Mr. Potato Head had a very humble beginning. The inventor who came up with the idea did so in 1949. At that time many Americans still had home gardens that were necessary because of rationing during the war.

To George Lerner, the idea of making funny faces on a potato or another vegetable spurred his imagination. Initially, he experimented by adding items like bottle tops, pipe cleaners, and parts of other vegetables. He quickly  saw that all types of characters could be created.

This was the beginning of what eventually became Mr. Potato Head.

Early Job in the Toy Industry

George Lerner was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922. By the time he was 20, he lived in East Moline, Illinois, where he worked at the Buddy L Company, an offshoot of the Moline Pressed Steel Company. Their specialty was manufacturing automobile fenders and other stamped body parts for cars, trucks, and some types of farm equipment.

Long before Lerner joined the company, Moline Pressed Steel added a small division to make metal toys like trains, trucks, and cars. That was the department where Lerner worked.

War on the Horizon

By the late 1930s, American companies were responding to governmental pressure. President Roosevelt hoped that by exporting equipment and tools needed for the war in Europe, he might be able to keep the U.S. out of war.

But in the meantime, manufacturers needed to do their part to make military supplies. At Moline Pressed Steel, all metal would be used for the war. In the Buddy L toy division, metal toys were redesigned as wooden toys. Cars, trucks, and trains continued to be made but in ways that saved steel.

War Affects All

For George Lerner and other young men, the war altered their future. They were required to register for the draft. Even if they were not sent off to fight, young men often had to move to be where the jobs were.

It is not clear how the war affected Lerner, but after the war, he returned to Brooklyn where he grew up.

Continued Dreaming about Toys

By 1949, Lerner was seriously contemplating how to make his “potato toy” something he could market. His early assumption was that since many people still had home vegetable gardens, the vegetable itself was something they could obtain easily.

What he needed were small items to use as facial features for funny faces. If he could manufacture ears, mouths, eyes, and other features then he could package and sell them. To his advantage, one of the side benefits of the war was that plastic was now being used in mass production.

In 1951, he and a partner went into business together. With Julius Ellman, another Brooklynite, Lerner and Ellman combined their names to become the Lernell Company. The two men patented many toy inventions. The business continued successfully for another thirty years.

Funny Face Man

While it is unclear whether Ellman was part of the packaging of Lerner’s “potato toy”, the fact that the two had created a business may have made it easier for Lerner to come up with the needed funds and to invest in manufacturing plastic facial figures for his toy.

The first packaged set included lips, eyes, ears, hairpieces, a hat and other accessories that Lerner thought were fun. Each plastic piece had prongs on it that were sharp enough to penetrate a potato skin, zucchini, or whatever basic fruit or vegetable a child chose to use.   

Lerner called his new toy the “Funny Face Man.”

Making the Rounds

With a prototype of “Funny Face Man” under his arm, he began making calls on toy companies. However, the food rationing that took place during the war left an indelible mark on Americans.

Toy company executives worried that the toy would be seen as “wasteful.” No one wanted it.

But Lerner had another idea. In that day, cereal companies added “premiums” to their boxes of cereal to increase sales. Some premiums were small plastic toys; others were cards with games or riddles on them. Kids often requested a certain cereal because they wanted the toy.

When Lerner met with the executives at Post Cereal, they liked the Funny Face Man idea. All features were packaged as a long strip (like a bookmark) with plastic items attached. Post paid Lerman for all rights and soon the packaged set was offered inside one of their cereals.

New Interest

Whenever a product reaches the public eye, it often sparks new interest. This is exactly what happened with Funny Face Man.

A textile remnant company in Providence, Rhode Island, was growing and adding product lines. The Hassenfeld family began in textile remnants and expanded into fabric pencil pouches and fabric-lined pencil boxes. They soon added pencil-manufacturing to their products.

When father and son (Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld) saw the new premium offering in a Post cereal box, they contacted George Lerner. They wanted to buy the rights from him. When they learned that Lerner had already sold full rights to Post Cereal, Hassenfelds suggested a deal.

They encouraged Lerner to buy the rights back from Post Cereal. Hassenfelds promised they would re-package the Funny Face Man and sell it as a separate toy.

When Lerner approached Post executives, Post said they would sell the rights back to him for $5000 if Hassenfelds would put in an additional $2000.

Re-Named Mr. Potato Head

The Hassenfelds moved quickly. They began manufacturing the toy right away and decided to rename the toy. Calling it Mr. Potato Head, the first sets were marketed in 1952. Each set included more than twenty plastic features packaged together–hands, feet, ears, two styles of mouths and pairs of eyes, four noses, three hats, eyeglasses, a pipe, and eight felt pieces resembling facial hair. The recommendation was for children to use any type of larger vegetable such as a potato. 

First Toy Advertised to Children on Television

Hasbro—as the company became known–really wanted to grow their business, and they saw Mr. Potato Head as a great opportunity. The television industry was still small, but advertising toys to adults to buy for their children was a growing field.

The Hassenfelds decided to change the formula. There were some new television shows for children on the air. Advertising on those programs was less expensive, and the Hassenfelds felt that if they could promote Mr. Potato Head directly to children it could work. This was a first for the television industry. As Hassenfelds proved, the “nag” factor by children could be very effective!

In addition to the commercials, local toy stores got behind the product. A search through any local paper from 1952 show that Mr. Potato Man was well-advertised. The cost for the feature packages? 98 cents.

Toy was a Hit

The Hassenfelds spent well. Within several months, the kits raked in $4 million in sales, according to Paige Polinsky’s book about toy trailblazers. By the end of the first year, more than a million Mr. Potato Head sets were sold.

Fewer Toys Then

Mr. Potato Head was marketed as “the most wonderful friend a boy or girl could have.” And it was. Children had many fewer toys then—no Barbie, no American Girl, no My Little Pony, not even a GI Joe. 

The beauty of Mr. Potato Head was that kids used him in many types of make-believe play. They went to bed, and the next morning they—and Mr. Potato Head—were off on new adventures.

For that reason, Hassenfelds quickly moved forward to expand the play. Mrs. Potato Head was introduced in 1953. She came with a purse, earrings, and stylish accessories.  Clearly, the Hassenfelds were on to a good thing.

Son Spud and daughter Yam came along shortly. The family had a car, a trailer, and a boat. They even got pets.

Changes

The next version of Mr. Potato Head was a boxed set. The company was now called Hasbro, and they decided to try including a Styrofoam head and a plastic body that could be used for creating the figures.

But the Hassenfelds soon saw that the Styrofoam didn’t last long. It became heavily pockmarked as children poked features into it. The Styrofoam soon broke off into pieces.

Expanding the Market

In the early 1960s, Hasbro introduced the Tooty Frooty Friends. This kit contained 60 plastic pieces. Kids could create Katie the Carrot, Pete the Pepper, and Oscar the Orange. 

But still the company sensed there was more room to grow. They turned to American history, folk lore, and the news of the day. Soon Mr. Potato Head could explore the Wild West and with another kit, he could dress as an astronaut and travel in a spaceship to other worlds. Other career and adventure sets were created.

Consumers Urge Changes

In 1964, Hasbro decided some product changes were necessary. Parents complained that their kids took vegetables to their rooms to play with their Mr. Potato Head toy. Then they forgot about them. By the time someone went in to clean the room, the vegetables were moldy.

The other complaint Hasbro received was that the spikes on the plastic pieces were quite sharp. They needed to be in order to penetrate anything from a raw potato to a zucchini or eggplant. Parents felt they were dangerous.

For that reason, Hasbro transformed the toy. The government often noted that they wanted to create a child safety agency. This could lead to some toys being banned, and Hasbro wanted to keep their toys off any list of banned toys.

