Parker Brothers is synonymous with board games, with major games that are
or have been in almost every American home at one point or another. Monopoly,
Risk, Clue and Sorry and just some of their biggest hits. Currently a division
of Hasbro, Parker Brothers, for a very long time was an independent and very
successful company. And yes, there really were brothers named Parker who owned
the company.

The youngest of the Parker Brothers was actually the genius
behind it all. George S. Parker self-published his first game, called Banking,
back in 1883 when he was only a teenager. In less than a decade, his two older
brothers, Charles and Edward, had joined the company and it was renamed Parker
Brothers.

Based out of Salem, Massachusetts, the company continued to
produce many games, most of which were created by George. And while they
continued to have a growing company in a small market, it was actually Monopoly,
released during the Great Depression, that made them the board game giant.

George Parker died in 1953 and the company was sold to General Mills in
1968. While under General Mills, Parker Brothers produced Nerf, which became
another sensation. And while they have changed hands multiple times since then,
a good number of the best selling games under the Parker Brothers label were
produced during the Parker Brothers tenure as a family business. In his
lifetime, George Parker created well over 100 games and understood what made
people want to play games again and again. He is truly an American
legend.