In 1990, Parker Brothers released a new board game called "Careers for Girls" in which players could choose from six jobs: supermom, rock star, school teacher, fashion designer, animal doctor, and college graduate.
By contrast, the career options in the non-gendered version of
Careers included things such as Ecology, Teaching, Sports, Computer Science, Space, Show Biz, Big Business, and Politics. (The game was invented in 1955, and the various career options changed over the years.)
Of course, the company got slammed for being sexist and soon discontinued the "for girls" version of the game, claiming a "lack of mass appeal."
The Big Game Hunter blog offers more background on the history of the
Careers game and its original inventor, James Cooke Brown (science fiction author and creator of the artificial language, Loglan).
The Southeast Missourian — Nov 26, 1990
Equally creepy? The earlier guy the inspiration for the later one?
Original ad here.
1971 board game. I assume that whoever played Nixon was allowed to cheat.
via
New York Magazine - Aug 16, 1971
A 1930s party-planning manual for members of the American Communist Party,
downloadable as a PDF here. Let's just say, those guys knew how to throw a cheap party.
More info from a
2003 article in the NY Times:
Published in the late 1930s by the party's New York state branch and recently rediscovered by a Brandeis University historian, it's a 15-page illustrated tutorial in the art of ideologically correct fraternizing. Among the suggested high jinks: cutting editorials from The Daily Worker into pieces and having guests see who can put them back together fastest, or holding a mock convention on, say, nonintervention in Spain. "One guest is made chairman. Another is Chamberlain, another Leon Blum, a third Mussolini," the pamphlet cheerfully explains. Or why not try a round of anti-Fascist darts? "Draw a picture of Hitler, Mussolini, Hague or another Girdleresque pest. Put it on a piece of soft board with thumbtacks. Six throws for a nickel, and a prize if you paste Hague in the pants, or Trotsky in the eye," the pamphlet instructs.
Also, advertise "All the free beer you can drink!" but charge expensive admission at the door ("Yes, people will pay!"). And then:
Pour your beer in the center of the glass not down the inside. POURING IN THE MIDDLE GIVES MORE FOAM AND LESS LIQUID — STRETCHES EACH BARREL FURTHER.
The thrilling, incomprehensible, unnerving history of tabletop soccer.
Home page of Subbuteo.
[Click to enlarge]
"
Droodles" sounds ugly, like "drool." And these jokes are fit only to entertain an eight-year-old. Excellent campaign to indicate quality of product and sophistication of audience.
Original ad here.
How quickly these sessions devolved into outright swingers' orgies is a matter of historical record.
Everyone knows Mouse Trap. But who recalls its sister game, Crazy Clock? Why would one become famous, the other forgotten? The vagaries of play....
I want to see Hasbro or Mattel market this game today.
Original article here.
A home owner found something neat while pulling up old carpet, a hand painted
monopoly board. It follows the original pretty closely except the names of properties are omitted. Oh and also, sexy lady silhouettes grace the community chest squares.