In the military because someone is looking at Something Else and they are making a decision based on their own understanding of race still anxiously part of this. So he is sent to the old west, this is 19 is there in the 1940s. Basically this is a moment where they are priding themselves over 100 years of being this really why university and here is kerry murphy and hes having the time of his life, he is dancing with white women, he is running on the track team and he even participates in a protest against Theodore Bilbo who was the fanatic segregationist to calm the cutest bear. I think that part of it was in 1944 and 1945. You know he is described by people as being arrogant, a loud talker, its not like you trying to keep a low profile. Hes like ,com,com ma i am here, im going to have the time of my life as a student at ole miss. Interestingly when James Meredith tries to integrate old men. Saying that they are fighting a battle but they have no idea that they lost and they have great pictures of him holding his student id card and he would go deeply into his story and i would love that. That is just one example of a lot of stories that i wanted to mention briefly that i would have love to say more about. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] you are watching the tv in prime time. Every weekend we feature 48 hours of nonfiction books beginning at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on saturday. We invite you to find and like us online at facebook. Com booktv. This weekend the cspan cities to her has been learning about the history live of tulsa, oklahoma. It is very much more than that. He was one in 1912 and oklahoma. So we are very proud to have his work back and oklahoma were rethink of his belonging. He is an advocate for people that were disenfranchised and those people who were Migrant Workers from oklahoma and kansas and texas who i found themselves in california starving. And there was this vast difference between those and those that loved his music. This is what makes the recordings that he didnt make so significant and so important. This land is my land this land is your land watch all of our events from tulsa on booktv on saturday and sunday afternoon at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan3. With congress in recess we are bringing you booktv. Coming up next, a former Sports Reporter talks about her book the monopolists obsession fury, and the scandal behind the worlds favorite board game which looks at the history of the board game monopoly. Then the book returned to crystal city and then the first and last days of the world on drugs. [inaudible] now on booktv on prime time. An event from new york city on the origins of the board game monopoly. Mary pilon author of the monopolists obsession, fury, and the scandal behind the worlds favorite board game talked about the unemployed salesman that sold the idea to do company in 1935. What the plan is is i will talk about the history of the game. This is the cover of the book. Monopoly as we know it today, the little red hotels, the green houses, most people say oh, Parker Brothers is now owned by hasbro. For years the story was that theres was at the height of the great depression. And i think it looks a lot like what us what we believe that this looks like even today. This version has been there for years and some people believe that this individual was an inspiration for some of the early monopoly characters. But the actual game originated with a woman. This woman was elizabeth mcgee. Who is she . Prior to inventing her again she actually had a patent for a typewriter gadget and she was an outspoken feminist and she had a lot of years and her father was this gentleman named james mcgee who is not just an influential newspaper owner but had traveled with Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln Douglas debate and was around for the founding of the Republican Party and lizzie magie had also appeared on stage and you can see that they are. She was very impacted by this man named henry george. In this room im sure a lot of people know him but some people may not. I am not a dollar of him but i do think he was a proponent of single tax. He had this idea that if you tax plan that only land the working trouble have a better chance at the quality. There is a massive bestseller in his time come you can read all sorts of newspaper accounts of people packing out this. Lizzie magie is one of the people who reads the book and is moved by him and his teachings. So here is the patent for the 1904 landlords game. And that her time it made a lot of sense. They were becoming cheaper to manufacture, politicians were fighting for leisure time, more and more people have things like child labor laws, improved lighting, a lot more things that made wargames conducing to the average american versus others. See you can see the landlords game, there are elements of the game the very much carry over to monopoly today, and go to jail she had the Public Parking space, obviously she was very concerned with land usage. Such makes the game and it spread like wildfire especially among leftwing intellectuals in the northeast. One of the early monopoly players later joined the cabinet and was also a teacher at columbia in the center you have the National Chairman of the aclu who had been playing the game here in new york and his son is a writer for the new yorker. Scott plays the game he was a professor at wharton involved in a very important Academic Freedom case, some consider him to be the father of the green movement. And this is a single tax colony where the game flourished, it was frequented by scott and a lot of other people, including Upton Sinclair whose house was called the jungle which is a very ridiculous timeframe and there was this salacious scandal that took place there. Was played at wharton and harvard and everywhere. So who lizzie magie reducer patent. Shes been spending time in chicago. One of the groups that really increases monopoly is the quakers of Atlantic City, this