The Development of the Popularity of Board Games
When looking at the playing habits of children at the turn of the twentieth century, it is interesting that board games and card games were not incredibly popular. When asked, children would list multiple other games before mentioning any sort of table-top game, hold any board games (Croswell, 1899). As the 1900s progressed, board games became more popular.
(Croswell, 1899)
While checkers and cards were in the top 25 most mentioned games, they were the only two under the interest of this research. This could be for multiple reasons. My biggest assumption is that consumerism had not fully taken hold of American society yet. As production became easier and faster, companies were able to produce more intricate objects on a larger scale. To market these new goods, corporations and companies would display new technologies as the greatest and most necessary for the household.
An important sub-market is how companies took advantage of children. Every winter, corporations would release their Christmas edition toy magazine, filled with all the coolest toys for children to ask for. Billy and Ruth Toy company used pictures of two small children, Billy and Ruth, to help sell the toys on different magazine pages (Toy Castle, 1930). The magazine editors placed Billy and Ruth next to “their favorite” toys to help sell different items (Toy Castle, 1930). These companies utilized the ease in which children relate to and get jealous of other children, to make money.
(Billy and Ruth, 1930)
Exemplified in this photo, companies would engage in sexist, traditional rhetoric to further convince children and their parents that the toy was necessary. Advertisers would market their toys as necessary for a child’s healthy development (Jacobson, 2005). They would dedicate pages to girls, showcasing the largest dollhouse, and would have a boy’s page show trains and planes to play with. In this 1930’s Billy and Ruth Magazine, Ruth’s quote on the top of the page is an accurate depiction of the statements that were made. Adults heavily inserted themselves into children’s play. Like in every time period, adults have certain expectations of what they want children to become. In this generation, men were expected to grow up to be tough, competitive, intelligent, and creators. Girls were expected to grow into the kitchen, be graceful, quiet, and followers. Toys became the avenue through with children can achieve these expectations, in the eyes of adults.
“An advertisement for STRUCTO engineering toys put a boy’s manhood and future success on the line when it instructed boys to ‘Tell Dad you want STRUCTO because it will teach you to think for yourself, to create ideas of your own, to make you think as men think.’ Similarly, an ad listing ’10 Reasons Why You Should Have ‘Chicago’ Rubber Tire Roller Skates’ provided girls with health and beauty arguments to use on their parents. ‘Tell Daddy and Mother,’ the ad urged, that skates help ‘build sturdy bodies and stronger ankles’ as well as develop ‘poise and grateful actions’.”
Jacobson, 2005
The malleability of children’s development allowed for corporations to entrench themselves. But by the mid-1930s, board games had become a popular way to express personal political and economic opinions. After Monopoly’s official and most large-scale release in 1935, it quickly became a national sensation. A 1936 February edition of the New York Times did a review on the sudden popularity of political and economic board games. It described Monopoly and Politics, a game centered on winning President of the U.S., as the U.S.’s new obsession games (Monopoly & Politics, 1936). The writers explain how Monopoly sold incredibly well during the last Christmas season, and that Politics is behind it but quickly gaining traction (Monopoly & Politics, 1936).
(Monopoly & Politics, 1936)
The intense obsession with Monopoly and Politics revealed the American public’s high hopes for money and power. Both games center around beating other players, not just to be the best at the game, but to claim the title as the richest or most powerful, in the whole country. The American population during the Great Depression was highly apathetic and fatigued. A made-up game centered on winning money, power, fame, freedom, and a vacation is addicting and feels like a win. Additionally, the barriers in the games are ones you would encounter in real life: paying taxes, unluckiness, convincing voters, and allocating expenditures. These games allow the player to go into an alternate universe where there are no consequences for one’s actions and possibly get everything that is needed in real life.
Race and Board Games
From the perspective of someone who was subjugated at the time, these games represented everything that was wrong with the country. Whether it was racial, gender, or economic, the powerful positions were always filled by an older white man. Board games based off of sentiment tend to reflect one perspective, one opportunity. And while a game like Monopoly portrays money-making in a capitalist society as an easy endeavor, it most certainly is not: especially to someone who disadvantaged in a community filled with the advantaged. The rights to vote in the presidential election were technically legalized under the constitution for black people, yet millions lived without the safety to do so. Together, these two board games represented a system that oppressed millions.
The next question has to be asked: what part of the population was playing board and card games? It has to be people that can afford the extra cost, can dedicate time to playing, and can read the instruction and rules. The chart on the left depicts what percentage of white people over 21 are literate; the chart on the right shows the same but for black people. Comparing the two, it is easy to see that white people are more likely able to read.
Map on Left: Literacy Rate of White People Over 21; Map on Right: Literacy Rate of Black People over 21
If these adults are able to read, then it is easy to assume that their children’s ability to read will be in similar percentage points. If this many people were not able to read, they most likely didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. Thus, considering this and racial patterns at this time period, board games were most likely not played often by Black people.
Introduction | Literature Review | Data Analysis | Conclusion | Sources