The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit

by Philip E. Orbanes

The Monopoly game, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Boggle, and Risk are more than games - they're part of Americana. This work presents a study of successful business expansion. It also gives an account of how one individual's strength of character - or weakness - exerted a significant influence over a company's fortunes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Games, Business

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kate Racculia]

I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps, it is merely because I grew up on the classic releases from this company—competing at Monopoly, Careers, Clue, Sorry, and Rook, only discovering Milles Bornes, Pit, Risk, and Masterpiece later in life, that I loved this book, but I found Philip E. Orbanes’ The Game Makers to be insightful, intriguing, and both evocative of laughter and bittersweet reminiscences. As a writer who covered the game field and actually visited those offices in Beverly (built after the General Mills merger), MA on one occasion (a building filled with amazing nostalgia worked right into the design), I found myself agreeing with his analysis of the poor management era within the company and only lamenting the fact that it dealt with the sale of the interactive properties to Infogrammes so tersely. It was an interesting story that was lost in the “bigger picture” of the Hasbro years. Indeed, the Hasbro portion of the story feels more like an appendix or epilogue than the style of the rest of the book. But only that portion of the book seemed in the least less than it could be.

It was encouraging to read about the 19th century origins of the company with which (much later) I was once associated (via the Hasbro connection). I loved discovering that George S. Parker was an avid game player, even in the “Red Room” of his boyhood home where he developed Banking as his first game and playtested it with his friends (p. 3) and how loyal he was to friends like Joseph Dyer (Parker Brothers’ second employee—p. 9). I was most impressed with the way Parker condensed his business approaches to “rules” in the same way he wrote game rules (pp. 10-11).
1. Know your goal and reach for it.
2. Finding “winning moves.”
3. Play by the rules, but capitalize on them.
4. Learn from failure; build upon success.
5. When faced with a choice, make the move with the most potential benefit versus risk.
6. When luck runs against you, hold emotion in check and set up for your next advance.
7. Never hesitate and given your opponents a second chance.
8. Seek help if the game threatens to overwhelm you.
9. Bet heavily when the odds are long in your favor.
10. If opportunity narrows, focus on your strengths.
11. Be a gracious winner or loser. Don’t be petty. Share what you learn.
12. Ignore principles 1 to 11 at your peril.

What was really intriguing about the book was the way that Orbanes (who became part of Parker Brothers in 1979 after working for the Mousetrap people at Ideal Toy Company) managed to weave these principles throughout first the company history surrounding George S. Parker, second, around the portion of the history surrounding his son-in-law, Robert Barton, and finally, throughout the era of corporate ownership. I found it ironic that Orbanes’ company, Winning Moves, that publishes some of the classic games today (Pit, Milles Bornes, and Flinch) derives it’s name from George’s second principle ( p. 217). I loved the implementation of #6 during World War I when Orbanes used the Backgammon analogy of a back game (setting up defensively because your opponent has a lead and you need to stall until you find an opening to catch up and win) to describe Parker’s approach to his private recovery from the death of his sons and his public approach to rebuilding the company during the harsh times following World War I (not a boom time like the era following WWII). Orbanes notes that it takes lots of skill and self-restraint to play a “back game” (p. 52). During this period, one of the pleasant surprises was the ongoing strength of Rook sales. The discussion of this Bridge game using colored playing cards in a 1-14 sequence confirmed my boyhood suspicions that it was designed primarily for people who believed that traditional playing cards were “of the devil.” Orbanes quotes the sales pitch that it was now “safe” to play whist and bridge (p. 56). I liked the observation of how a pacifist (and later, isolationist) like Parker published games based on the “Great European War” even though it went against his personal ideals. Orbanes states, “George did not believe in fighting trends in the marketplace, even if they ran counter to his personal beliefs or tastes.” (p. 61) And, I was amazed at how one of the key elements in pulling Parker Brothers out of the doldrums was importing Mah-Jongg sets (The original collator of the rules and later, Parker Brothers added the second “g” for trademark reasons (p. 67).

