George S. Parker & The Parker Brothers Co

An industrialist born in Salem in 1866 during the post-Maritime era of Salem, this local inventor managed to either come up with or import a variety of interesting and fun board games  and toys for the masses – ones that helped to emphasize his personal idea on games, that they should be fun, and did not need to have a moral.

His first game was called Banking: it was a game where one took out a loan from the bank, and tried to invest it as best they could, based on the drawing of various chance cards.  It was a game that sounds fairly typical and simplistic nowadays, but when he designed it in 1883, his friends and family who played it thought it was highly addictive and fun.  His younger brother Charles encouraged him to publish it, and he did finally give it a try.

After first failing when he approached two Boston publishers, George Parker published the game himself out of pocket.  After selling all but 12 out of 500 copies, he started the company many people still remember, though under a different name – the Geo. S. Parker Company.   Eventually, his other two brothers, Charles and Edward, joined the company.  After Charles (who had joined a few years before Edward) joined, the company name was changed to the more familiar Parker Brothers.

The board games they produced were for fun, though many were based on things that were going on the world over, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Alaskan Gold Rush.   Some of the games they produced, such as Ouija Boards (based on designs from both other people and other spirit summoning games), were wildly popular.  What was easily their crowning success in the early 20^th century was Rook, a card game that was the best-selling across the country.

Of course, some of the board games they produced that are still well known and loved were either brought over from England, or converted from earlier game ideas – such as Monopoly, Clue and Risk – really revolutionized board games. 

After George Parker died in 1952, he was buried in the Harmony Grove Cemetery.   The company itself remained family owned for some time after this, until it was purchased by General Mills in the 1960’s – though Edward and Charles had come up with one other toy that started a craze lasting into the modern day, the first NERF Ball, just before it was sold.  Parker Brothers proceeded to pass through different hands up to the modern day, though the factory itself (located where the current Jefferson Apartments are located) had to be closed and torn down in 1994, after the company had been bought by Hasbro.

Though it was sad – it was a loss of jobs from a large factory – the factory couldn’t be used by any local organizations, since it was geared towards manufacturing toys and games.  Hasbro had their own factories where they began to produce the games.

Personally, I still remember going on field trips there in kindergarten and early elementary school before it closed down… and what better time to remember a toy factory than the holiday season?