PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

S P O T L I G H T

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200

Monopoly inventor Lizzie Magie of Macomb never did, even as her board game became America’s most popular

BY JULIE SANDERS

C hances are you have crossed Boardwalk and collected $200 a time or two in your life. If you’ve ever played Monopoly , America’s most popular board game, you know the drill. Since its introduction in 1935, more than 250 million Monopoly sets have been sold across 114 countries, while being translated into 47 languages. You know the game, but you don’t know the story behind Monopoly . In 1866, Lizzie J. Magie was born in rural Macomb. At a time when women had very few options for careers, Lizzie

Hedblade, executive director of the Macomb Convention and Visitors Bureau. While living in Chicago in 1906, Lizzie placed a tongue-in-cheek ad in the newspaper offering her services as a “young woman American slave,” which was her way of trying to bring attention to the poor working conditions and low wages suffered by unmarried women in America, recalled Hedblade. “To her dismay, many sent her offers,” he said. More importantly, the ad became something of a rallying cry for American feminists. In the early 1900s, when the nation’s capitalist economic system was not well

didn’t let anything hold her back. Her father, James K. Magie, was the town’s postmaster and owner of the Macomb Journal newspaper. As a result, the big ideas to which she was exposed growing up made Lizzie “a very independent woman,” said Jock

64 APRIL 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE