MONOPOLY – THE ESCAPE VERSION
They say it’s the greatest game in the world: Monopoly. It was invented more than eighty years ago. Now, nearly 300 million copies of the Monopoly board game have been sold in 114 countries and translated into 47 languages worldwide.
The object of the game is simple: Buy, rent and sell as much property as you can to get rich, and monopolise the board and win the game. Equipment includes a game board, monopoly money, two dice, tokens or playing counters, cards, and miniature green houses and red hotels
It’s the most popular board game ever, with more than 1 billion people worldwide having played the game. This helps explain why over six billion little green houses and over two billion little red hotels have been manufactured. Monopoly’s even been taken into space, and now there’s a version designed specifically for iPhones.
Monopoly has been a source of countless hours of fun and entertainment for people around the world, and it’s still as popular as ever today. But during the dark days of World War 2 it was far from just a game. Allied soldiers in German prison camps used Monopoly games for more than just amusement – it was a matter of life and death!
Monopoly became part of a brilliant top-secret plan devised by the British Secret Service to help Allied Prisoners of War escape, and guide them to freedom. This is a Monopoly story that will surprise you and inspire you – and you may just discover it’s a story that carries a special message for us today.
WORLD’S MOST POPULAR BOARD GAME
Monopoly games have been entertaining friends and family since 1935, and people love the roller-coaster ride to success. Pass Go, take a Chance card, and you might just build the property of your dreams – or you might just end up in goal!
Buy and sell properties, build houses and hotels, trade them, collect rent and accumulate wealth. But whatever happens, it’s fun all the way to the top! The player who earns the most money by the end of the game is the winner. But actually, everyone who plays monopoly is a winner, because it bonds families and friends as they spend time together.
The history of Monopoly can be traced back to 1903, when American Elizabeth Magie created a board game called ‘The Landlord’s Game.’ She hoped that her game would illustrate that an economy which rewards wealth creation is better than one where monopolists work under few constraints and land ends up concentrated in private monopolies. Then, Charles Darrow, a domestic heater salesman from Philadelphia, took the idea and utilised it to distribute the game himself under the new name Monopoly, featuring the real name streets and properties of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Basically, the game can be played by between two and eight people who are represented by small metal tokens. The players roll two six-sided dice to move their token around the game board, buying and trading properties, and developing them with houses and hotels.
Players collect rent from their opponents, with the goal being to accumulate as much wealth as possible and drive other players into bankruptcy.
Monopoly game equipment is simple. First, there’s a Monopoly game board with 40 spaces including 28 properties, made up of 22 colour-coded streets, 4 Railway Stations, and 2 utility spaces. As well as 4 corner squares: Go, Jail, Free Parking, and Go to Jail.
Then, there’s a pair of six-sided dice; Monopoly cards and deeds; 32 little green houses and 12 red hotels, Monopoly money; tokens, and a set of official rules.
In 1935 Darrow approached the toy and game manufacturer, Parker Brothers, and attempted to sell them his game of Monopoly. But his offer was rejected because they believed it was too complicated and had too many errors. But when the company noticed that Darrow’s game of Monopoly was selling fast in his home city, they reconsidered, and purchased the rights to the game.
Parker Brothers version of Monopoly first went on sale on November 5, 1935. By the end of its first year, sets of Monopoly were being bought at the rate of 20,000 a week and Charles Darrow became the first millionaire board game designer.
In December 1935, a month after first releasing Monopoly, Parker Brothers sent a copy of the game across the Atlantic to Victor Watson, Sr. of John Waddington Ltd in Leeds, England. Watson and his son Norman tried the game over a weekend and liked it so much that they decided they had to acquire the rights to it. So, Watson took the extraordinary step of making a transatlantic phone call, or ‘trunk call,’ from England to Parker Brothers in America.
It was the very first time such a call had been made or received by either company. And Parker Brothers were so impressed that they granted Watson and his company, Waddington Ltd, exclusive rights for Britain, Europe and the then-British Commonwealth, with the exception of Canada.
