Parker Brother's Rich Uncle Game
The first appearance of the "Uncle Penny Bags/Rich Uncle/ Mr. Monopoly" character was in the Parker Brother's Inc. 1936 edition of Monopoly. In 1947 Parker Brothers introduced the board game "GAME OF RICH UNCLE" and in John Waddington Ltd. nearly identical version "GAME OF RICH UNCLE FROM THE STATES". This new game had "Rich Uncle" Penny Bags on the box face, game board, "script" money, and instruction sheet. Earlier in 1940 Uncle Penny Bags character was used on the exterior and interior of the box lid, playing cards and instruction sheet for Parker Brother's word game "DIG".
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Parker Brothers had initially rejected offers from Charles Darrow for the board game MONOPOLY. In 1934 Darrow had produced some 700 white box Monopoly sets. Retailers complained to Darrow that these games took up too much shelf space. So Darrow’s stopped making these white box sets which looked nearly identical to the deluxe white box sets Parker Brothers later produced after acquiring the rights to Monopoly from Darrow. Darrow’s second printing of Monopoly sets, now referred to as the Black Box set, consisted of game components in a small black leatherette box with red lettering “MONOPOLY” across the box with two figures above the Monopoly name. One with a concerned appearance chasing after the other that has a gleeful look upon his face. Game boards were sold separately from the parts box.
With Darrow version of Monopoly proving to be a huge success, Parker Brothers agreed to purchase the rights for the game from Charles Darrow. Parker Brothers bought the remaining inventory of the Black Box version of Monopoly from Darrow and replaced the Darrow instruction sheet with Parker Brothers version. They also placed a large sticker with their company name upon the remaining inventory of Darrow game boards. These first Parker Brothers versions are now referred to as hybrid sets. The product of Charles Darrow with Parker Brothers aforementioned additions.
With increasing demand for Parker Brothers Monopoly sets it was natural that Parker Brothers would attempt to promote other games using links to Monopoly. One such game was BULLS AND BEARS A STOCK EXCHANGE GAME. Four different versions of BULLS AND BEARS is known to exist. Two large boxes versions contained the game board, and two small box versions sold the game board separately. The first version of Bulls and Bears had a non-complimentary photograph of Charles Darrow upon the large and small editions. The second large and small editions had a handsome photograph of Charles Darrow with a pleasant relaxed expression upon his face. The artwork on all versions of this game were beautiful with a black and orange color scheme. The game contained elaborate script money with similar artwork upon each bill. Sadly BULLS AND BEARS was pulled from the market due to poor sales.
In 1936 Parker Brothers introduced the illustrated cartoon character Uncle Pennybags, or Rich Uncle. Uncle Pennybags appearance is consistent in the game of Monopoly, but varies in Parker Brothers magazine advertisements for Monopoly. Today this character is referred to as Mr. Monopoly. In an expense saving move Parker Brothers lifted the exact image of Uncle Pennybags holding the pick axe from the Monopoly chance playing card and used it on the instruction sheet, playing cards, and box lid of the new board game DIG.
In 1940 Parker Brothers used an image of Uncle Pennybags similar to ones used in magazine ads for the board game “GAME OF RICH UNCLE”.
With its introduction GAME OF RICH UNCLE the box color changed at least three times for sets sold in the United States. What I presume to be the first edition of the game the box was green with no decorative stipes on the box cover. Another version was boxed in a red box with simple decorative stripping. The most common version of the early GAME OF RICH UNCLE is contained in an orange box with more fanciful striping on the box cover. All early versions of the game have a large picture label of Uncle Pennybags with a blue colored background. Licensed editions of this game made by John Waddington LTD were contained in a slightly larger cranberry colored box with a similar label of Uncle Pennybags. The games name was changed to GAME OF RICH UNCLE FROM THE STATES”. I have seen this same game produced in other countries in different color boxes.
The objective of this game: All players begin the game with $5,000 and the first player to increase this amount to $50,000 or more wins the game. Parker Brothers instructions mention a typical game should last thirty minutes. There is no game board. There is a display board showing rows of different categories of stocks such as retail, service & utilities, transportation, amusements, manufacturing and Blue Chip stocks.” One player acts as the BANKER which the game calls the TREASURER. Market quotation cards, called “STOCK PRICE” cards, sit on a rack in the center of the display board. If any player rolls doubles the games TREASURER removes the top “STOCK PRICE” card in the rack to reveal the next “STOCK PRICE” card beneath it. Four “Stock Cards” are dealt face up to each player
The game instructions refer to the contents inside the game box as “THE POOL”. Items found inside the game box are STOCK CARDS and SCRIPT MONEY, and CARDBOARD CIRCULAR DISKS with denominations of $5,000 and $10,000.
Two dice come with the game. One colored and one white. When the dice are rolled the colored die is read first, the white die read last. When a player rolls doubles the must look at the display board and find the corresponding number box found on the display board. Most instruction on the display board tell a player to read “THE DAILY BUGLE” which are individual sheets resembling miniature newspapers. Each sheet has advice from Uncle Pennybags on how a player may obtain more money. Results of rolling doubles such as “3-3” or “6-6” have instructions “33 CONSULT DAILY BUGLE” or “66 CHRISTMAS BONUS COLLECT $3,000 FROM THE POOL – AND CONSULT DAILY BUGLE”. The game is more complex than described in this article.
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