I enjoyed how Rule #7 played into the Monopoly story (probably the longest single section of the book, but understandable in terms of the importance of the franchise to the company and to the fact that Orbanes wrote an entire book around the history and playing of this iconic game). Apparently, remembering how games with similar themes and mechanics (“table tennis” to “ping-pong” and variants of “mah jong” to “mah jongg”) had taken market share from Parker Brothers products over the years, Robert Barton took no chances with Monopoly, not only paying a lump sum to Ms. Magpie for her patent to The Landlord’s Game, but buying out games like Finance (developed by an executive of Knapp Electric and purchased (just to kill it) for $750—p. 97) and Inflation (by a Texan named Rudy Copeland –p. 103) because they were too similar (though the company later licensed the mechanics to competitor Milton Bradley for Easy Money (p. 102) and the name for Anti-Monopoly as a way of settling out-of-court with Berkeley professor Ralph Anspach (p. 170).

Those who haven’t read Orbane’s book on Monopoly may be surprised to discover that the Monopoly” Man (we always called him the “Monopoly Guy”) was named Rich Uncle Pennybags until 1999 when he was renamed Mr. Monopoly and had an entire family, including his wife, Marge, his friend Jake the Jailbird, and his nephews, Randy, Sandy, and Andy Pennybags (p. 122). Of course, even more surprising is finding out that Parker Brothers’ UK licensee (Waddington’s) manufactured special Monopoly boards in which the Red Cross smuggled silk maps, compasses, and files hidden under the board itself into P.O.W. camps in order to help them escape (p. 113).

Further, I liked the idea of “Share what you learn.” This was found in George’s Rule #11. I like it because I see the best years in the development of an industry taking place when even competitors share what they’ve learned. The rising tide of increasing knowledge floats all boats. But today’s era of patent trolls works against that. Indeed, one could argue that the entire philosophy of the patent process works against that. In the history of board games, it wasn’t the patent problem that worked against the competitors who wouldn’t share information. It was when General Mills shipped off all of the molding machines from Taunton, MA to a location in Mexico as a cost-cutting decision. Naturally, the workforce in Mexico wasn’t trained and wasn’t nearly as flexible as the U.S. workforce, so the move actually ended up costing the company and putting it tremendously behind instead of helping reduce costs (p. 192).

And Orbanes introduces the reader to the kind of executives who reach positions of power and cause me to ask how they ever could do so. The villains in Orbanes’ story are Jim Fifeld who apparently insisted on pretending that the 1983 cartridge crash wasn’t happening (p. 182) and Lawrence Bernstein (p. 207 – an extremely unlikeable man who was allegedly subject to ruthless outbursts in public and didn’t trust anyone other than people who agreed with him). How many times have I run into this kind of executive in my years covering the game industry.
This may well be one of the most valuable resources in my personal library. I am thrilled to have finally read it (more than the bits and pieces used in other research) and plan to give it a place of honor on my game shelf.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I find the history of toys and games quite fascinating, so a book would have to be terribly dry and dull to not catch my interest. Fortunately this was not (dull).

I'd read Orbanes' history of the game Monopoly (which is fascinatingly comples) and knew that his writing style would be very approachable. Somewhat surprisingly, the older history seems most thorough and complete, but the more modern history, when Orbanes served as a VP at Parker Brothers, seems slightly more thin in detail. Is this because he was too close to the subject? Or because many of the people are still alive ... people who might hold sway over potential jobs? In any case, the oldest history of the origins of Parker Brothers is most fascinating.

What surprised me the most is how, what seemed like such a big name in game-making was really a pretty small-time, family-oriented company ... even up through the mid 1960's when I would have first discovered them. It was truly interesting to see how George Parker capitalized on ideas and times and managed to make things work; how his basic principles really were so effective; how such a small operation managed to achieved fantastic success.

I'd really like to read about the origins of Milton Bradley and Hasbro now!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but ultimately somewhat tedious company biography of the luminous Parker Brothers, perhaps the single greatest American board game manufacturer of the 20th century.

