Mr. Monopoly

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Rich Uncle Pennybags, as depicted on the cover of the first edition of the Parker Brothers game that gave the character a name Rich Uncle 1946 Cover.jpg
Rich Uncle Pennybags, as depicted on the cover of the first edition of the Parker Brothers game that gave the character a name

Milburn Pennybags, more commonly known as "Rich Uncle" Pennybags, is the mascot of the board game of Monopoly . He is depicted as a portly old man with a moustache who wears a morning suit with a bowtie and top hat. In large parts of the world he is known, additionally or exclusively, as the Monopoly Man, Mr. Monopoly, or the Monopoly Guy. [1] He also appears in the related games Rich Uncle, Advance to Boardwalk , Free Parking , Don't Go to Jail , Monopoly City , Monopoly Junior , and Monopoly Deal .

Contents

The character first appeared on Chance and Community Chest cards in U.S. editions of Monopoly in 1936. The identity of the character's designer, artist Daniel Fox, was unknown until 2013, when a former Parker Brothers executive, Philip Orbanes, was contacted by one of Fox's grandchildren. [2]

History

The unnamed character made his first appearance outside Monopoly in the Parker Brothers' game Dig, released in 1940. [3] He did not receive a name until 1946, when Parker Brothers produced the game Rich Uncle, where his likeness appeared on the box lid, instructions, and currency.[ citation needed ] According to Orbanes, Rich Uncle Pennybags of the American version of Monopoly is modeled after American Progressive Era businessman J. P. Morgan. [4] However physically he more closely resembles Otto Kahn, the German-born American investment banker. [5]

A more contemporary depiction of Pennybags on the box of Monopoly GEM Monopoly box.jpg
A more contemporary depiction of Pennybags on the box of Monopoly

Between 1985 and 2008, the character appeared in the second "O" in the word Monopoly as part of the game's logo. More recently, he is depicted over the word "Monopoly", drawn in a 3-D style, extending his right hand. However, he no longer appears uniformly on every Monopoly game box. [6] [7]

In 1988, Orbanes published the first edition of his book The Monopoly Companion. In the book, all of the characters that appear on the Monopoly board or within the decks of cards received a name. Uncle Pennybags' full name was given as Milburn Pennybags, the character "In Jail" is named "Jake, the Jailbird", and the police officer on Go to Jail is named "Officer Mallory". [8]

In 1999, Rich Uncle Pennybags was renamed Mr. Monopoly. That year, a Monopoly Jr. CD-ROM game was released in cereal boxes as part of a General Mills promotion. It introduced Mr. Monopoly's niece and nephew, Sandy and Andy.[ citation needed ]

According to the book, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How It Got That Way and The Monopoly Companion, Mr. Monopoly has a second nephew named Randy, although the Monopoly Companion mistakenly refers to Sandy as a boy. Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How It Got That Way also states that Mr. Monopoly has a wife named Madge. [8] [9] He is named as the sixth richest fictional character in the 2006 Forbes Fictional 15 list on its website and the ninth richest in 2011. [10]

Legacy

In 2017, a staff member [11] of the activist group Public Citizen who dressed as Mr. Monopoly with an added monocle gained Internet and media attention [12] by photobombing the CEO of Equifax during a US Senate hearing relating to that credit bureau's data security breach from earlier that same year. [13] It was an attempt to bring attention to the use of "forced arbitration" to circumvent consumers' rights to sue financial companies in court. [14]

While Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before Congress on December 11, 2018, a person costumed in a white mustache and black bowler hat as the Monopoly Man was among those seated behind him. [1]

On September 12, 2023, Ian Madrigal again dressed as the Monopoly Man following Kent Walker, the President of Global Affairs at Alphabet Inc. to Google´s antitrust trial United States v. Google LLC (2023) at federal court in Washington, D.C . [15]

Clue: Candlestick, a mystery comic book by Dash Shaw based on the board game Clue, features Rich Uncle Pennybags in a cameo. He is referred to as "Milburn." [16]

Vault Boy, the mascot of the Fallout video game series, is based partly on Rich Uncle Pennybags. [17]

A false memory of Mr. Monopoly as wearing a monocle, which he did not do until after this false memory gained traction, is a common instance of the Mandela effect. [18] [19] [20]

Voices

In licensed media, primarily including advertisements and video games, Mr. Monopoly has been voiced by several voice actors including Tony Waldman, Tony Pope, Wendell Johnson, Dean Hagopian, Mark Dodson, Larry Moran, Michael Cornacchia, Harry Aspinwall, and Rowell Gormon. [21]

Related Research Articles

<i>Monopoly</i> (game) Property trading board game

Monopoly is a multiplayer economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents and aim to drive them into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards and tax squares. Players receive a salary every time they pass "Go" and can end up in jail, from which they cannot move until they have met one of three conditions. House rules, hundreds of different editions, many spin-offs, and related media exist. Monopoly has become a part of international popular culture, having been licensed locally in more than 103 countries and printed in more than 37 languages. As of 2015, it was estimated that the game had sold 275 million copies worldwide. The original game was based on locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States with the exception of Marven Gardens which is in adjacent Ventnor, NJ.