MONOPOLY HITS LONDON
The City of London became the setting for the first licensed Monopoly game. Victor Watson realised that in order to make the game relevant to British customers, the names of the properties would have to be changed from American ones to well-known London locations.
So he took his secretary, Marjory Phillips, on a day trip from the head office in Leeds to London, and the pair looked for suitable locations to use. After criss-crossing London, their final list mixed well-known landmarks with relatively obscure locations.
Well, the London version of the game with its new locations was successful, and became an instant hit. In 1936 it was exported to Continental Europe, as well as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Soon it was the standard version in the British Commonwealth.
The new board with the London locations became popular not just in Australia and New Zealand, but around the world, and the chosen locations have become familiar to millions. Today tourists from around the world come to visit these specific locations in London, because of their presence on the Monopoly board.
And today, we’re going to join them. We’re going on a quick dash around the streets of London to visit some of the most famous locations that appear on the Monopoly Board. And what better way to do it than on foot, as well as using some of London’s iconic transport.
AN ICONIC TOUR
Well, here we go! Our tour is going to give us the perfect chance to visit the main Monopoly sites around inner London. Hopefully we’ll miss jail, but will find some free parking?
We’re starting along Fleet Street, not far from Sir Christopher Wren’s famous St Paul’s Cathedral. Now, Fleet St is a red property on the Monopoly board. It’s the former home of London’s newspaper industry. Its name is still used as a generic term for the national press.
Continuing down Fleet Street, we join the Strand at the Royal Courts of Justice, and right next door we find Australia House in a prominent position.
The Strand is a major street in the City of Westminster, central London. It runs for just over a kilometre, or three quarters of a mile, westward from Temple Bar to Trafalgar Square.
The Strand is another red property on the old Monopoly board, with the value of a house listed at 110 Pounds. But today in real life it’s a popular area, with the value of a property well over 3 million Pounds. That’s an increase of over 2 million percent over the past 80 years.
The Strand runs into Trafalgar Square which is the next stop on our Monopoly tour. It’s been a significant landmark since the 13th century and is still one of London’s most vibrant spaces in the middle of the city. It’s surrounded by museums, churches, galleries, cultural spaces and historic buildings.
The square is named to commemorate the British naval victory over France and Spain at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The centre of the square is dominated by the 52 metre marble column
guarded by 4 giant lion statues, each weighing 7 tonnes. At the top of the column is a statue of Horatio Nelson, who commanded the British Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar. On the Monopoly board, Trafalgar Square is the third, and most expensive, red property.
Leading away from Trafalgar Square towards the exclusive area known as St. James, Pall Mall was the first street to be lit by gas in 1807. The name is derived from a 17th century game called pall-mall, similar to croquet, which was played by the aristocracy in nearby St. James Park. Pall Mall is one of the pink properties on the Monopoly board.
Our next location is Mayfair, one of the dark blue properties on the Monopoly board.
This district is now mainly commercial, with many former homes converted into offices for major corporation headquarters, embassies, and real estate businesses. But there’s still a lot of residential properties as well, along with some exclusive restaurants, as well as London’s largest concentration of 5-star hotels.
Rents and property values here are among the highest, not only in London, but in all the world. And that’s reflected on the Monopoly board. Mayfair is the most expensive of all the properties.
Leading directly south of Mayfair you find Piccadilly – a yellow property on the Monopoly board.
Beginning at Hyde Park Corner and ending at Piccadilly Circus, this grand mile-long street is one of the widest and straightest in central London, and is a pleasure to wander up and down, and so is popular with locals and tourists alike.
At the far end, Piccadilly Circus is one of London’s most popular destinations, home to the iconic Piccadilly video screens and neon signs, along with the statue of Eros.
Now we’re heading for Leicester Square, another of the yellow properties on the Monopoly board. It’s a pedestrian square and adjoining section of road in the West End of London. It’s considered to be the unofficial centre of British cinema.
Next, we come to the three green properties on the Monopoly board. The greens play host to London’s oldest and most luxurious shopping districts. The first is Regent street which has always been associated with modernity and retail innovation. And it’s no different today. It’s known for its flagship retail stores, including the largest Apple Store in Britain.