A New Version of Mr. Potato Head

As the developers re-worked Mr. Potato Head, they created a plastic head and a separate body that was sold with the kit. The add-on features could be snapped into pre-cut holes that existed on the head and body, so they did not need to be sharp. Hasbro also made the add-on features larger than previously. This meant they did not present a choking hazard.

The Hasbro changeover came at the right time. In November of 1969, President Richard Nixon passed the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. With that law in place, the government created a toy testing department. They banned any toys that seemed dangerous.

By 1974, more than 1500 toys were banned, but Mr. Potato Head was still flying high.  

Within a few years, another change was made. Hasbro quit manufacturing the Mr. Potato Head body and created a larger head. The head had an added element: the back of it opened so that all the smaller pieces could be stored inside.

Not a Couch Potato

By the 1980s, Americans were becoming more interested in physical fitness. Video games were introduced which meant that something needed to counter the time children spent sitting in front of a game console.

For that reason, Hasbro made a Mr. Potato Head that wore a baseball cap and sneakers and toted a water bottle—he wasn’t going to be called a Couch Potato!

He also gave up his pipe (a long-time accessory). No more bad health habits for him.

Focusing on health was very much in vogue at that time, and the “good health” Mr. Potato Head came to the attention of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For three years (from 2005-2007), Mr. Potato had the pleasure of being a giant balloon in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Classic Toy

Forty years after Mr. Potato Head was introduced to the public, the toy and many of the accessories earned a full-time spot on most toy store shelves. But then a miracle happened.

Animator and movie director John Lassater began working on a new movie called “Toy Story.” The movie told the tale of a group of toys and their adventures. Lasseter knew the movie’s audience was children, but he wanted to create characters that were appealing to their parents. By choosing classic toys parents remembered, Lasseter felt adults would be more willing to take their children to the movies (often multiple times).

One of the main stars was Mr. Potato Head. He was accompanied by Mrs. Potato Head. When the movie premiered in 1995, the film was a huge hit. Toy sales exploded as well. 

More Branding

By this time, the consumer world was different. Hasbro knew that with a new movie out, they would be able to sell many more toys as well as anything they could brand with Mr. Potato Head. Soon they had deals for everything from children’s underwear and board games to key chains.

Sadly, George Lerner died that year (1995). While he would have known of the movie deal, he did not have the pleasure of sitting in a darkened theater with a tub of popcorn watching Mr. Potato Head come alive.

Success Continues

Fortunately for Hasbro, the Toy Story achievements continue. There have been three additional successful sequels. Toy Story 5 is slated for release in June of 2026.

In the meantime, Mr. Potato Head was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2000.  In 2010, George Lerner was posthumously given a Toy & Game Innovation Award from Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.  

And not to be forgotten is the fact that George Lerner and Julian Ellman ran a successful toy manufacturing business in Brooklyn for more than 30 years. While Mr. Potato Head was certainly the most successful toy to be introduced, Lerner and Ellman hold many patents for different toys and games they developed. Not every invention needs to flourish if you have a triumph like Mr. Potato Head.   

Baby books, vintage photographs, partially filled photo albums—we’ve all seen these in antique stores and at flea markets.

Who were these people? And how did their photos end up in a “for sale” bin?

Kate Kelley (no relation) is a special education teacher who lives in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and she wondered about these collections. From childhood on, Kelley shared her family’s interest in genealogy. For her, wondering about these photos was natural. She wanted to know more about the distant families.

Kelley works full-time and is the mother of a teenager, so she didn’t need “one more thing to do.” But in 2020, she decided this was an issue she cared about. And there was something practical she could do. She would dedicate time to looking for possible reunions between photographs and their descendants.

The Photo Hunt

Initially, Kelley visited antique stores in and around Attleboro. She considers images carefully and selects the photos or albums that have labels of some sort. After making her purchases, she goes home to start unraveling the mystery.

