Quick trivia question.
What do these classic board games have in common?
They were all made by these brothers, the Parker brothers.
For over 100 years, Parker Brothers was
America's number one
game maker with over 1,800 game titles
and billions sold worldwide.
But their rise to a board game monopoly
is full of risks that boggle the mind.
Did you know that one of their best-selling games
eventually became an Olympic sport?
- That's crazy to me.
Or that one of their biggest hits of the 1960s
was actually invented in the 1880s?
- Talking to dead people, big business.
And you'll never believe
where this iconic product got its catchy name.
You may think you know all about the toys
that built America, but there's more to this story.
I'm Adam Richmond.
Do not pass Go, roll again for the full story
behind Parker Brothers.
In 1969, Parker Brothers is one of the top toy companies
in America, thanks to their bread and butter product,
board games.
But a new CEO, Eddie Parker, has just taken over,
and he's about to either revolutionize the toy industry
or sink his family's legacy.
He's taking a big risk
with their company's latest product,
which is not their hit game Risk.
In fact, it's not a board game at all.
It's a ball?
And not just any ball,
it's an indoor ball that will go on to become
a $500 million goldmine.
But which ball?
And why did America's biggest board game company
do a total 180 and go from making
the quiet, thoughtful games that built their brand
to bouncing off the walls?
To understand that, we need to make a quick detour
back to the beginning.
Before Parker Brothers was even in business
and board games lived up to their name by being boring.
Less than two decades after the Civil War,
the country is rebuilding and innovating.
The Brooklyn Bridge has recently opened.
Telephones have just connected the east coast to the Midwest
and Americans are beginning to enjoy a totally new concept,
leisure time.
- Americans used to spend the time working,
eating, and sleeping,
but then Saturdays became a half day,
and electricity got commercialized,
One person taking advantage
of that leisure time is 16-year-old George Parker,
the youngest of three brothers in Salem, Massachusetts.
Instead of working in a factory line
like he might've done just a generation ago,
they're doing something relatively rare in America.
Playing board games.
- Even though board games had been around since the 1820s,
more than 60 years later,
there still wasn't a lot to choose from.
And the games that did exist,
like Milton Bradley's The Checkered Game of Life
tried to impart some sort of moral wisdom about the church.
Tired of dull morality lessons,
George decides to make his own fun game.
- Think you're really onto something.
Encouraged by his brothers
and inspired by titans of industry like Vanderbilt
and Rockefeller, young George earns $50
selling currants picked from the family orchard
then quickly publishes 500 sets
of his new game called Banking.
It's actually more exciting than it sounds,
at least for the time.
- Banks officially became chartered in the 1860s.
So by the 1880s, banking and banks are a hot topic.
Everyone wants to learn more,
and that was the genius behind the Banking game.
It allowed everyone to experience banking
without using real money.
Gone are the dull morality lessons of old.
Here's a game built around the thrill
of making tons of money,
even if it's just pretend money.
In short order, George enlists his older brothers,
Charles and Edward to join him.
And they form, you guessed it, Parker Brothers.
By the late 1880s, their catalog features 29 games,
most invented by George himself.
He's also responsible for doing something
unheard of at the time,
advertising in newspapers and magazines.
- Back in the late 19th century,
spending money on advertising for toys and games
was not something that anyone did.
Consumers would go to their local toy shop
and talk to the toy store owner
and see what was new that way.
So when Parker Brothers decided to invest in advertising,
it was a really expensive risk.
The risk pays off.
Annual sales grow from $500 their first year
to a whopping $110,000 by 1898,
over $3.6 million today.
Now a wealthy man in his 30s,
George's philosophy remains the same,
games shouldn't impart morals, they should be fun.
Case in point, in 1902 on a trip to England,
he discovers a popular new ball bouncing game
named for the sounds it makes, ping pong.
Recognizing the game's potential
to be a massive American hit,
George quickly acquires the rights
to use the name Ping Pong in the US.
Costing just $1 for the set,
which includes two paddles, several balls
and a net you can string across any table.
The game is an overhand smash for Parker Brothers,
and will even go on to become an Olympic sport in 1988,
thanks in part to George Parker popularizing it in the US.
Annual sales in 1902 reached $346,000,
over 11 million today.
And by 1910, they're America's biggest game company,
surpassing Milton Bradley for the top spot.
But there's a problem.
- Parker Brothers had a trademark on Ping Pong,
but that didn't stop rival companies
from creating their own copycat games
and just calling them table tennis.
Ping Pong sales plummet
as more customers buy the cheaper knock-off versions.
So George sets his sights on creating
a completely original game, one that can't be copied
and will allow him to have an exclusive monopoly.
The good news is a man is about to come calling
with just such a game.
The bad news, oof, wait 'til you find out.