Regent Street intersects with Oxford Street, the second of the green properties on the Monopoly board. It’s London’s, and Europe’s busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors and over 300 shops. Most of the world’s premier clothing and attire brands have a presence in the area.
From Oxford street we turn into Bond street, which is the third green property on the Monopoly Board. It’s another major London shopping street, and has been popular for retail since the 18th century, and is home of many fashion outlets that sell prestigious or expensive items. It’s one of the most expensive and sought-after strips of real estate in Europe today.
Now we’re travelling along Park Lane, a dark blue Monopoly property. The dark blues, Park Lane and Mayfair, are the most expensive properties on the Board, representing wealth and status. Previously Park Lane was just a country lane running through Hyde Park, with fashionable mansions on either side, now it’s a busy 6-lane thoroughfare.
Well, it’s taken the best part of a London winter’s day to tour around the various Monopoly sites. We’ve had a good look around central London and visited some of the most interesting locations and properties in England. And here’s the good news: we didn’t Go To Jail! But, as far and wide as we looked, I’m yet to see any Free Parking in London!
With these iconic London locations featuring on the Monopoly board it’s no wonder the game took off. Soon it was a favourite source of entertainment for families and friends across Britain, the Commonwealth and beyond. It seemed that people everywhere were playing Monopoly.
WAR GAMES
Not even World War II, which started just 3 years after Monopoly came to Britain, slowed its appeal – rather, it became more popular than ever, in an unusual and unexpected way. Over the course of the war 230,000 Allied prisoners of war were held in German POW camps. And during those dark days, Monopoly was far from just a game to those prisoners. It was a matter of life and death.
You see, the British government decided to do everything possible to assist Allied prisoners escape. And they enlisted an unlikely partner to assist them: Monopoly. Yes, Monopoly became part of a brilliant top-secret plan devised by the country’s secret service to help Allied prisoners of war escape and guide them to freedom. Here’s what happened.
In 1939 the British War Office established MI9 – the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9. Its task was to assist Allied prisoners of war escape from German POW Camps.
MI9 immediately began searching for someone who specialised in the ability to escape, an escape artist – someone who could help them develop strategies and tools that would allow Allied prisoners to escape from German POW camps.
The man they chose was Christopher Hutton. When he was young, he’d met Harry Houdini, the world’s greatest escape artist, and watched him perform. From that moment on, he was obsessed with the concept of escape. Hutton was the perfect man for the job.
Hutton quickly realised that one of the most useful items in planning an escape is an accurate map, showing locations and where things were, like safe-houses, and where they could get food and shelter. But there was one big problem: paper maps make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they tear and wear out quickly, and they turn to mush if they get wet.
Hutton and his team found a perfect solution: silk maps. They could be scrunched up into tiny wads and quickly hidden; they were durable and quiet, they didn’t smudge if they got wet and they dried out quickly. Silk escape maps were perfect. But who could make them?
Well, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington Limited, in Leeds – by pure coincidence, the very same company that licenced and produced Monopoly in Britain! And Victor Watson and the firm were only too happy to assist with the war effort.
THE PERFECT ESCAPE KIT
Christopher Hutton’s creative mind went to work, and then inspiration struck. Waddington’s made both silk maps and Monopoly. Why not combine them? Monopoly was large enough to hide a silk map, a small compass, a Gigli saw, a file, and the fake money could conceal the real money that POWs on the run would need.
It was the perfect all-in-one escape kit. And as it happened ‘board games’ was a category of item that was allowed to be included in ‘care packages’ that could be sent to prisoners, according to the Geneva Convention. The top-secret plan was ready.
Waddington delegated workers to the project. Under the strictest secrecy and in a securely guarded and inaccessible room on the firm’s grounds, they began to mass-produce the Monopoly escape kits. When their job was done, the Monopoly escape kits were indistinguishable from one a regular citizen could buy in a store.