The star of the book - and you can tell the author knows it - is George S. Parker, the blue-eyed youth who started the company in the 1880s - with the help of his older siblings - and steered it over fifty years. That first half (nearly exactly half, in fact) of the book is sensational, a full-bodied depiction of a family business governed by lauded guiding principles, with the origins of a number of notable games including "Rook," "Mah-jongg," "Sorry!" and of course "Monopoly." We also get a good look at a number of forgotten games, including "Pillow-Dex" (an unlikely hit that soared) and "Diabolo" (a surefire hit that flopped). There's a lot of glowing talk about "Parker pride," George's personal approval of every product, and how stable the company was for Salem, Massachusetts. The idealism may be a little exaggerated, but it's hard not to be stirred by it all, especially when our modern conception of business is so much different and far less personal.

Sadly, it doesn't last. Once World War II concludes and George Parker dies, a lot of the personal feeling of the book disappears, too. In large part that's simply due to acceleration, both of technology and American corporate interests. When the second president of Parker Bros., Robert Barton, agrees to be purchased by General Mills on page 150 (in early 1968), the book is essentially over. The remaining 65 pages are a blinding succession of push-pull business strategies, endless faceless executives, and a little of the author's own experience. Good luck getting much meaning out of any of it, unless you're interested in a losers'-eye-view of the nascent electronic games industry.

[Maurice Tougas · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many of you have ever played a Parker Brothers game? Maybe a better question would be how many of you have NOT played a Parker Brothers game?
Chances are you have. Ever play Clue? Masterpiece? Rook? Mille Bornes? Boggle? Pente? Ouija? Risk? Sorry? Trivial Pursuit? Rook? And the king of all board games, Monopoly? All produced or popularized by Parker Brothers. And I haven't even mentioned Ping Pong and Mah-Jongg or Tiddly Winks. Or Nerf.
The Game Makers tells the story of the Parker Brothers of Salem, Mass., and how they turned a tiny company founded in 1883 into the toy and game behemoth. The early days of Parker Brothers is by far the most interesting part of the book, dealing with the creation of some of the all-time classic board games. But the book lags badly when Parker Brothers (minus all the Parker Brothers) becomes a plaything of bigger companies, being absorbed by General Mills, then Tonka, then Kenner, etc. Once the Parker brothers depart, the Game Makers becomes a denser, less entertaining business story, as you might expect from a book published by the Harvard Business School Press. Until the big boys take over, The Game Makers is – dare I say it? – fun.

[Justin D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the middle and beginning involving George Parker and his Brothers and the games they made. After that it was just numbers and a lot of names that came and went and not much about games made.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, easy read. Interesting to learn about the early days of Parker Brothers.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone thoughtfully grabbed this for me a couple of birthdays ago, and I finally got it underway. The purchaser obviously knew of my interest in games, and that was enough. What he could not have known is in my ongoing fascination with the "business" of my childhood. Disney, Hershey, Comic Books and now toys & games. Those four entities cover a lot of my childhood, and I can't get enough of them. Why did some succeeed, why did some fail? What were the missed opportunities? Who were the heroes and who were the villans? I don't know that I would care about this sort of minutia in other industries, but where my childhood is concerned, I eat it up with a spoon.

So, Philip Orbanes and Harvard Business Press have tapped a deep vein of personal interest with this book. Phil Orbanes knows of what he writes. He worked at Parker Brothers during the critical General Mills period. Additionally, he would go on to become President of Winning Moves games -- a company well known to the Eurogame crowd.

Let me say at the outset, that the book is a fond look at Parker Brothers. Yet, its a tone that's hard to argue with. Orbanes does not avoid mentioning ther personal foibles of George Parker (something of a stuffy dandy, it would seem), but taken as a whole, the company he built is truly amazing.

The book is full of nuggets that I just did not know. I didn't realize that Pit was George Parker's first big hit, and the Theodore Roosevelt liked to play it. I didn't know that George Parker broke through a convention that games were to teach lessons and morality. Parker was really the first guy to try and bring the element of "simulation" to boardgaming. Then there are the accomplishments. Everyone knows that Parker Brothers brought Monopoly to the vast majority of Americans. But did you know they were also responsible for introducing America to Mahjong? What about Ping Pong? Jigsaw Puzzles? George Parker would have deserved a place in the history of American culture without Monopoly. When you add Monopoly, Clue and Risk to that, you can only say wow! This really is an important company.