<i>Cluedo</i> Board game

Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parker Brothers</span> American toy and game manufacturer

Parker Brothers was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products were Monopoly, Clue, Sorry!, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, Bop It, Scrabble, and Probe. The trade name became defunct with former products being marketed under the "Hasbro Gaming" label with the logo shown on Monopoly games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Peanut</span> Mascot for Planters Peanuts

Mr. Peanut is the advertising logo and mascot of Planters, an American snack-food company owned by Hormel. He is depicted as an anthropomorphic peanut in its shell, wearing the formal clothing of an old-fashioned gentleman, with a top hat, monocle, white gloves, spats, and cane. He is reported of British heritage and has the proper name of Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe.

Monopoly Junior is a simplified version of the board game Monopoly, designed for young children, which was originally released in 1990. It has a rectangular board that is smaller than the standard game and rather than using street names it is based on a city's amusements to make the game more child-friendly. There are many different models of the game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Comics</span> American comic book publisher

Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers, Robert B. and Leon Harvey, joined shortly after. The company soon got into licensed characters, which, by the 1950s, became the bulk of their output. The artist Warren Kremer was closely associated with the publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Fox (programmer)</span> American computer programmer

Brian Jhan Fox is an American computer programmer and free software advocate. He is the original author of the GNU Bash shell, which he announced as a beta in June 1989. He continued as the primary maintainer of bash until at least early 1993. Fox also built the first interactive online banking software in the U.S. for Wells Fargo in 1995, and he created an open source election system in 2008.

<i>The Landlords Game</i> Board game, precursor to Monopoly

The Landlord's Game is a board game patented in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie as U.S. patent 748,626. It is a realty and taxation game intended to educate users about Georgism. It is the inspiration for the 1935 board game Monopoly.

Philip E. Orbanes is an American board game designer, author, founding partner and former president of Winning Moves Games in Danvers, Massachusetts. Orbanes is a graduate of the Case Institute of Technology. He was a Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Parker Brothers until the 1990s. Orbanes has also served as Chief Judge at U.S. National and World Monopoly tournaments.

History of <i>Monopoly</i> History of the board game

The board game Monopoly has its origin in the early 20th century. The earliest known version, known as The Landlord's Game, was designed by Elizabeth Magie and first patented in 1904, but existed as early as 1902. Magie, a follower of Henry George, originally intended The Landlord's Game to illustrate the economic consequences of Ricardo's Law of economic rent and the Georgist concepts of economic privilege and land value taxation. A series of board games was developed from 1906 through the 1930s that involved the buying and selling of land and the development of that land. By 1933, a board game already existed much like the modern version of Monopoly that has been sold by Parker Brothers and related companies through the rest of the 20th century, and into the 21st. Several people, mostly in the midwestern United States and near the East Coast of the United States, contributed to its design and evolution.

<i>Finance</i> (game)

Finance, or The Fascinating Game of Finance or Finance and Fortune, is a board game originally released in 1932. The game is based on The Landlord's Game in the movement of pieces around the board, the use of cards, properties that can be purchased, and houses that can be erected on them. The game also has railroads; however, these may not be purchased. The game is a predecessor to Monopoly.

<i>Agatha Crumm</i> American comic strip by Bill Hoest

Agatha Crumm is a newspaper comic strip created by the cartoonist Bill Hoest and distributed by King Features Syndicate. The strip ran from October 24, 1977, until 1997. Agatha Crumm was Hoest's third strip, following Bumper Snickers (1974).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. O. Alexander</span> American cartoonist (1897–1993)

Franklin Osborne Alexander, known professionally as F. O. Alexander, was a comic strip artist and editorial cartoonist. He is credited for having designed the board game Monopoly, including the iconic mascots and characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Swinnerton Parker</span> American game designer (1866–1952)

George Swinnerton Parker was an American game designer and businessman who founded Geo. S. Parker Co. and Parker Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monopoly: The Mega Edition</span> Larger version of Monopoly board game