is picture where they have wooden boards, people would make the sports on their own and they would have properties for whatever city they were in philadelphia versions of the game boston versions, this is an Atlantic City version you can either. And so here again we have Atlantic City quaker board, here is the charles todd board. If you look at this compare to the lizzie magie game that i showed you, the similarities between these become closer and closer. So charles actually lives in philadelphia and he runs into print on the street and he says why dont you come over and we will have a monopoly night which was very in vogue at the time. So they have this night. Afterwards they say type of the rules for me and he think that this is strange. Because if you like someone come into your house im a if you you play checkers or chess and ask for this he does it anyway. So the secretary typed out the rules and gives them to him. So cutting over to Parker Brothers come in the mid1930s they were a firm that was in crisis like a lot of companies at the time, nobody was eyeing anything, the Balance Sheet was a disaster they had found this in the 1880s and it was not looking good. His soninlaw had just taken over and he had very little inexperienced and he knew that he needed a solution and fast. So he starts to sell Monopoly Game in philadelphia. Thats a picture of him on the far left, still in philadelphia today if you are a fan of mannequin, the movie, thats where that was shot. And so sally barton pointed out that this is out there and they strike a deal on the flat iron building. This is a picture of him and hes a lot older here. But they strike it up and the novel he becomes a Parker Brothers bestseller. And one of the things that they need to do is do tokens. When the quakers were playing the games they used buttons and hearings and miscellaneous object, things that were around, so Parker Brothers called this company in chicago and what you might know them for is making crackerjack prices. As you can see a lot of them have a few loops because they were originally made with times. Even beyond the crackerjack price situation if you were a company like this, you might have a little iron token like this. And so they use some of those existing things. So its not long were they realize that they have a problem, which there are a lot of other Monopoly Games out there so he writes to him and says hey, where does this name come from and can you give us the detailed history of the game and one of the games is the finance game. When you look at this, you can see that it looks a lot like monopoly. Dan had played it as a Fraternity Guy and had sold it on his own. So Parker Brothers acquires it and they start to buy up other Similar Games on the market. Milton bradley had a game called easy money it the guy in texas had a game called inflation. And they are pretty much forgotten. Lizzie magie is not happy about this, in 1936 he gives an interview at the washington evening star and you can see shes an elderly woman living in washington is holding up her board and the monopoly board and it says here that she had gotten married by then its understood that she received 500 for her game probably no royalties. Probably used up in developing and and it has cost her more than what she made from it. For that is the deal that she got from Parker Brothers. Why did the Patent Office grant her this the one that i showed you when they had two similar ones before it. We may never know. Usually they have a patent wrapper that explains how and where and why this stuff have been. That has been missing for at least 40 years and theres no mention of monopoly here and she died in 1948. So how do we know any of this . Missile history was an accident and he is really upset about the opec oil cartels him and this is a picture of him and his son. He feels like the reviews are really negative, he wants to make you more pleasing version of it. This is a drawing that one of his sons had done, it is very 70s. Ralph nader and the nader raiders and that extent of the Public Service lawyers are the heroes of the game here and took not long before he hears from them saying that. So this kicks off a 10 year legal battle between them and Parker Brothers. And he starts to find out that the roots go back far back. He finds an overly man living in pasadena and he holds a finance board. And a lot of them passed away after he was putting together chase. And so he makes this point that he did not live in Atlantic City. Charles todd lived in philadelphia. And one thing they are trying to look at when youre trying to prove Something Like plagiarism is what are the odds are the same person needs to stay there twice. And ralph in his case tried to find a copy of the board that has a word notley in it, most people had testified that they called it the Monopoly Game that that is definitely what its called through Parker Brothers. Then i got this from a reader who said oh, we have one in the attic. And there is actually a surviving one and so the story is starting to get a lot of tracked on the antimonopoly case as well as ralph telling people that this game existed before and there is this Atlantic City monopoly tournament that they are sponsoring and giving out this thing called the cup. I now he has ripped apart this inventor. So he decides is going to set up a truth about monopoly lecture next to the Atlantic City monopoly tournament. The problem is that Parker Brothers catches wind and they reschedule the events and no one goes to the lecture. And he had also heard from a couple of college kids at Cornell University that had been kicked out and they were very upset and they made a game about how to win at the notley and that Parker Brothers had attacked him over. So there was another term in taking into the fray shortly thereafter and ralph decides to join worsens with the kids and they go about putting a pamphlet under the dinner plates of journalists, getting a big rise out of people and they feel pretty good about this so he and his College