank, from Doreen in Victoria, Australia, it's Declan Grant. Doreen.

Declan Grant. Thimble. Thimble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Confident on that one. Yeah, great choice. I said it was sort of like a kind of depressing game talking, but I also love it.

I love it. It's elegant. It's simple. It's a beautiful piece of. And as a child, you'd try to put it on your pinky. Yes. Guaranteed. Every time.

Now, my finger's too big. Like, can you really, you can't, you know, put on the boot. No. You know what I mean? Yeah. You definitely can't put that boot on. No. Don't ask me how I know.

You definitely can't. What, did we, did we talk about what all of our chosen tokens were? Yeah. Mine was horse and rider. What was yours? You were? I was the car or the dog. Right.

I'm battleship. But I would also go car and dog tied second for me, I think. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I was a fan of the car and the dog as well. A lot of good options there. But the symbol as well. I reckon there's a few good options and then there's like I'd happily let other people go first

knowing that there would be enough that I like that I'd get one I'm happy with. But there's a few at the bottom of the list you know where you'd be like okay fine.

Yeah I'll be the fucking thimble. I'll be the Turkish delight of the Monopoly board game. Exactly right. I like thimble because I think it's a sturdy

piece. It's not getting knocked over. Yeah the horse is very skinny and well it's a sturdy piece. It's not getting knocked over. Yeah, the horse is very skinny. Well, you wouldn't know this. You don't recall. No, I wouldn't. Battleship gets knocked over.

Battleship also skinny. Gets knocked over all the damn time. But fun to sail. When you're moving to imagine sailing. Yeah, because you don't have to pick. But as a horse, you pick it up and go like, clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. So there's pros and cons to all of them.

Yes. I would love to thank, from pick it up and go like, clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. So there's pros and cons to all of them. Yes. I would love to thank, from Croydon in Great Britain, Mitch Barrett. Mitch Barrett. And remember, it doesn't have to be a real one if you want to go outside the constraints. You can do my trick of looking around the room. I do that a lot. Mitch Barrett, I'm going to give them Charizard from Pokemon Monopoly. Yeah, that's good.

Which one's Charizard? Is that Pikachu? It's the dragon. Have I answered my own question there? That was good. I like that. That took me as you, yeah. Charizard is Pikachu.

Yeah, Charizard is Pikachu. Yes, correct. That is correct. Cool. Yeah, I'm a bit of a poke Cool Yeah I'm a bit of a pokehead I'm a bit of a gamer myself I'm a bit of a pokey man If you will

Yeah yeah yeah You want to thank someone? I'd love to thank From Amsterdam In the Netherlands Arend Habemma Arend Habemma

That one's getting the horse Horse Horse and rider Oh no sorry It's car and then car and rider But horse and rider Oh Arend Habemmer. That one's getting the horse. Horse and rider. Oh, no, sorry. It's car and then car and rider. But horse and rider. Oh, Arend. Hey, you and me.

Yeah. Hey, hopefully there's room for two on that horse. Get a big horse. Shush. A Clydesdale. Yeah, we could get that giant golden horse from one of our previous episodes. Clydesdales are gorgeous. I love a Clydesdale.

They're big clippity-clop shoes. They're wearing flares. Yeah, I was about to say. It's like they're wearing flare pants. It's great. Love it. A very stylish animal. And they must love them as well because they're wearing two pairs.

Sorry. I would love to thank from Sorrento in Florida. Caleb Sellers. Sorrento in Florida. Caleb Sellers. Sorrento in Florida, Caleb. Sorrento gives me a bit of like a beach vibe. Yeah, I'm thinking Tarina. Tarina Arena. What's her name?

Tina Arena. Sweet Sorrento Moon. Yes. Sweet Sorrento Moon. Do you reckon Tina Arena was singing about Sorrento, Florida? No, she was talking about Sorrento on their Morning to Peninsula. Oh, really? Yeah, definitely.

Beautiful place. Lovely spot. I think that is the chance card that you won second prize in a beauty contest. Oh! I thought that was so funny as a kid. That's a great hack. That is good. Great.

Classic bit. Yeah. so funny as a kid. That's a great classic bit. Yeah. Always funny. Always good. You got second place. You're not literally the most beautiful person. You are worthless. Another thing that I'm sure Lizzie McGee would have been stoked about.

Yeah. Yes. I'd be happy stoked about. Yeah. Yes. I'd be happy with that. Back to me. I'd love to thank, well, address unknown this person is from, so I can only assume from deep within the fortress of the moles. And I would like to say, I'd like to get ahead of the game here and say I for one welcome our new mole people overlords. But I'd love to thank from the fortress, Normadoodle.