They were perfect, and ready to be included in the care packages sent to the POWs in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. But one challenge remained. How would they inform the prisoners that the Monopoly games were actually escape kits? Well, first, before departing for missions, the airmen and soldiers were told, if they happened to be captured, to look for Monopoly games in the ‘care packages.’
And then, in the ‘care packages’ Hutton’s team included letters that carried quotations that acted as both clues and as inspiration to the prisoners. One of the most popular and successful quotes that Hutton and the team used was from the Bible – Matthew 7:7. Here’s what it says:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
That message and the Monopoly escape kits certainly opened the way to freedom for many Allied prisoners in German POW camps. Of the 35,000 POWs who successfully escaped, an estimated one third, that’s over ten thousand, were helped on their journey to freedom by the Monopoly escape kit.
Hutton and his MI9 team produced a lot of impressive escape plans and devices to help Allied POWs in their attempts to escape. But as clever and as ingenious as they were, the Germans inevitably figured them all out. All of them, that is, but the Monopoly escape kit. It’s the only escape plan that continued to work successfully throughout the war.
GETTING OUT OF JAIL
The Monopoly card ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ certainly worked for those POWs. And so did the Bible message, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
And do you know what? That message can still work for us today – particularly if you want to escape from the real and overbearing challenges of life, and are looking for inner peace and happiness.
You see, even though many of us don’t realise it, we’ve all in a sense been given a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. Jesus makes it possible for us to escape from our prison of guilt, sin and death. People try all sorts of other things to escape their feelings of imprisonment, but the reality is, only Jesus can truly cleanse us and set us free. That’s why He came. That was His mission. Listen to what He said in Luke 4:8:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
Did you notice what Jesus said? He said that He’d come to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. Jesus is talking about more than literally freeing people from jail. He said that everyone who sins, is a slave to sin. So, we’re all prisoners of sin. And deep down in our hearts we know it’s true. We see evidence of it all around us – and yes, even in our own lives.
For example, just think of all the addiction we see and experience. People can become addicted to all kinds of things today: gambling, food, alcohol, pornography, sex, and drugs, to name just a few. Some people today even get addicted to computers and the Internet. Yes, we’re all prisoners.
But here’s the good news. Jesus has given us a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. He’s taken our place and paid the penalty for all the mistakes we’ve made. On the cross, Jesus bore all your mistakes, fears, guilt and shame so you don’t have to carry them any longer.
A NEW BEGINNING
Once you grasp this truth, you’ll not only be free from the prison of your past, but also free to go forward in God and experience a New Beginning in Him. Here’s what the Bible says in John 8:32:
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
It’s just so wonderful to receive God’s ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card! You can throw all that guilt, fear, and shame out of your life, out of your mind, out of your heart. You can have true inner peace and happiness. You can be free! Listen to what the Bible says in John 8:36:
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Free indeed! And how do you get that freedom? Well, do you remember the message that Hutton and his MI9 team sent the POW’s? Here it is again, Matthew 7:7:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
PRAYER AND SPECIAL OFFER
It’s just as simple as that. If you want freedom, if you want inner peace and happiness, then just ask for it right now as we pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we are all soldiers in the battle of life. We are living behind enemy lines. Please give us the strength to endure the struggles and challenges we are facing. Lord, we are tired of living in the prison of sin. We want to be free. We thank you for the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card that you give us, in Jesus. We accept Jesus as our Saviour and may we be ready to meet Him when He comes. We Pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
VIEWER OFFER
The story of how the Monopoly board game was developed into an effective escape kit to assist Allied POWs escape during World War 2 is inspiring. It’s a reminder that in a sense we are all living behind enemy lines and are imprisoned by sin. However, God has given us a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card in Jesus Christ and provided a way of escape in Him.
If you’ve enjoyed our programme today and would like to learn more about Jesus and the freedom, inner peace and happiness He offers, then I’d like to recommend the free gift we have for all our viewers today. It’s the book, A Second Chance at Life. This book is our gift to you and is absolutely free. There are no costs or obligations whatsoever. Here’s the information you need.
CONTACT DETAILS
Be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life’s journeys together. Until then, remember the ultimate destination of life’s journey.
“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1,4)
