Scrabble
Scrabble is a popular word game that was developed in the early 1930s by Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect in New York City. Amid the Great Depression, Butts observed that people sought entertainment and escapism through various activities, leading him to create Scrabble by analyzing letter frequency in newspapers and assigning point values accordingly. Initially, the game faced rejection from prominent manufacturers for being perceived as overly complex and niche. However, once it was taken up by Butts's partner, James Brunot, and his wife Helen, Scrabble's popularity surged, with sales rising dramatically in the early 1950s. The game became a cultural phenomenon, featuring in major publications and being played in various social settings, such as after dinner and on train rides. Over the years, numerous competitors have emerged, although Scrabble has maintained its status as one of the most beloved board games globally, with millions of sets sold. Today, it continues to captivate players, hosting a biennial world championship and enjoying widespread appeal across diverse audiences.
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Scrabble
Identification Board game requiring players to create words with letters on randomly drawn tiles
Date Popular attention peaked in 1954
Inventor Alfred Mosher Butts
After repeated rejections by game manufacturers, this game—combining luck, skill, and careful design—rapidly grew in popularity during the early 1950’s and became a leisure-time phenomenon.
Key Figures
Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993), inventor
Scrabble’s development began in 1931, when Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect living in Queens, New York, was unemployed as a result of the Great Depression. Butts noticed that in economic hard times, people sought escapist forms of recreation such as books, films, radio, and games. In developing Scrabble, Butts carefully studied the front pages of The New York Times to determine how frequently each of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet was used. He then assigned different point values to each letter. Initially, manufacturers—including Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers—rejected the game as too highbrow, complicated, and slow. However, once James Brunot, Butts’s partner, and his wife Helen began to manufacture and distribute the game, sales climbed from 2,251 sets in 1949 to total sales of four and a half million by 1954.
Impact
Scrabble was featured in Life, Look, Time, and Reader’s Digest as well as in New Yorker cartoons. Waiting lists for purchasing the three-dollar sets were lengthy. Scrabble was played after dinner, in Scrabble clubs, and on transcontinental train rides. Numerous competitors arose, and some faced copyright suits. One competitor, Skip-a-Cross, was a cheaper cardboard version licensed by Brunot to relieve the pressures of demand for Scrabble. During the early twenty-first century, Scrabble remained one of the most popular board games in history, with a biennial world championship tournament and worldwide sales estimated at three million sets.
Bibliography
Fatsos, Stefan. Word Freak: Heartbreak, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Explores the community of colorful characters for which the Scrabble game is a way of life.
Hinch, Derryn. The Scrabble Book. New York: Mason/Charter, 1976. Provides game-playing guidance and chapters on the game’s development and popularity.
Wallace, Robert. “A Man Makes a Best-Selling Game—Scrabble—and Achieves His Ambition.” Life 35 (December 14, 1953): 101-102, 105. Contemporary account of the game’s development and success during its heyday.