- What in God's name were you thinking?
It's the 1920s and Parker Brothers is the top game maker
in the country, beating former number one, Milton Bradley.
Sales hit an all-time high of $1.3 million,
over 19 million today.
And another banner year seems in the books for 1929.
Nothing can stop the fun and games except this.
- The Great Depression was a shocking event,
and it forces these industries either to economize
and survive or to go into chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Forced to lay off nearly half his workers,
George considers selling the company
unless they find a miracle.
As fate would have it, a Philadelphia man
named Charles Darrow might have that miracle.
But when Parker Brothers execs test drive
the new submission, they hate it.
- It was a game that taught against
the evils of monopolies.
How landlords shouldn't be allowed to
increase their rents.
Yet when Darrow publishes the game himself,
it's a surprise hit,
quickly selling out in Philadelphia's Wanamaker's
and New York's iconic FAO Schwarz.
So maybe Parker Brothers was wrong about this game.
- What in God's name were you thinking?
Whoops.
- Now get him in here before someone else does.
They quickly right the ship,
buying the rights from Darrow
for the hit real estate game, Monopoly.
Parker Brothers is ready to take the world by storm.
And George is thrilled to finally have a game
that can't be copied without infringing on his trademark.
There's one problem.
Someone else already patented a similar game
30 years earlier.
What's worse, she even pitched it to George Parker himself.
This game will open people's eyes.
- I'm afraid it has no chance of success.
Having been burned before with copyrights,
George takes inspiration
from the very game he seeks to publish.
- I'll sell you the rights to my game.
By buying out the competition
for just 500 bucks.
With the market cornered, Parker brothers releases
the new and improved Monopoly in 1935
and it's an instant hit,
even in the middle of the depression,
or maybe because of the depression.
- It was just a fantasy that so many people
who were hit so hard economically
just couldn't resist.
By the end of 1936,
they sell over 1.8 million copies,
earning an unprecedented $1 million in profit,
over $15 million today.
It will go on to be published in 47 languages
and played by over a billion people,
making it the best selling privately patented
board game of all time.
But in the 1940s, things begin to slow down.
Sales of Monopoly slump to 1/10 of their peak,
while George Parker, now in his 80s, retires,
passing the reins to his son-in-law, Robert Barton.
Inheriting sluggish sales, Barton scours the globe
for the next trend in games.
While investigating popular titles in the UK,
he discovers a killer game with a dark history.
- A British factory worker by the name of Anthony Pratt
was actually holed up in his house
during the World War II air raids with his wife.
- There was not much they could do except read
detective novels by candlelight,
and it inspired them to create a murder mystery board game.
When Barton acquires the American rights
for Clue in 1949, the timing could not be better,
and "Sam Spade" boost interest
in mystery-based entertainment.
That year,
Clue helps Parker Brothers hit $2.6 million in sales.
But they aren't the only post-war success story.
Old rival Milton Bradley has a massive hit for younger kids
called Candy Land.
While a Long Island company triple word scores
with Scrabble, a game
that quickly rivals Monopoly in sales.
For the first time in decades,
Parker Brothers is in danger of getting booted out
of their number one spot.
So to beat back the competition,
they're gambling on a risky French alliance
to help them conquer the world.
It's the 1950s and Parker Brothers is realizing
they're no longer the only game in town,
but instead of trying to copy Milton Bradley's success
with the grade school crowd,
Parker Brothers aims to conquer the teen and adult market
by making an American version of a popular French game
called La Conquete Du Monde.
Ooh la la, sounds lovely, but what does it mean?
To conquer the world.
While many Parker Brothers execs think the game
has a certain je ne sais quoi,
its title has some worried about making a faux pas.
- In the 1950s, America was tired.
We had World War II. We had the Korean war.
There was a lot going on, a lot of death,
a lot of blood.
- Educators were wary of games and toys for kids
that were based on war.
So Parker Brothers was a little hesitant
about creating a game called To Conquer the World.
The solution to the problematic title
comes from an unlikely place.
A Parker Brothers salesmen simply combines the initials
of his four grandchildren and voila.
Thanks to clever ads like this one,
Risk is the must have holiday item of 1959,
stuffing $1 million in revenue
into their Christmas stockings.
But an influx of popular, active toys like the Frisbee
and Hula Hoop proves to be a serious competition.
So Parker Brothers decides their next board game
should be more active and lively,
which is ironic since the game they acquire
is all about talking to the dead.
Spending nearly $1 million on the most expensive
product acquisition in the company's history,
the Ouija Board is older than Parker Brothers itself.
- The Ouija board can actually trace its roots
back to the 1880s in America,
when spiritualism was really, really popular.
People wanted to commune with the dead.
They wanted answers and they wanted it
in a really inexpensive and meaningful way.