Information Online

Kelley will be the first to tell you that she may not hit a relative right away. However, she’ll often find a wealth of information about who the person was, where they lived, and where they worked. Obituaries are particularly helpful. Of course, these details help focus her search.

Next, she’ll start working through www.ancestry.com.

“Occasionally, I’ll hit a complete dead end with a name,” says Kelley. “But I keep looking for a family tree that lists the person or at least might be connected to the person in the photograph.

“From there, I send a message and wait,” she says. “People don’t always check the site regularly, so sometimes it takes time to hear from someone. And even then, it may only be another lead.”

“When I find the right connection, the people are very excited. Hearing about or receiving photos of an ancestor is an unexpected gift in their lives.”

Borden Baby Book

Kelley and her husband take short road trips to look for possible photos, but her hometown of Attleboro is still a rich source. Some of the store owners have taken an interest in what she’s doing, and they phone her when something good comes in. 

That’s how she received the Borden Baby Book.

One day Kate received a call from the owner of Gallery 2 Vintage & Antiques Market: “We’ve got a good one for you.” 

When she arrived at the store, she found a beautiful, partially filled-out baby book. The book itself was produced by Borden Dairy Company. (As you’ll see in the photographs, the Borden Company outlines the benefits of their Eagle Brand milk for babies on many of the book’s pages.)

Identifying This Particular Borden Baby

In the book Kelley acquired, Anthony Sturtevant was the baby described. Even before locating a relative, Kelley found the basic outline of his life, which she posted on her group’s private Facebook page:

“Meet Anthony Sturtevant (1914-1991) born in Adams, Massachusetts, to parents Delbert and Beulah (Anthony) Sturtevant. According to Anthony’s obituary, he worked on the family farm, was employed as a teamster at Mount Hope Farm in Williamstown, MA, then as a truck driver for multiple companies. Later he worked for the Nort Adams Parks and Recreation Department.”

I caught up with Kelley during her spring vacation. She and her husband were on their way to western Massachusetts to visit more antique stores. 

She told me that though Anthony Sturtevant was married twice, she was unable to locate any children.

However, by searching for Sturtevant-related family trees, she eventually heard from a cousin who lives in North Carolina. The woman was thrilled to hear about what Kelley found and explained that Anthony was her great-grandmother’s brother.

When Kelley and I spoke, the baby book had just gone into the mail. (Kate’s mom helps with trips to the post office since Kelley’s teaching schedule keeps her busy during the day.)

The Photo Angel

As word grew about her project, reporters got in touch. A story in The Boston Globe led to a story on the Today Show. Kelley saw this additional exposure as an opportunity to expand her work.

To share her stories, she started a Facebook group, “The Photo Angel.” People came and read the stories and realized they, too, could help.

While the success of a match is its own reward, Kelley began a “wings” program. She sends out angel wings to acknowledge when a person has made several matches.

“It’s a fun way to connect the group.”

If you would like to read more about The Photo Angel and perhaps become one yourself, click here. The group is a private group, but Kelley knows that the more people who join her, the better it will be.

“If the photographs have any sort of marking on them, I just can’t let them live in a dusty in an antique store,” says Kate Kelley.

“It’s truly addictive, and I love doing it.”

Today Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is the star of a popular holiday television special and a live stage show. The song, based on the story, was written in the late 1940s and is still frequently played on radio or sung by school children throughout December.

While Rudolph has remained popular well into the 21^st century, he had his beginnings in the late 1930s. He was created by a staff copywriter who worked for Montgomery Ward. The story was published and popularized as an incentive to bring consumers to the stores at holiday time.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Beginning

Department stores in the 1930s struggled to bring consumers to stores even at holiday time. One of the ideas that grew out of this era was for stores to create North Pole sections of their stores where Santa (often a store employee) could sit to listen to children’s gift requests. Once the families were in the department store, retailers hoped the parents would shop.