Normadoodle. Love the name. Additionally, Address Unknown. That's a lot of opportunity. And with a lot of opportunity comes the original, not the original, but the Atlantic City version of the game. Oh. Yes.

The entire set. Wow. Whoa. Is it a miniature version of the entire set and board? Yeah. That is sick. I love that. That's so good.

That's nice, actually. Yeah, I like that. A few more I would love to thank from Sacramento in California. Home of the Kings in the NBA, a team that I did not think was defunct on a recent episode. Okay. I would love to thank Susie Costa. Car without rider.

Car without rider. Oh, yeah. Also known as a driver. Driverless car. Yes, that is correct. Driverless car. Yeah, also without a driver, Jess. Yeah, just saying.

It's without a lot of things. I don't know why Adam specified rider. It's also without a unicorn. It's also without a motor. Well, there just is two different versions, and maybe someone will present themselves that they are. Okay, good point. So we've got two more I'd love to thank from Burton-on-Trent in Great Britain, KDW.

The brief period where a Toyota Yaris replaced the regular car. Yeah. Oh, yeah, okay. A zippy little number, the Toyota Yaris. Yeah, that's nice. Gets you from A to B. Yes. Oh, buddy, they'll just go forever.

Beautiful to park in cramped city car parks. Nice and easy. Gorgeous. A little zippy city car. This episode brought to you by Toyota Yaris. this episode brought to you by Toyota Yaris. And finally, I would love to thank from Bourne, Bowen in Texas, Ethan Brundine.

Brundine is a fun name. Yeah, a bit fancy. Ethan Brundine. Top hat. Top hat. You're right, fancy. Ethan Brundine. Thank you, Ethan. Love that very much.

So thank you very much to all of those great supporters, Ethan, Katie, Susie, Norma Doodle, Caleb, Aaron, Mitch, Declan, and Marius. The last thing we like to do here, Adam, is welcome a few people into our Triptych Club. So you get involved in the Triptych Club after you've been a supporter of the show on the shout-out level or above for three straight years. What's the website again? It's patreon.com

slash do go on pod. Good to know. So if you're involved in that, you get welcomed into this club. It's Lifetime Membership. It's the Hotel California. You can never leave. I don't know if that's the same thing, but all right.

One sounds distinctly like a trap. So we've got three inductees this week. This is a bit of a theory of the mind game, and Dave's role slash your role this week, Adam Cannavale, is an important one. You're the emcee at the event. So I'm on the door. I'm the doorman.

I've got the clipboard. I've got the list. I'm going to read out the names, lift up the velvet rope, welcome them in. You're going to be on stage hyping up the crowd, which is hundreds of Triptych Club members who are already there enjoying themselves. Jess is behind the bar. She's going to be there to support you because every hype man needs a hype woman. And, Jess, you're also behind the bar.

What kind of cocktail? What's the Monopoly cocktail you've come up with? I've actually got a series of cocktails and they are all like the colours of the Monopoly board. So yellow, green, purple, etc. Yeah, so like, you know, Limoncello and Midori and Shambord for purple. So yeah, I've got something for everybody. Not like last week where I just put all of the shots in one big glass. That wasn't good.

And we did have some complaints. So this time I've made like seven different shots. A lot of stomachs were pumped. A lot of stomachs were pumped. But we do have a hospital on site. I am also the doctor though. What's blue Carrico? I've always said Caracaracuacu.

Yeah, great. Because I didn't know how to say it, so I just made a joke of it. Yeah. Because that's safe. Yeah, yeah. And then when people say you're saying it wrong, you say, I know I'm saying it as a joke. Oh my God, you don't get my joke. Yeah.

But I have no idea how to say it. No, I have no idea either. And I would never attempt it. I think you might have had it right. I think it was Carrico. Oh, really? Yeah. Holy shit. I think that's how you say it. No, I have no idea either. And I would never attempt it. I think you might have had it right. I think it was Kariko. Oh, really? Yeah. Holy shit.

I think that's how you say it. Look, hey, I would also typically fall into the bacon joke. Yeah, yeah. So I don't take this as gospel. Yeah. Just say Kariko. But if it is wrong, please, what is your Twitter handle, Adam? Well, my Twitter handle is at Jackson Bailey.

So any complaints can be sent there. That's funny. It's not even his Twitter handle. Send them over. All dogs are dead. Yeah, all dogs are dead. I don't know anyone's Twitter handle, but I know Jackson B. Bailey's. Yes.

