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History of Scrabble
Ironically, the entire world has heard of SCRABBLE® Brand Crossword Game, but hardly anyone knows how
it got here. Many people assume it has been here for centuries - most certainly invented by the Romans or at the very
least, the English. Actually, the story is an American classic.
The year was 1931, the depths of the Great Depression. Alfred Mosher Butts was a young out-of-work architect living in
his hometown of Pough-keepsie, New York. In an attempt to earn some extra money, he set out to invent a game. Butts
had always liked anagrams and crosswords, so he used that as his inspiration.
Analyzing existing games, Butts determined they fell into three basic categories. There were "numbers" games, such as
bingo and dice. There were "move" games, such as chess and checkers. And then there were "word" games, such as
anagrams and crossword puzzles. Between his interest in words and his architect's love of structure and order, Butts
decided to work on a word game that utilized a grid concept. In addition, he wanted to create a game that combined
both luck and skill, with stronger emphasis on skill. He also liked the idea of a hundred tiles. As he began his first
set of sketches, Butts called his boardless anagram game idea Lexiko, which later evolved into the board game Criss
Cross Words.
Alfred M. Butts next began an exhaustive analysis of the English language, particularly examining word structure. The
most obvious dynamic, he knew, was that while there were twenty-six letters in the language, some appeared far more
frequently than others. For example, he quickly determined that vowels are used far more frequently than consonants,
with the vowels E being the most common. To verify his theories, Butts painstakingly studied the front page of The New
York Times, doing letter-by-letter counts. He kept detailed charts of how many times each letter appeared - or didn't
appear!
It was this research that enabled Butts to assign values to each letter in a SCRABBLE® game, while also determining how
many of each should be available as game pieces. Hence there are twelve Es, worth only 1 point each, and only one Z,
worth 10 points. Butt's basic cryptographic analysis of our language and his original scheme for tile distribution
have stood the test of time for three generations of SCRABBLE® game players and over billion of games played.
The game boards for the prototype of Criss Cross Words were hand-drawn with architectural equipment, reproduced by
blueprinting, and pasted on folding cardboard checkerboards. The tiles were blueprinted and then glued to quarter-inch
plywood and cut into squares to match the size of the board.
Throughout the years, the physical aspect of the game went through some subtle changes. For example, one version of the
game had 109 letters and 1 blank. Another prototype began play in the upper left-hand corner of the board - similar to
the way one traditionally starts a crossword puzzle. However, the basics have remained the same.
From about 1932 through 1938, Alfred Butts continued to make the Lexiko set by hand and to give them to friends, many
of whom became instant devotees of the new game. To his disappointment, however, almost every single established game
manufacturer in the United States turned down the new idea. Most found it interesting, but felt it did not have the
elements for mass appeal. In 1938 he stopped producing Lexiko, and then sold to individuals its offspring Criss Cross
Words, until 1942. That's when he met a bookseller named Charles Ives, who began manufacturing Criss Cross Words until
the war forced him to stop in 1943. It was at this time that Butts was introduced to an entrepreneur named James
Brunot, an owner of one of the few original Criss Cross Game sets. In time, Brunot was to add his marketing genius to
the project.
Sidelined by World War II and an infusion of new work, both Butts and Brunot were forced to keep the project as a low
priority until 1947. Then things began to move. First, some refinements were made in the basic play of the new game.
For example, the agreed to rearrange the premium squares - triple letter, double word, etc. - for more exciting and
varied scoring opportunities. They also simplified the rules, which had been lengthy and complicated. They were fine
for someone as brilliant as Alfred Butts and his friends, but not for a mass market.
Next Brunot and Butts agreed on a new name - SCRABBLE® Brand Crossword Game. It was then that Brunot and his family
became convinced that the game was ready for the mass market. Alfred Butts, who had very little time to develop the
game, quickly authorized Brunot and his wife to produce and sell it. With this in mind, the ambitious young couple
form the Production and Marketing Company and set up shop in their Newtown, Connecticut, home.
Before long, game production became too complicated for the Brunots' home. They rented a small abandoned schoolhouse
in Dodgingtown, Connecticut, where they and a friend turned out about twelve games per hour, stamping letters on the
wooden tiles one at a time. Later, boards, boxes, and tiles were made elsewhere and sent to the fledgling factory for
assembly and shipping.
The first four years were a struggle, so Brunot kept his other job to support the family. In 1949, for example, the
Brunots made 2,400 sets but lost $450. But year by year, the number of orders increased as news of this wondrous new
game began to spread, chiefly by word of mouth.
By 1952, the Brunots acknowledged they could no longer keep pace with the growing demand. They reached an agreement
with Selchow & Righter, a Bay Shore, New York, game manufacturer, to market and distribute the game in the U.S. and
Canada. Founded in 1867, Selchow & Righter was a family business, best known for manufacturing the game classic
"Parchessi, A Royal Game of India." The Brunots would retain the SCRABBLE® name.
Selchow & Righter had another classic on its hands. By the mid fifties, in fact, SCRABBLE® had become a legitimate
national craze, as stories appeared in newspapers and magazines and on television. The demand was so great that for
three years game orders were very carefully allocated in order that all areas of the continent could receive their
fair share. By 1954, over four million sets had been sold.
Over the next two decades, it seemed as if everyone in America owned a SCRABBLE® game. Sales remained steady, and the
game eventually expanded into versions in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Hebrew, French, Braille, and large type. In 1972,
Selchow & Righter purchased the trademark "SCRABBLE" from James Brunot's Production and Marketing Company, giving it
exclusive rights to all SCRABBLE® Brand products and entertainment services in the U.S. and Canada. Two other companies
were to divide the rights for the rest of the world.
In 1986, Selchow & Righter was sold to Coleco Industries, manufacturers of Cabbage Patch dolls. Three years later,
Coleco declared bankruptcy, and its primary assets - most notably SCRABBLE® and Parchessi - were purchased by the
nation's leading game manufacturer, Milton Bradley Company. Based in East Longmeadow, Mass., Milton Bradley, in an
effort to expand the line, added a new Deluxe Travel SCRABBLE, a Super SCRABBLE® Gameboy for Nintendo owners and Sesame
Street SCRABBLE.
Milton Bradley also realized the value of competitive SCRABBLE® game play for keeping alive the "SCRABBLE® game culture"
in the U.S. and Canada. The company helps to underwrite the National SCRABBLE® Association, based in Greenport, New
York; and hosts the biennial National SCRABBLE® Championship. The company also created the respected national School
SCRABBLE® Program, a classroom-tested curriculum which utilizes the word game as a learning tool in the nation's
schools. While Milton Bradley prefers not to discuss sales figures, it's safe to say SCRABBLE® is not only very much
alive, but still growing.
(Excerpted from Everything Scrabble, Pg 1-4)
SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
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