Thanks to the Depression...
"If there hadn't been any Depression in the Thirties there wouldn't be any SCRABBLE®." So said Alfred Butts, the inventor of SCRABBLE® who, incidentally, never made any money from what became one of the most successful board games of the twentieth century. Butts was an unemployed architect living in New York in the 30's when he began devising a word game using letters printed on small cardboard squares.
Originally called Lexiko...
Butts called his game 'Lexiko' and there was no board. That came later as the game changed its name to 'It' and then to 'Criss-Cross'. Butts made a few sets to sell to friends but it went unnoticed until 1948 when James Brunot thought it might have commercial possibilities. He and his wife began making the game in their home in Newtown, Connecticut. They settled on the name SCRABBLE®.
Sold only 2,000 sets in the first year
The Brunots only sold 2,000 sets in their first year and sales remained sluggish until 1952 when the owner of Macy's store, who had played the game while on vacation, told the toy department to stock it. Other toy shops followed suit and the rest, as they say, is history.
The New York firm of Selchow & Righter, who were making the boards for the Brunots, bought the rights to the whole game in 1953. In Britain, the rights are owned by J. W. Spear and Sons.
The standard set cost $3...
The standard set in the fifties cost $3 but Brunot devised a de luxe version with white plastic tiles which cost $10. These plastic tiles eventually became the norm. The wooden tiles, which were manufactured of maple in Bavaria, had a grain in the wood that players could memorize to help them pick the letters they needed.
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