At Montgomery Ward, Santa always gave each child a coloring book after they visited. In 1939, the retailer was looking for ways to cut costs. Management still wanted to let children leave with something, but it needed to cost less. They had in-house copywriters. Why not let one of them create a Christmas storybook to give away?

The copywriter chosen for the job was Robert May (1905-1976). As a father of a young child, he must have seemed like a good candidate. As it happened, May had a story to tell.

The Rudolph Story

Robert May had been among the smaller children in his grade at school, and the bigger boys took great pleasure in taunting him. May turned his personal challenge into a Christmas story about a reindeer who got teased for being different and having a funny-looking nose. However, Rudolph’s luck changes one foggy night when Santa spots him as the one reindeer who can lead Santa and his sleigh through the skies to continue delivering toys.

Parents and children loved the story. That year, the store distributed 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph storybook.

The following year, the retailer saw no reason to give up on Rudolph. Because Montgomery Ward had many outlets, they prepared special sales information to help each store get the most from the storybook. The referred to the Rudolph story as the “Perfect Christmas Crowd-Bringer.” They sent out sample ads and promotional suggestions. They also advised that stores should distribute only to children accompanied by adults to “keep street urchin traffic to a minimum.”

By 1946, Montgomery Ward printed and distributed more than 6 million copies of the book. At that point, however, store management felt Rudolph had run his course.

Personal Challenges of Robert May

While Robert May was working at Montgomery Ward, he was also dealing with a personal tragedy. His wife was sick and died of cancer shortly after May wrote the story. He was left as a single father of their young daughter with a mountain of medical debts. He struggled through the first few years after her death doing the best he could. As the store made plans for Holiday1947, May learned that Montgomery Ward no longer planned to distribute the storybook.

Robert May approached Sewall Avery, Montgomery Ward’s president, and requested the rights to Rudolph. He hoped he could get it commercially published and perhaps pay off some debts.  In the true spirit of Christmas, Avery agreed. (There ought to be a star shining for Sewell Avery even now.)

As May took over the management of Rudolph’s career, he was approached by Max Fleischer, a well-regarded pioneer in the field of animation.  The two made a deal, and Fleischer developed a nine-minute cartoon of the Rudolph story for theatrical release.

During this time, May’s brother-in-law, a veteran songwriter named Johnny Marks, was at work on a song about Rudolph. Marks was well-connected in the music industry, and he recorded and sent a demo copy to Perry Como. Como liked it but wanted to change some of the lyrics. Marks had a problem with that, so he continued to look for a star to record it. He tried both Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, but neither were interested.

The next idea Marks had was to send it to the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. The country western singer had recorded one or two other Christmas songs but Rudolph was a children’s song, so he didn’t jump at it right away.  However, he eventually agreed and recorded it in 1949. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soared to the top of the Billboard pop charts as well as the country and western charts. It was a huge breakthrough for Autry.

Johnny Marks Pushed for Promotion

Johnny Marks was a big part of the success of the Rudolph song. He saw promotional opportunities that others missed. Autry was booked for a performance at Madison Square Garden. When Marks heard about it, he begged Autry to add the children’s song to his program. Autry reluctantly agreed, and Marks hired a costumed Rudolph to prance around during the song.

Gene Autry also had a radio program, and Marks knew the song should be performed over the airwaves. Neither Autry nor his producer was wild about performing a holiday children’s song during Autry’s regular country western show. Marks continued to urge, and Autry finally gave in.

During that first year, Rudolph sold two million copies. It became a mega-seller for years to come, remaining the best-selling single of all time after Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.

Robert May eventually left Montgomery Ward to manage Rudolph’s career full-time. Between the song, the cartoon, more editions of the book, a movie, and merchandise, there was plenty to do. Robert May became wealthy based on the story.

Original Version of Story

The many forms of the Rudolph story took on lives of their own. The original cartoon is the only one where the plot remained true to May’s first story.