Monopoly: The Mega Edition is a special variant of the popular board game Monopoly. The game was first published on May 22, 2006 by Winning Moves Games USA in the USA. A UK version was adapted on October 1, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vault Boy</span> Mascot of the Fallout series

Vault Boy is the mascot of the Fallout media franchise. Created by staff at Interplay Entertainment, the original owners of the Fallout intellectual property, Vault Boy was introduced in 1997's Fallout as an advertising character representing Vault-Tec, a fictional megacorporation that built a series of specialized fallout shelters throughout the United States prior to the nuclear holocaust that sets up the world state of the Fallout universe. Within the video game series, Vault Boy serves as a representation of the player character's statistical information within user interface (UI) menus, and is a recurring element in Vault-Tec products found throughout the fictional Fallout universe. In the 2024 Fallout television series, Vault Boy is depicted as having been portrayed in Vault-Tec advertisements by actor Cooper Howard.

Milburn is a male given name which may refer to:

<i>Trump: The Game</i> Board game

Trump: The Game is a board game named after Donald Trump. Milton Bradley Company initially released the game in 1989, but it sold poorly, with only 800,000 copies sold out of an expected two million. Parker Brothers re-released Trump: The Game in 2004 following the success of Trump's reality television series, The Apprentice, from earlier that year. Trump: The Game received poor reviews from critics and the public audience.

References

Specific
  1. 1 2 Lauren Feiner (December 11, 2018). "A person dressed up like the guy from Monopoly sat behind Google's CEO as he testified before Congress". CNBC . Retrieved December 12, 2018. Ian Madrigal, the person who identified themselves as the Monopoly Man, said the act is a protest of the internet company's alleged inability to self-regulate when it comes to protecting consumer data.
  2. ↑ Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors Quarterly www.AGPC.ORG summer 2013 Vol.15 No. 2. Page 18. Meet Daniel Gidahlia Fox -- The Artist Who Created "Mr. Monopoly" by Emily F.Clements
  3. ↑ Markstein, Don. "Rich Uncle Pennybags". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  4. ↑ Turpin, Zachary. "Interview: Phil Orbanes, Monopoly Expert (Part Two)". Book of Odds. Archived from the original on May 2, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  5. ↑ TableTopTemple (2023-12-28). "The Monopoly Man: Everything You Need to Know". TableTop Temple. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  6. ↑ Hasbro Toy Shop page for Monopoly. The mascot character appears only on the Standard Edition set.
  7. ↑ USAopoly Archived 2013-05-24 at the Wayback Machine page for Monopoly. The mascot character appears on only about half of the editions shown.
  8. 1 2 Orbanes, Philip (September 1999). The Monopoly Companion: The Player's Guide : The Game from A to Z, Winning Tips, Trivia. Adams Media Corporation. p. [ page needed ]. ISBN   978-1-58062-175-5 . Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  9. ↑ Vanderkam, Laura (March 21, 2007). "Just Visiting". American.com. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  10. ↑ "The Forbes Fictional 15 - #6 Mr. Monopoly". Forbes. 2006-11-20. Archived from the original on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
  11. ↑ Ian Madrigal (known publicly at the time as A. Werner)
  12. ↑ Calfas, Jennifer (October 4, 2017). "We Spoke To the 'Monopoly Man' Who Photobombed the Senate Equifax Hearing". Money.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved 2017-12-29.
  13. ↑ Chiel, Ethan (2017-10-04). "A Chat with the Viral "Monopoly Man" Who Trolled the Equifax Senate Hearing". GQ. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  14. ↑ Romo, Vanessa (2017-10-06). "How Monopoly Man Won the Internet". GQ. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  15. ↑ Harshawn Ratanpal (2023-10-05). "Google ramped up federal lobbying ahead of DOJ antitrust showdown". Open Secrets. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  16. ↑ Wilding, Rory (28 January 2020). "CLUE: Candlestick Review" . Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  17. ↑ "Tim Cain interview on the Duck and Cover".
  18. ↑ Bannon, Jessica Lyn (2022-01-16). "Rich Uncle Pennybags didn't wear a monocle — and other false memories". The Hill. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  19. ↑ "The Mandela Effect: Poll shows most Americans misremember Darth Vader quote, Monopoly logo". ABC7 Los Angeles. 2022-09-05. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  20. ↑ Prasad, Deepasri; Bainbridge, Wilma A. (2022). "The Visual Mandela Effect as Evidence for Shared and Specific False Memories Across People". Psychological Science. 33 (12): 1971–1988. doi:10.1177/09567976221108944. ISSN   1467-9280. PMID   36219739. S2CID   241793849.
  21. ↑ "Mr. Monopoly Voice". Behind the Voice Actors.
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