Rich Uncle Pennybags
Encyclopedia
Top hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
who serves as the mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
of the game Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
. Rich "Uncle" Pennybags was rechristened Mr. Monopoly (the nickname by which he was already popularly known) in a Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
marketing effort in 1999. He also is known as Whiff from all the casino slot machines. He also appears in the related games Advance to Boardwalk
Advance to Boardwalk
Advance to Boardwalk is a spin-off of the Parker Brothers board game Monopoly. Like its progenitor, its setting is the real-estate world in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but focuses only on the boardwalk area. It involves the building of hotels, which are constructed by the various players who place...
, Free Parking
Free Parking
Free Parking is a Parker Brothers card game inspired by the "Free Parking" space of the Monopoly board game.The game is played by two to four players, and game play focuses around using time on a parking meter to gain points; the first to 200 points wins. Each player has their own parking meter and...
, Don't Go To Jail
Don't Go To Jail
Don't Go to Jail is a Parker Brothers dice game for two or more players inspired by Monopoly. The game is played by rolling ten dice and attempting to roll matches to score points....
, Monopoly City
Monopoly City
Monopoly City is a spin-off of the original Monopoly board game. It was released by Hasbro in 2009, making its first public appearance at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair. It has been named 'Game of the Year 2009' by the British Toy and Hobby association [1] at the 57th London Toy Fair. [2]...
, Monopoly Junior
Monopoly Junior
Monopoly Junior is a simplified version of the board game Monopoly, aimed at young children. It has a smaller, rectangular board and instead of being based on street names it is based on a Funfair, to make it more child-friendly.-Board:...
, and Monopoly Deal
Monopoly Deal
Monopoly Deal is a card game derived from the board-game Monopoly, produced and sold by Parker Brothers under a license from Hasbro.Players attempt to collect 3 different complete sets of cards representing the properties from the board game, either by playing them directly, stealing them from...
.
The character first appeared on Chance and Community Chest cards in U.S. editions of Monopoly in 1936. The identity of the artist who designed the character has remained a mystery. Historian and author Philip Orbanes
Philip Orbanes
Philip E. Orbanes is a board game designer, author, and founding partner and president of Winning Moves Games in Danvers, Massachusetts. Orbanes is a graduate of the Case Institute of Technology . He was a Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Parker Brothers until the 1990s....
wrote in 2004 that it is believed that the character is based on either the calling cards of Albert Edward Richardson (Parker Brothers' first traveling salesman), the character of "Little Esky" from Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine, or a combination of the two. Orbanes later wrote, in 2006, that the character was also partially influenced by the stature and dress of financier and banker J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
.
History
The unnamed character made his first appearance outside of Monopoly within the Parker Brothers' game Dig, released before the U.S. entered World War II. The character did not receive a name until 1933 when the game Rich Uncle was published by Parker BrothersParker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...
. His likeness appeared on that game's box lid, game instructions, and currency.
In 1988, Orbanes published the first edition of his book The Monopoly Companion. In the book, all of the characters that appear on the Monopoly board or within the decks of cards received a name. Uncle Pennybags' full name was given as Milburn Pennybags, the character "In Jail" is named "Jake the Jailbird", and the police officer on Go to Jail is named "Officer Edgar Mallory".
In 1999, Rich Uncle Pennybags was renamed Mr. Monopoly. During the same year, a Monopoly Jr. CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
game was released within cereal boxes as part of a General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
promotion. This game introduced Mr. Monopoly's niece and nephew, Sandy and her brother Andy.
According to the book, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How It Got That Way and The Monopoly Companion, Mr. Monopoly has a second nephew named Randy, although it should be noted the Monopoly Companion mistakenly refers to Sandy as a boy. Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game & How It Got That Way also states that Mr. Monopoly has a wife named Madge. He is named as the sixth richest fictional character in the 2006 Forbes Fictional 15 list on its website and the ninth richest in 2011.
Rich Uncle Pennybags has influenced or been parodied in popular culture. The movies Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is the sequel to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective . Jim Carrey reprises his role as the title character Ace Ventura, a detective who specializes in retrieval of tame or captive animals. This is the only sequel to a film starring Carrey in which Carrey reprised his role...
and Mr. Deeds
Mr. Deeds
Mr. Deeds is a 2002 American comedy film, directed by Steven Brill and starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder. The movie, which is loosely a remake of the 1936 film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, also stars Peter Gallagher, John Turturro, Allen Covert and Steve Buscemi...
, featured characters who resemble Rich Uncle Pennybags, prompting the main characters to refer to each of them as "The Monopoly Guy". An animated character resembling Rich Uncle Pennybags has appeared numerous times in The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, often alongside fellow aristocrat Montgomery Burns
Montgomery Burns
Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer and previously Christopher Collins. Burns is the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is Homer...
. These episodes include "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo
Thirty Minutes over Tokyo
"Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" is the twenty-third episode and season finale of The Simpsons tenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 16, 1999. In the episode, after being robbed by Snake Jailbird, the Simpsons visit a money-saving seminar, where they learn ways to...
" and "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love
A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love
"A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons’ thirteenth season. The episode first aired on the Fox network on December 2, 2001. In the episode, Mr Burns falls in love with Gloria, a woman who is much younger than he is and who turns out to be Snake Jailbird's...
". A 1986 Saturday Night Live sketch featured Jon Lovitz portraying Mr. Monopoly as a criminal lawyer who used his "Get out of Jail Free" cards to constantly frustrate the police.