The book is best when describing the mom and pop shop made good. You enjoy reading about the little turn of the century company that evolves through two world wars and grows and grows in little Salem Massachusetts (interestingly, Milton Bradley has its roots nearby). The narrative suffers a bit when we get to the era of corporate transitions, and a nameless cast that you can't bring yourself to care about.

Still, even in that context, it was interesting to learn of the toxic combination of corporate ambition and video games that would ultimately destroy the great game company. Like so many others, Parker Brothers was drawn into the the video game boom of the 80's and did not adapt to the bust. Their heretofore spotless image tarnished, they become Kenner/Parker and then ultimately end up in the hands of Hasborg. These days, they are little more than a brand in the Hasborg empire. No doubt, at one time, Parker Brothers could have easily bought and disposed of Hasbro, but such are the vagaries of the business world.

In any event, any gamer, even a wargamer, will enjoy better understanding our hobbies origins. Parker Brother's role in that hobby would be impossible to overstate. Orbanes is exactly the right chronicler for the tale, and I enjoyed the read thoroughly.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book -- I learned about the industry and its history, but in hindsight, I'm not interested enough in the subject to have made it worth my time. . . Probably only two "takeaway" pieces of information that I will remember (just in case I'm ever on Jeopardy or something): 1) The allies in WWII hid compasses, silk maps, and files in Monopoly game boards that they sent to POWs in prison camps to help them escape. 2)The same person who made The Red Balloon (the movie I had to watch a bunch of times in elementary school), Albert Lamorisse, also invented RISK.

[Monty Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm interested in the history of Parker Brothers, but I was not interested in this book, which is largely a tedious recitation of games as the company went from success to success. I didn't get any sense of the Parkers themselves, as their personalities and occasional tragedies got brushed aside to make room for the rules of Tiddledy Winks.

This is theoretically an independent, unauthorized history. But the author used to be head of Parker Brothers R&D, and I definitely detect the hand of Hasbro lawyers in the way Monopoly is constantly referred to as "The Monopoly game."

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip E. Orbanes had written an easily read history of what was once the Premier toy game maker in the US. Geo. S. Parker started it and with his brothers fashioned a family business that lasted until taken over by General Mills. Under a General Mills manager it became unprofitable. It was later bought by Tonka and then Tonka was bought by Hasbro. It is an interesting read in American Corporate history.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Parker Brothers is interesting and fun to relive. The author had access to many sources and facts to help develop this story. Unfortunately, the work trailed off as it came to present day, as the market shifted faster and the company's developments became more frequent, which diluted the longer narrative.

[Robert JA Basilio Jr.]

Lots of interesting trivia. Owing to his obsession with games, George Parker--who established Parker Brothers--even manufactured a game called "The Battle of Manila Bay" when the Americans during the early 20th century embarked on a project to produce little brown Americans also known as Filipinos.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books like these that tell the story of a family or business. This one I really enjoyed. My master's is in Leisure Studies so this was right up my alley. Well done - could be edited down a bit. Not every single detail needs to go into a book. Overall, enjoyed it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting to read the story behind the Parker Brothers games business starting in the late 1800's. It held my interest up to when they were bought out by General Mills and the family atmosphere was lost. A nostalgic look back to childhood board games makes this one worth reading.

[Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I realized just how many Parker Bros games I played! From Pay Day to Risk to Boggle to Careers.... Wow.

[Tim Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it!

[FranklinTV]

Looks like a good read - to be read.

[Jon Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good read whether you're interested in where some of these classic game came from or the business processes used to make them (in the 1800s no less).

[Peter Aulén · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written, interesting and a surprisingly entertaining book for a factual story about the board game business.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parker Brothers have made some of the most memorable games and the story of how they came up with them and built an empire is fascinating. This is one of the great business books on the toy industry of which sadly there are few. The focus on both the production and the sales is prevalent throughout the book. The acquistion by General Mills and then the corporate raiding of the 1980's and the eventual white knight save by Hasbro are all covered in here. Quite a bit is covered on the move towards video games although Parker Brothers never really makes the move well. Also covered is the story about Kenner which many forget was owned by Parker Brothers although not a ton of time is spent talking about the development of all the Nerf products. . The stories are great and the ideas for the games really come to life. For those who want to create board games or understand the toy industry this is a must read.