It's hard to forget. And, yeah, wait, is there? Oh, yes. And, Adam, you also book a band for the after party of the event. Oh, okay. That's a lot of responsibility. Okay. Give me anyone you like.

Who have you booked? I've booked the only band worth a damn. The first band that came to my mind that is definitely in my mind right now, I'm thinking of a band. Yes. Wouldn't be stalling for time. That's not what I do. No, why would you do that?

I'm not panicking right now. Okay. No of a band. Yes. Wouldn't be stalling for time. That's not what I do. No, why would you do that? I'm not panicking right now. Okay. I am thinking. No one's suggesting you are. The only band in existence, just Elvis himself. Elvis himself. Yes, we got him.

Yeah, and his backup band. What are they called again? The Fantastic Five. Something business. Whatever. Yeah. The Business District. Yes, the Business District. It's Whatever. Yeah. The Business District. Yes.

It's Elvis Presley and the Business District. Taking care of business. Sorry, keep going. All right. So everyone in the club, please stick around for Elvis. That's a pretty good get. I don't think Dave's ever got anyone that big. Fuck no.

Dave's a massive loser. I'm going to let down. Adam, your role here on stage as the MC is, I'm going to read out the name. Dave would normally make some sort of weak pun as he sort of hypes them up as they enter the room. You're the hype man. All right. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. You don't have to make a weak pun.

Last week, Michelle just sort of was an emcee and really hyped them up. And then I'll hype you up. So you do whatever comes to your mind. All right, so we've got three. Don't panic, just go with your heart. I wouldn't. I've never done that in my life. First from Armstrong Creek in Victoria, Australia, it's Jemima Knox.

Armstrong, got to be careful. They've got strong arms. Tickets to the gun show. The guns being their arms, Knox. Armstrong. Got to be careful. They've got tickets to the gun show. The guns being their arms, they are Armstrong. Yes, Jemima, your big strong arms. Woo! Welcome from Manton in New South Wales, Australia. It's Sarah Smith. Sarah Smith.

Also got strong arms. Sarah Smith. Surprisingly strong arms. Got to do an arm wrestle with Jemima. Yes. And finally, oh my God, from a Welsh place. Oh no. I'm sorry.

I'm going to have to look up the phonetics of this. Give me the name so I've got some time. Okay. It's James Burton. James Burton. All right. How am I going to work arms into this? It's James Burton.

James Burton. All right, how am I going to work arms into this? His arms are burnton after arm wrestling Jemima and Sarah. That's good. Thank you. Yes. Yeah, do that. All right. Let's see.

Matt, I reckon you could get away from saying from Wales. From Strackenlice. From Strackenlice. That doesn't feel right. From Stracken Lice. From Strachan Lice. That doesn't feel right. From Strachan Lice in, and how do you say Wales in Welsh? From Cymru, it is James Burton. And I should have an absolute, Burton. Also got strong arms.

Strong arms. And that's no burden to them. They love it. Fuck. God damn it. Jesus Christ. It's great that you came up with one real quick. All right.

Welcome into the club, James, Sarah and Jemima. And, yeah, stick around, enjoy a few Monopoly cocktails and, yeah, collect the whole set if you can. Probably don't, actually. I do need you to drink responsibly. My RSA is being questioned. If you spew, that's the equivalent of being bankrupt in the game. The board is calling it

not existent. And a big lie. But that brings us to the end of the episode. Thanks so much for joining us, Adam Cannavale. Jess, is there anything we need to tell people before we go? Just that we love them so much. Adam, where can people find you?

Typically screaming on a street corner, but if you want to find me online, I can be found at Retro and Archetype. The two words just slam together. Chuck them into any social media. You'll find me there or alternatively at sanspenseradio.com. There you go.

And thank you for taking the tiny, tiny shoes of Dave Warnke for this week. We appreciate it so much. The little boots. He's one of the few that can put his feet into the Monopoly boot. Tiny feet, massive pies. That's it. If you want to suggest a topic, anybody can.

There's a link in the show notes or you can do it at our website, dogoonpod.com, where you can also find bonus our website do go on pod.com where you can also um find bonus episodes you can uh buy merch you can do just about anything you dream of over there and speaking of dave he is going to do a live show in london this week of book cheats so if you want to get involved in that check out book cheat pod online yeah it's happening wednesday the 10th of august and yeah that i mean i wish i could be. It'd be so much fun. So do yourselves a favor. Yeah, that brings us to the end of the episode.

Thanks so much for joining us. Hopefully, Adam, you can come back and do a report at some stage. I would love to. So we'll see you then. And, yeah, thanks for joining us, everyone. Laters. Bye. Bye. Bye. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that.

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