Roommate ended up becoming the president of cornell and this is their book and i actually was able to do some successful searching and get a copy and their names are on it. Its funny because if you want a how to play monopoly book its pretty great. So in court Parker Brothers wins injunction and usually when you have an injunction he drove the merchandise in a warehouse and then when the litigation is over you figure out what to do. But they were so confident in their victory that they decide to stage a aerial around 40,000 antiMonopoly Games. This is a picture a lot of the photos didnt make it where they bury these boardgames in mankato. But ralph is pretty deflated the legal battle went on for years training personal relationships and his legal fees are starting to add up nicely this is going to be good for your selfesteem, so Parker Brothers decides to appeal to the Supreme Court and at this point ralph needs a lawyer and its actually someone who still practicing in new york city and he agrees to take the case on me. And so the Supreme Court hears him. He wins a settlement for the damage game and he had previously turned down a settlement offer and he wouldnt have been able to talk about this. The victory is not enough he and his friend decided they decide that they want to try to dig up the game. So they go to minnesota and they think they know where they are buried and they look and they look very they have no luck. Then someone said you were in the wrong place and ralph says oh, sure, we will go back and go to wherever they are buried. And i dont know if its that come in 10,000 years from now, but i feel like we need a document. And i want to find whoever has these. And i think it is so ironic that its the thing that would become the total opposite of what it is which is a political teaching tool. This is my book. Dont all talk at once. Please go ahead with the questions. I have always loved games and puzzles. I was going to have it throw away line about this and it just wasnt adding up for making any sense. And i am a reporter of the journal and im trying to find out the truth of monopoly. Like everyone ralph immediately got back to me and so when he started telling me this he would tell me something and i would report it now. And so it was all checking out and so now i started with those and reported on out from that. And researching someone who has no kids its one of the more challenging things ive ever done. And as much as Digital Tools to help in the storytelling process and this is the situation where it was incredibly valuable and they try to figure out who is near hugh, living with foo at different points in their life that was really critical and theres a lot of the book that wasnt digital, i think that there is something that is changing a little bit and i think a lot of journalists its not just information, its not real. And so i found these gems that were tucked away that were seeing so much of the book was out there. This did not even end up in the book, the New York Historical society and so you start to get a portrait over who this guy really was. Things like that make people real human beings as opposed to textbooks. And so was totally different because most of the people in this case were part of this. Ralph was a huge part of this and ive never asked more of someone in terms of walking me through the timeline. He had documented this really well and interviewed his exwife who died in the time i was reporting this. I was gathering as much as i could in both interviews and i had so many moments where i thought why cant i just ask you a question and it was a hodgepodge of everything. Rales emailed me a couple of days ago and he actually wrote his admissions essay and how this made him want to be a labor lawyer. Ralph emailed me and he splits his time between states and europe which is not a bad way to live. He said life begins at 89 years old and i thought crossed, we should all be that lucky to be that spiner 80s. Hes by far the expert on a lot of this and he was an economist before that dealing with someone who had sophisticated knowledge and the context of it he put together. He became a paralegal working on us. And there are things that he just would not have been a part of this. And we had to zoom out what it meant was the Political Climate there been so they were interesting, but they were part of the time we are putting together and this includes lizzie magie in the history of boardgame pieces. What i find so amazing about the story, his conviction is the whole thing. To turn on the settlement offer which is a big turning point in the book and his background i felt like i needed to understand because the first year or two of reporting, i had many moments when i thought, why did you keep doing this until right before it not these came in his life of immigrants these important backgrounds, i was talking to his son and they were describing this and they were rallying against the vietnam war or monopoly and so yes, you know hes team is very happy. But he was so secure in its and he was so confident as we piece together the Supreme Court case. So it is funny, whenever there is a mention of the news its like oh my gosh. So its really hard to wait to have your story told. I approach the reporting of the book. Which means no surprises. And you want as many people to participate if you can. I contacted them several times and there was turnover and to be honest im not sure that i follow the playbyplay. But i sent them hundreds of russians and a lot of the situations, we did get to hear from him. We have the letters quite frankly i dont know what documents they would have had because they were wire the company to some of them so late. So even though they didnt participate researching this was really important to me and a lot of this was out there. And there was just some stuff out there. In the depositions, and you can tell theres a lot of lawyers and its such a common typo that people make. I went through the book and i had to make sure that there was nothing the