In the original, Rudolph did not live at the North Pole or grow up aspiring to pull Santa’s sleigh. He lived in a reindeer village with his family. Santa comes to the village one foggy Christmas Eve. When Santa enters Rudolph’s bedroom to leave Rudolph’s gifts, Santa notes the glow from Rudolph’s nose. Santa knows immediately that Rudolph must lead Santa’s sleigh for the rest of the night.

The original verses were like “The Night Before Christmas” in rhythm and feel:

“Twas the day before Christmas and all through the hills

The reindeer were playing…enjoying the spills.”

When a publisher brought out a new copy of the story in book form in 1951, it was illustrated by the young Richard Scarry, who was to go on to be a major illustrator of children’s books.

Long and Happy Life

Rudolph has outlived all those who originally made the song and story famous, but he made many happy because Rudolph brought success. Robert May went on to remarry, and his daughter grew up in a happy household with siblings.

Before he died in 1976, May left some of the Rudolph papers and memorabilia to his alma mater, Dartmouth College. The collection was temporarily forgotten until about 2010, when one of the archivists came upon some of the material. The original scrapbook of Rudolph’s early success has now been restored, and we have additional details about the story. Among the items uncovered was the fact that May considered naming the Rudolph Rodney, Rollo, Reginald, or Romeo.

From this vantage point, Rudolph seems just right. After all, as Santa in the original cartoon says: Rudolph “had the #1 job on the #1 night:

https://youtu.be/mzlIqX8y2to

Fleischer’s cartoon, released in 1948, is now in the public domain. It portrays May’s original story and provides a fascinating feel for early animation. As you watch, remember that the soundtrack of the Rudolph song we know was not added until the early 1950s.

The Scrabble Brand Crossword Game began as the idea of Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993), an architect who found himself unemployed during the Great Depression. Butts was not one to feel sorrow for himself when he was laid off. Instead, he decided to make good use of his time and see if he couldn’t create a board game.

Butts was very analytical in his approach to this project. First, he examined the categories of games that were popular. He learned they fell into three categories—number games like dice and bingo; strategy games such as chess and checkers; and word games such as anagrams. He felt the ideal game should involve both chance and skill. If winning the game involved a bit of chance or luck, it would keep things interesting for both the novice and the expert player.

Interactive Crossword?

As he researched, he focused on creating an interactive crossword-type of game. What if players had letters they could play? If individual letters became playing pieces, then his next step was to analyze letter usage within common words. (Remember that Butts was doing all this without the aid of a computer.)

He used the front page of The New York Times as his study guide. He found that just 12 letters (E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L and U) accounted for 80 percent of the letters used most frequently. This study of letter usage also gave him the data he needed to add point values for the use of each letter.

As Butts experimented, he found a weakness in the game. If players had access to too many “S” letters, then they could score by making a previously-played word plural. To make that aspect of the game more difficult, he created only four squares of the letter “S.”

The First Scrabble-Type Game

The first game Butts created involved squares of cardboard with letters. Their point values were written on each square. As his satisfaction with his creation grew, he began gluing the letters to plywood to make them more durable. He also handcrafted small racks to hold the letters.  

Initially, he saw no need for a board, so the game he designed was more like a card game. All players needed was a flat surface on which to play the game. Butts called the game “Lexico.” Later, he simplified it to “Criss Cross Words” and added a game board.

For the game to reach a broad market, Butts needed to have it picked up by a company that could manufacture and sell it, so he began making the rounds to game manufacturers. His visits to the companies were unsuccessful, however. It seemed the game was destined to be a novelty that he sold to a few hundred people.

Back to Architecture

In 1935, the housing market appeared to be turning around. As a result,Butts was re-hired by his old architectural firm, Holden, McLaughlin & Associates. He returned to designing houses, and for the most part, he set the game aside. He still had a few copies of the game, so if people expressed interest, he sold them copies. A few people still played.

In the late 1940s, a fellow by the name of James Brunot (1902-1984) saw the game and thought it had commercial possibilities. Brunot was a federal employee and was contemplating retirement. But he wanted a small business that would keep him occupied in his new life.