During World War I,
the Ouija Board became so commonplace
that it made the cover of the Saturday Evening Post,
and over a five month period during World War II,
a single New York department stores sold 50,000 of them.
Now in the late 1960s during the height of the Vietnam War,
Parker Brothers is betting that Americans are once again
seeking answers and Ouija happily provides those answers.
- Parker Brothers sells 2.3 million units
of the Ouija Board in 1967.
It outsold their number one game, Monopoly,
by 300,000 units.
That's insane. I mean, what a huge success.
The following year, going out on top,
Robert Barton retires, passing the reins to his nephew,
Eddie Parker, and Eddie's first decision is a radical one.
Instead of trying to find the next big board game,
Eddie searches for the next Hula Hoop or Frisbee craze,
an active toy that will get kids moving.
Incredibly, the toy that he discovers
dates back to prehistoric times,
sort of.
It's 1969, Vietnam, Woodstock, the moon landing,
the times are definitely changing.
And Parker Brothers is no exception.
Eager to move the company forward as the next generation
of toy buyers seek more dynamic toys,
Eddie Parker meets with Reyn Guyer,
the man behind Milton Bradley's recent hit, Twister.
And Guyer's new toy idea has a mammoth origin story.
- After his success with Twister,
Reynolds Guyer came up with this idea for a caveman game,
with rocks that were made out of this foam material.
- So he's sitting around with his team when they get bored,
and they start taking these foam rocks
and bouncing them off of this net.
And he has his Eureka moment.
- He goes "hey, let's scrap the caveman game
and make a game just about the foam balls."
Guyer's old employer, Milton Bradley,
passes on the new idea,
allowing Parker Brothers to snag the rights,
except they don't like the indoor volleyball game.
They just like the ball.
They even come up with a clever name for it, Nerf.
While some claim Nerf stands for
non-expanding recreational foam,
which is not even remotely factual.
The actual source of the name is even more bizarre.
- In the '60s, drag racing was really popular,
and there were trucks that moved the dragsters in
the position and they had foam on
the bumper so it's not to scratch them.
And they called that a Nerf.
Parker Brothers thought that it applied to the ball,
since it was soft, fun, and safe.
Marketing it as the world's first indoor ball,
Parker Brothers puts all of their mighty resources
behind the new toy, including this 1970 ad
featuring The Monkees.
- Hey, what are those things anyway?
- They're Nerf balls.
Spongy foam that doesn't hurt anything.
Nerf quickly flies off the shelves.
In fact, four million Nerf balls are sold that year,
boosting total revenue for Parker Brothers to $36 million,
double what it had been just a decade earlier.
Parker Brothers turns Nerf into a juggernaut in 1972,
thanks in part to commercials with enthusiastic jingles
selling their newest product.
Nerf footballs, ra ra ra
Selling an all-time high of eight million
footballs in 1979, Parker Brothers soars
into the record books with $100 million in sales.
But as America rolls into the '80s,
a new trend has Parker Brothers in the crosshairs.
launching a new line of Nerf products with this ad.
The world is your arcade
when you take aim with Nerf.
- Nerf guns made me feel like Rambo.
The best part was because the foam balls don't hurt,
you can hit your kid brother in the face and run away.
I'm sure my mom didn't appreciate it.
Set your sights on Nerf,
'cause it's Nerf or nothin'.
By 1982, Parker Brothers' total annual sales
near $200 million.
But some executives feel that number could be even higher
if they ventured into the home video game market
made wildly popular by Atari,
whose sales just topped two billion.
So Parker Brothers spends a small fortune
making home video games based on hit arcade games,
including Star Wars and Frogger.
But the timing couldn't be worse.
- Like any bubble,
eventually you're going to go off the cliff.
And so here in America, in 1983,
we had this video game crash.
Reporting $10 million in losses in 1985,
the company is in serious trouble.
Meanwhile, a couple of newspaper guys from Canada
have struck it big with the surprise hit
board game of the '80s.
So in a last gasp to turn things around,
what popular question and answer game
did Parker Brothers acquire in 1988?
- In the early '80s, Trivial Pursuit gave birth
to the adult game category, and all of a sudden,
everybody was having Trivial Pursuit parties.
So it really became a cultural phenomenon.
A few years later, toy conglomerate Hasbro
makes Parker Brothers an offer they can't refuse,
buying them out for over half a billion dollars,
and eventually merging them
with former rival Milton Bradley.
But Parker Brothers can hold their head high,
because of the top five best-selling
patented board games
of all time, Parker Brothers
is directly responsible
for over half of them.
One even became
a cult classic film.
Started with just 50 bucks
by a teenager who revolutionized an industry
when he dared to believe that games should be fun.
Parker Brothers kind of fun.