Darrow, Charles B.

Darrow, Charles B. (Brace) (1889–1967) game designer; born in Cumberland, Md. A heating engineer reduced to selling stoves in 1930, he is generally credited with devising "Monopoly," the board game in which players compete to purchase real estate and wipe out their opponents. (Some claim that he only adapted a similar game, based on "The Landlord's Game," devised about 1900 by Elizabeth Magee of Virginia.) At first rejected by Parker Brothers, the toy firm bought it in 1935 after he enjoyed great success in selling it himself. He made over $1 million from it but his subsequent invention, "Bulls and Bears," was a failure.