What is the name of Monopoly's inventor credited by Parker Brothers in 1935?
Answer
Charles Darrow
Answer
Charles Darrow
Charles Darrow was the inventor credited by Parker Brothers in 1935 for Monopoly.
Darrow was an unemployed heating engineer from Germantown, Philadelphia, who developed and sold a version of the game during the Great Depression. Parker Brothers bought the rights from him and began marketing Monopoly nationally in 1935, presenting Darrow as its inventor.
The fuller history is more complicated. Elizabeth Magie patented The Landlord's Game in 1904, and Monopoly's board and rules grew from that earlier design and from versions circulated by other players. Parker Brothers later acquired rights connected with Magie's patent, but Darrow received the public credit and became financially successful.
This distinction explains why sources may describe Darrow as Monopoly's inventor while also discussing Magie as the originator of its underlying concept. The question's answer refers specifically to the person Parker Brothers credited in its 1935 launch, not to the earliest creator of the game's economic ideas.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026