Brunot contacted Butts and offered to buy the rights to the game. Butts was interested but he was smart. He agreed to a sale with the provision that he would retain patent rights on each game sold.

James Brunot loved the game but also saw some places where it could be improved. He moved the “start” point to the center of the board (instead of the upper left corner). He also came up with the board color scheme that still exists today.

Scrabble Became New Name

He also renamed it Scrabble. The word “scrabble,” is from a Dutch word meaning “to grope–reach for something frantically.” (Today the game is so well-known that few would ever think to use the word in common conversation, unless they were talking about the game.)

Brunot and his wife began making and selling the game from their home. In the beginning they relied on friends to come in and stamp letters on wooden tiles. Even by cost-saving in this way, the Brunots actually lost money that first year. Only a few thousand games were sold.

But slowly, sales began to climb. They added employees to make and package the games. Eventually, they bought an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut (now part of Newtown, Connecticut) to use as a workshop.   

Discovered by Macy’s

Then good fortune struck. Jack Strauss, president of Macy’s at the time, was introduced to the game. During the summer of 1952, friends introduced to the game while he was on vacation. When he returned to work, he inquired as to whether or not Macy’s sold the game. They did not, so Strauss placed a big order.

Within 12 months, Scrabble became the “it” game. Sales rocketed from 4,853 in 1951 to almost 4 million in 1954. There were also sets made in foreign languages, and one was made in Braille.

Brunot added staff but even with 35 employees working two shifts, the maximum games they were able to produce in early 1953 was 6,000 Scrabble sets per week. Demand for the Scrabble game continued to be so high, this was no longer a leisurely business. James Brunot licensed the rights to Scrabble to a game manufacturer, Selchow and Righter. (Ironically, Selchow and Righter had turned down the game when Butts went to them with his version many years earlier.) Brunot’s move was a wise one. Sales of hte game continued to escalate.

For 30 years, Selchow and Righter manufactured the game under the agreed-upon terms. Finally in 1971, Brunot agreed to an offer from the game company that let him cash out. In 1972, Butts took a similar offer, selling his patent rights on the game as well. Brunot made about $1.5 million (almost 12 million in today’s money) while Butts received $265,000 in royalties (about $2 million).

Scrabble Sold Again

In 1986, the rights to Scrabble were sold to COLECO Industries. COLECO seemed well prepared to handle a big-selling game. They had managed their way through sales for their enormously popular Cabbage Patch dolls. Unfortunately, COLECO wasn’t organized for long-range success. Three years after acquiring Scrabble, the company went bankrupt. Scrabble was then purchased by Hasbro, owner of Milton Bradley, the nation’s leading game company.

Today one of every three American homes has a Scrabble game. Hasbro still sells all forms of the game offered within the United States. However, they do not have international rights, which are owned by Mattel. (Selchow and Righter had sold those rights separately many years previously.)

Local and national competitions to name Scrabble champs are still held to help maintain interest in the game. Hasbro sponsors a national championship each year in a different U.S. city.  The international championship, the World Scrabble Championship, is held every other year and is co-hosted by both Mattel and Hasbro.

In addition, the game now be played online. See Scrabble-Hasbro.

Alfred Butts Did Just Fine

And while Alfred M. Butts may not have maximized his possible earnings from the game, the royalties earned from 1948-1972 when he sold his rights to Selchow and Righter, certainly enhanced his income. According to his obituary in The New York Times, he earned about 3 cents per game sold. Butts is quoted as having told a reporter that one-third of that income went to taxes; another third to charity; and a final third he and his wife used to live a more comfortable life.

In addition to a long and well-respected career as an architect, Butts also had a successful run as an amateur artist. He made drawings of New York scenes, reprinting them on architect’s linen by running them through a blueprint machine. These drawings were produced in limited editions, and six of them were found worthy of being added to the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.