The Landlord's Game Magie for the Landlord Game. Adgame Company (Inc.) published "Landlord's Game and Prosperity" under this patent in 1932. Robert Baron had Parker Brothers design its own version, "Fortune", before negotiation to purchase her patents in case the discussion fell apart or she sold to another potential buyer, Dave Knapp, publisher of "Finance". Magie held the patent until 1935, when she sold it to Parker Brothers for $500. The company had recently started distributing "Monopoly", which it purchased from Charles Darrow who claimed to have invented it. The company only printed a very small run of the game to secure the
History of the board game Monopoly Brothers worldwide rights and releasing Darrow from legal costs that would be incurred in defending the origin of the game. In December 1935, Parker Brothers sent a copy of the game to Victor Watson, Sr. of Waddington Games. Watson and his son Norman tried the game over a weekend, and liked it so much that Waddington took the (then extraordinary) step of making a transatlantic "trunk call" to Parker Brothers, the first such call made or received by either company. This impressed Parker Brothers sufficiently that Waddington was granted licensing rights for Europe and the then-British Commonwealth, excluding Canada. Waddingtons